" />Artemishttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34928122-artemis">Artemis> by Andy">https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6540057.Andy_Weir">Andy Weir
My rating: 3">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2279273047">3 of 5 stars
Jacket Blurb: 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.
Read for February book group.
Premise of the book is small-time smuggler Jazz wants to move up on the Moon and when offered an opportunity to do so, grabs at it. When the job goes sideways and pear-shaped at the same time, she finds she has to finish what she started or face deportation back to Saudi Arabia. Someplace she hasn't been since she was a toddler. With a little reluctant help from her friends and Father, Jazz sets out to save herself, and finds herself saving the Moon.
I have to admit, I went into this not knowing what to expect. I saw it was Weir's next book, that's all I needed to know. Bottom line - I was mildly entertained with some caveats: I was so-so on the main character, the plot was odd, and the science seemed "plugged in" like little bitty info dumps. There was a lot of welding, which really didn't interest me at all.
Main character - Jazz Bashara. She kinda annoyed me and from the few reviews I read, her character annoyed a great many people. A tom-boy, rough around the edges, defiant, inventive, cocky, mouthy, and yet somewhat insecure. She screws up, she fixed it.
Plot - smuggling, gangs, drug running all with the overlying threat that some cartel is about to take over the Moon.
Science - as I noted, I felt the science was a bit like those little hard candy root beer barrels thrown out at parades. I don't like root beer barrels. And the welding...oh my gosh, what was with all the welding? I never thought I would be reading about making a perfect bead in vacuum...
The secondary characters were just that, secondary. Some I would have liked to have gotten to know better, but they all stayed safely tucked back in the story, holding on to their supporting roles.
I will note one item - I liked the setting on the Moon and how the permanent habitats were set up in relation to the Landing Site, and there was this thriving tourism economy. The big inflatable hamster balls for walking on the surface were pretty cool, as was the train ride to the Landing Site. I enjoyed that aspect of the world building.
Ultimately, I enjoyed the book, it wasn't my favorite, but I would read another by Weir if he wrote it.
View">https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/892406-kristin">View all my reviews
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