Artemis

I loved The Martian. It was the book that got me reading again after a years-long drought. I raved about it to my family and friends and drove them nuts with my uninvited opinions when I heard they were going to turn it into a movie. So I was very excited when I learned Andy Weir had a new book coming out and preordered it as soon as the option was available. However, I was sad to find myself disappointed by Artemis. While the science-y bits were interesting,  I found the protagonist, Jazz, rather unlikable. Mark Watney was a goofball but he was also a brilliant scientist who used his mind to stay alive when disaster struck. Jazz seems to take a perverse pride in not living up to her potential. She constantly tells us how smart and capable other people insist she is but scoffs at the idea of becoming a professional of some kind because it involves work.

Boobs. Has Andy Weir never hear another word for female breasts? Because every single character in this book refers to them as boobs. It was jarring. In real life, different people have various favorite euphemisms but on the moon it seems that they are always just boobs. It’s a minor thing but it bugged the heck out of me. Another criticism I have heard and agree with is that Andy Weir just didn’t do a very good job of writing a female voice. Jazz didn’t talk or think like any woman I know. 

Anyway, Artemis is the story of a functioning city on the moon and I did enjoy all the explanations that went into how such a place would operate. Our girl Jazz is a courier and smuggler who has a driving need to get rich and therefore is unable to resist turning down a dangerous high risk job when it is offered to her, since she is the smartest, most competent honest criminal on the moon. Plans are executed and oopsies happen and Jazz strips to her underwear in front of a guy to get into an EVA suit while teeheeing about how awkward it would be if he weren’t gay instead of treating it like routinely donning the gear she has had significant training in during an emergency situation but BOYZ. Sigh. Anyway - three stars. Good science, didn’t hate it, could have been so much better.