Artemis Moon Town

Book: Artemis

Author: Andy Weir

Pages: 305

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 7/10

Who should read this book: Sci-fi fans, space colonization fans

So I really liked The Martian, I read it before I saw the movie and then the movie was amazing too. That gave me high hopes for this one so I was a little disappointed. Artemis is about a young woman named Jazz that lives on the moon, in a colony called Artemis. She’s a smuggler, she smuggles contraband goods into the moon town from Earth. She’s gotten into a bit of trouble in her youth and she is struggling for money. So when she’s offered a highly lucrative, though illegal, gig she takes it. And the story continues from there into a mafia on the moon story.

Plot 2/2 points: The story was really interesting. I liked the idea of the story. A colony on the moon, all this science and safety precautions to protect the inhabitants. An unlikely heroine that has to save the town from the mafia. The plot was there and if that was all I was going to pay attention to, this would have gotten a better rating.

Science 2/2 points: Weir does a great job once again explaining science to me, a pleb. It was the same in The Martian. When something was happening that I didn’t understand, usually by the end of the page Jazz had explained herself enough for me to get what was happening.

Hook 1/2 points: The story didn’t really get interesting for me until near the end. I was interested in what was happening with the plot, but the characters were annoying me. I didn’t come to care for them so when they got into trouble I didn’t feel that pull to know more.

Writing 1/2 points: Science 1 point, characters 0 points. Sorry but the main character was annoying. She was written to be bad ass but she just came off as arrogant and much younger than 26 as she was portrayed. I kept forgetting that I wasn’t reading about a teenager. Some of the sub characters I liked, Svoboda in particular but I didn’t get enough of him. Also there was Kelvin, her contact on Earth and I wanted to know so much more from him.

Feel 1/2 points: Like I said, I really wanted to like the book as much as The Martian but I just couldn’t get into it. I have a really hard time when I don’t like the characters, looking past that to enjoy the story is hard.

Overall, an interesting read but I just couldn’t get into it.

Happy Reading!