Artemis by Andy WeirGenre: Science Fiction
Release Date: 14th November 2017
Publisher: Del Rey
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:
Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of Jazz's problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself - and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even more unlikely than the first.
Along with everyone else in the world, I had been waiting for something new from Andy Weir with bated breath. I was completely ready to read more about Mark Watney because after reading The Martian he became one of my all time favourite characters. But Artemis is actually about a young woman called Jazz.
Jazz is a non-practising Muslim woman who has lived in Artemis (a city on the moon) since she was six years old. She’s very intelligent and into science, and she has a very foul mouth. I’ve seen some criticism regarding the bad language that Jazz uses as well as her sexual jokes, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I don’t think it was unrealistic or a bad attempt from a male author at writing a female character. Like, you should hear the way some of my friends speak.
So yeah, I liked Jazz. There were moments where I was a bit put out by how good she was at everything, but I figured that this is a book about a city on the moon, so I could suspend my disbelief a bit.
I don’t have anything to say about the side characters because I didn’t care for any of them. I did, however, dislike how few female characters there were. Especially prominent female characters. It would have been good for Jazz to have more female friends.
In terms of the plot, it’s a heist story. The first two thirds were great as they were completely action packed, and I loved exploring Artemis and learning about the economy and politics. But the ending wasn’t fantastic, to be honest. It’s a shame, but oh well.
One other problem I had was the reusable condom. I mean, it’s not my own personal problem, but a problem with that part of the book. One of Jazz’s friends invented a reusable condom and asked Jazz to test it out. It kept coming up again and again, to the point where I was wondering if this condom would save the moon or something. But it didn’t. In fact, I don’t know what the point of this condom or the constant nagging was. Could it have been a way for the inventor to keep an eye on Jazz’s sex life? That’s the only thing I can think of and that’s pretty gross.
I will definitely be reading more from Andy Weir in the future. I was excited to learn that he is working on more science fiction, and that he is reading reviews for Artemis and taking the feedback on board. That’s pretty great. Artemis definitely had some issues with pacing and the plot, but overall it was an enjoyable book with a lot of snark.
Great review, I was just as eager to read this as everyone else. I didn’t read too many reviews before reading and reviewing so there would be no influences but I didn’t realise a complaint about Jazz was that she made sexual jokes and had bad language! That’s actually the most realistic aspect about her, that felt genuine to me because women swear (shocking, I know). I was the same, she seemed a bit too good at everything which had me thinking ‘really?’ a lot of the time. And I found the reusable condom bit a little strange. Like, it never came up apart from to reference the fact that Jazz had an active sex life which just added into the whole feel of slut shaming the book had going on. I enjoyed it and it didn’t feel like (to me) Jazz was just a female Mark Watney but I know some people felt that way. I now think I may just go rewatch The Martian.
I have to admit I’m a bit relieved to see your 4-star rating and read your review because I’ve seen so many people complain about sexism in this book and about all the other flaws that I almost felt a little ashamed for enjoying it 😀
I really liked Jazz as a protagonist and had fun with all her swearing etc. so that it was easy for me to bond with her. Yeah, I sometimes had the feeling that the author tried to make her as likable as Mark Watney but I didn’t mind at all.
I also enjoyed the story, well, maybe the first 70% of it. The last third of the book was a bit too technical for me and I sometimes got a bit tired from all the explanations and had a hard time picturing certain scenes. Also the ending felt a bit anticlimactic to me so that my 4-star rating was rather 3.5 stars but overall I really enjoyed the book. Of course it wasn’t as epic as “The Martian” but since my expectations were quite low after all the criticism “Artemis” was quite a positive surprise for me.