Artemis: A Novel
1 journaler for this copy...
PAPERBACK ARC.
Signed by author. I picked this up at the NCIBA's 2017 Discovery Show.
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Amazon Editorial Review
Jasmine Bashara never signed up to be a hero. She just wanted to get rich.
Not crazy, eccentric-billionaire rich, like many of the visitors to her hometown of Artemis, humanity’s first and only lunar colony. Just rich enough to move out of her coffin-sized apartment and eat something better than flavored algae. Rich enough to pay off a debt she’s owed for a long time.
So when a chance at a huge score finally comes her way, Jazz can’t say no. Sure, it requires her to graduate from small-time smuggler to full-on criminal mastermind. And it calls for a particular combination of cunning, technical skills, and large explosions—not to mention sheer brazen swagger. But Jazz has never run into a challenge her intellect can’t handle, and she figures she’s got the ‘swagger’ part down.
The trouble is, engineering the perfect crime is just the start of Jazz’s problems. Because her little heist is about to land her in the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.
Trapped between competing forces, pursued by a killer and the law alike, even Jazz has to admit she’s in way over her head. She’ll have to hatch a truly spectacular scheme to have a chance at staying alive and saving her city.
Jazz is no hero, but she is a very good criminal.
That’ll have to do.
Propelled by its heroine’s wisecracking voice, set in a city that’s at once stunningly imagined and intimately familiar, and brimming over with clever problem-solving and heist-y fun, Artemis is another irresistible brew of science, suspense, and humor from #1 bestselling author Andy Weir.
Signed by author. I picked this up at the NCIBA's 2017 Discovery Show.
--
Amazon Editorial Review
Jasmine Bashara never signed up to be a hero. She just wanted to get rich.
Not crazy, eccentric-billionaire rich, like many of the visitors to her hometown of Artemis, humanity’s first and only lunar colony. Just rich enough to move out of her coffin-sized apartment and eat something better than flavored algae. Rich enough to pay off a debt she’s owed for a long time.
So when a chance at a huge score finally comes her way, Jazz can’t say no. Sure, it requires her to graduate from small-time smuggler to full-on criminal mastermind. And it calls for a particular combination of cunning, technical skills, and large explosions—not to mention sheer brazen swagger. But Jazz has never run into a challenge her intellect can’t handle, and she figures she’s got the ‘swagger’ part down.
The trouble is, engineering the perfect crime is just the start of Jazz’s problems. Because her little heist is about to land her in the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.
Trapped between competing forces, pursued by a killer and the law alike, even Jazz has to admit she’s in way over her head. She’ll have to hatch a truly spectacular scheme to have a chance at staying alive and saving her city.
Jazz is no hero, but she is a very good criminal.
That’ll have to do.
Propelled by its heroine’s wisecracking voice, set in a city that’s at once stunningly imagined and intimately familiar, and brimming over with clever problem-solving and heist-y fun, Artemis is another irresistible brew of science, suspense, and humor from #1 bestselling author Andy Weir.
Started reading 2-3 days ago.
Finished last night.
So I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed The Martian in both book and movie form, and I've seen Andy Weir speak a couple of times and enjoyed each talk.
But there's a fundamental, distracting problem with the novel: Weir can't write a convincing female voice to save his life. It pains me to say it, but I really didn't buy Jazz. She didn't feel real or authentic at all. She felt like a teenage boy with some boobs taped to her chest.
It's hard to move past this as Jazz is narrating the novel. One of the reasons The Martian worked is that Mark Watney is recording his thoughts in logs for the mission, so explaining his process so thoroughly made sense. We're in Jazz's head and her overly-detailed descriptions of life on the moon and why things are constructed the way that they aren't natural at all. The whole story comes through her, and it just doesn't feel real.
But if I somehow wrap my head around that and just try to roll around the story, it's very different from the Robinson Crusoe-esque adventure of Weir's previous novel. It's basically a complicated heist adventure set on the moon. I thought the moon bits were interesting, and I liked reading Jazz's descriptions of how scientists had solved the problems involved in setting up a colony off-Earth. I can't speak to the accuracy, because I don't really understand the science involved, but it's definitely interesting to read.
I was entertained, to be sure. I read the book in just a couple of days, and lately it's been taking me ages to get through even a kid's novel. But it was not a great (maybe not even a good) story.
Finished last night.
So I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed The Martian in both book and movie form, and I've seen Andy Weir speak a couple of times and enjoyed each talk.
But there's a fundamental, distracting problem with the novel: Weir can't write a convincing female voice to save his life. It pains me to say it, but I really didn't buy Jazz. She didn't feel real or authentic at all. She felt like a teenage boy with some boobs taped to her chest.
It's hard to move past this as Jazz is narrating the novel. One of the reasons The Martian worked is that Mark Watney is recording his thoughts in logs for the mission, so explaining his process so thoroughly made sense. We're in Jazz's head and her overly-detailed descriptions of life on the moon and why things are constructed the way that they aren't natural at all. The whole story comes through her, and it just doesn't feel real.
But if I somehow wrap my head around that and just try to roll around the story, it's very different from the Robinson Crusoe-esque adventure of Weir's previous novel. It's basically a complicated heist adventure set on the moon. I thought the moon bits were interesting, and I liked reading Jazz's descriptions of how scientists had solved the problems involved in setting up a colony off-Earth. I can't speak to the accuracy, because I don't really understand the science involved, but it's definitely interesting to read.
I was entertained, to be sure. I read the book in just a couple of days, and lately it's been taking me ages to get through even a kid's novel. But it was not a great (maybe not even a good) story.
