Artemis

By: Andy Weir

Narrated by: Rosario Dawson

The best-selling author of The Martian returns with an irresistible new near-future thriller - a heist story set on the moon.

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.

Bringing to life Weir's brash, whip-smart protagonist is actress Rosario Dawson (Marvel's The Defenders, Sin City, Death Proof). With the breathless immediacy of one realizing they're one cracked helmet visor away from oblivion, Dawson deftly captures Jazz's first-person perspective – all while delivering sarcastic Weir-ian one-liners and cracking wise in the face of death. And with a cast of diverse characters from all walks of life calling Artemis home, Dawson tonally somersaults to voice Kenyan prime ministers, Ukrainian scientists, and Saudi welders. It's a performance that transports listeners right alongside Jazz, matching her step for step on every lunar inch of her pulse-pounding journey.

©2017 Andy Weir (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Everything you could hope for in a follow-up to The Martian: another smart, fun, fast-paced adventure that you won't be able to put down." (Ernest Cline, New York Times bestselling author of Ready Player One)

"An exciting, whip-smart, funny thrill-ride…. one of the best science fiction novels of the year." (Booklist)

"Narrated by a kick-ass leading lady, this thriller has it all – a smart plot, laugh-out-loud funny moments, and really cool science." (Library Journal)

"[A] superior near-future thriller.... Weir leavens the hard SF with a healthy dose of humor." (Publishers Weekly)

"[Narrator Rosario] Dawson makes Jasmine sound like the lovable rogue she is.... Dawson makes listeners care about a diverse cast of characters with quirky mannerisms." (AudioFile)

Disappointed

Not nearly as interesting or amusing as The Martian. I found Jas, the main character, tiresome.
Diane

Fits well into the "Stories About Science" cateogy

Reviewing Artemis, by Andy Weir, is difficult because it needs its own category. I’m going to summarize it this way first, then get into detail.

1. As an Andy Weir Book (4.5 / 5)
2. As a science fiction novel (4 / 5)
3. As a YA SF novel (4.5/5)
4. As a general work of fiction (3/5)

Why the difference? Andy Weir kind of gets his own category. What he really wants to do is tell you about how a world not too far in the future might work. The world is the most important character. The characters exist to do stuff that lets him explain the science. The plot exists as a reason for the characters to do stuff. From that perspective, it’s not as good as “The Martian” but it’s still very good.

As far as the rest goes, many of the plot points are pretty contrived and overall unsophisticated. Nothing is ever really introduced that isn’t later important to the resolution. If there’s a sword on the wall in act 1, it will be used by the end. It reads very much like a YA book, though some of the themes may be a bit more mature than is acceptable there. I’m an old guy so maybe I’m wrong about that. There are no graphic sex scenes but there is plenty of frank discussion of it. The main character is fun and peppy – just the sort of ideal YA female character you’d expect. Most of the others are largely archetypal.

If you’re reading this book because you like books in the “Andy Weir tells a story about science” category, you’ll have fun with this one. If you’re looking for great literature... well, at least it’s better than Dan Brown.

I'M MOONING FOR ARTEMIS!!!!

What a spectacular story! If you loved the Martian, prepare yourself because Andy Weir's mastery for story telling has only gotten better. I loved this book. I will listen to it again, and let me tell you that with nearly 1200 titles in my library very, very few books warrant a second listen.

Andy's protagonist (Jasminda "Jazz" Bashara) this time around is a whip-smart, self-taught smuggler with a photographic memory who happens to be a young woman. Here's another thing I love about Andy Weir - he is generous doling out smarts and strength to women. He did it with several characters in The Martian, and he has done it again in Artemis. Girl power!

The thing I liked most about this book were the characters - women's lib aside. You missed a lot of that interaction in The Martian (obviously), so it was nice to have a good handful of colourful characters that interacted with Jazz on the regular.

Again, there's a lot of science talk in this book but it is accessible to everyone. You might have to back up and take a second listen a time or two, but Mr. Weir does a smashing job of simplifying the complexities. And, you'll learn a lot - like why coffee on the moon just doesn't taste like it does on earth.

I would be remiss of failing to mention Rosario Dawson's superb narration of this story. In a word: WOW. She seamlessly narrates between several accents some of which include American (or I suppose Artemian), Arabic, Ukrainian, Kenyan, English, and Brazilian. She manages distinctly different voices for each of the characters - switching between sexes and ages just effortlessly. Five stars are not enough for her performance. Of course, not many publishers/authors are willing to pay for a film actress to narrate a book...so enjoy this rare treat.

This book delivered with several laugh-out-loud moments, and nail biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense. Jazz was every bit as human as The Martian's Mark Watney when it came to mistakes and oversights that produced near-disastrous consequences.

Worth a credit? ABSOLUTELY.

If the deal sounds too good to be true...

Artemis is the latest offering from Andy Weir. The story is set on the moon within a complex of interconnecting domes. The main character is a young woman, Jazz who works as a porter. Having spent nearly her whole life on the moon she is unlikely to be able to flourish on Earth. While Jazz is a small time criminal involved with smuggling restrictive items, she gets involved in a grander scheme that purports to provide her drop dead money. In the end, she gets way in over her head that nearly leads to complete disaster.

While the sci-fi elements are mainly concerned with living conditions on an airless world with reduced gravity, Weir inserts his general geekiness in crafting an environment and society that is scientifically, technically, economically, and sociologically sound and viable. Little things like oxygen being a by-product of metal production and bad coffee due to low pressure resulting in a lower boiling point give a realistic feel to the story. The assessment that low gravity production can produce an economic boom also seems sound.

The narration is outstanding with excellent character distinction. While not strictly a performance piece, the feel is that of listening to a film with eyes closed. Expect a movie in the works shortly as this has all the right elements, mystery, thrilling chase and action scenes, and good characters.

Kind of a letdown

After listening to The Martian I guess I had my expectations to high for this book. The story and characters did not feel as well developed, and the plot a bit flimsy. Also the excessive use of Vulgarity seemed unnecessary and detracted from the story, almost like they were forced into the story after the main story was written.
All in all it was a somewhat interesting story with a smattering if believable details, but needed more pages to fully develop and execute the plot... Hopefully his next book is better.

An adventure on the moon

It was a great listen, Rosario brought the story to life and her performance was very good. I loved it.

Meh

It was so so. Not great, but an ok listen on bus. I loved the Martian, could have passed on this

My new favorite book!

I liked this book better than the Martian for a few reasons:

1. More of an engineering story than raw science.
2. Action, Adventure, Mystery, what's not to love?
3. Never dull!

Rosario Dawson was perfect for this role!

Great narration. Huge disappointment.

I loved The Martian. I though it was truly fantastic. This book... is a let down. Its not a bad book. Its just not a good book. I’d never recommend it to anyone, though I wouldn’t tell them not to read it. Really, its like the author had all these great characters in mind when he wrote the story, but forgot to actually fill them out in the book. They are all cliche and hollow. Just about the entire book was cliche and hollow. A couple novel ideas, but mostly just questions about how the hell the whole thing worked because clearly it shouldn’t have. Ugh. I’ll still look for Andy Weir’s future books, though I’ll read the reviews before hand. He’s lost the instant buy classification for me.

Wonderful’

Not as good as The Martian, but that one so hard to top. But loved the heroine Jazz, Rosario Dawson just perfect! Get mystery and still filled with humour and science. Just sorry to have it end.