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Science Fiction Fantasy Blog

Our discussion of Artemis by Andy Weir

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 her 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 riskier than the first. Goodreads

Below are a sampling of our comments:

  • Jazz was a little unrealistic as a female character. She didn’t seem like an accurate portrayal of a 20-something woman – her humor was more that of a 12-year old boy
  • Weir doesn’t write women very well, so a male lead would have been more believable
  • Jazz showed some depth when she fixed Lene’s watch
  • Weir is fine with not being a good writer – the nerdery is consistent: “let’s MacGyver this”
  • I liked the technical aspects and Jazz was interesting
  • The moon is a lawless new frontier with opportunities and opportunists
  • Ngugi was an important female character in charge of the whole city – she turned around the Kenyan economy and was in charge of Artemis
  • The welding scenes were too detailed and the story didn’t have the urgency of The Martian.
  • During the scene of the sabotage of the refinery, wouldn’t there have been some kind of external camera on the building?
  • Checkov’s gun was employed with the mention of Rudy’s Gizmo that could open all doors. On the other hand, Svoboda’s invention never really became a plot point.
  • Ocean’s Eleven on the moon!                                                                 
  • I enjoyed it and Weir proved that he isn’t a one-book wonder. As a caper story, it works quite well.

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about Artemis. We gave this title the codes HDS, ETH, MOB, POL, HAA & NFW with an average rating of 4.

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