#smart books

Artemis

by Andy Weir

What’s better than being stranded on Mars and abandoned by your crew with only potatoes to live on?

Anything really.

Anything would be better than that.

But if we are talking in terms of Andy Weir’s brilliant first novel The Martian, what would be better that Andy Weir writing the witty and scientifically credible story of one character? That would be Andy Weir creating a witty and scientifically credible story about a whole city on the moon with an awesome no nonsense female protagonist smuggler. Which he did when he wrote Artemis.

Having loved Weir’s writing voice in The Martian, I scooped up Artemis immediately and summarily devoured it. The protagonist, Jazz, a citizen of Artemis, the moon colony, slaves away as a smuggler to save up enough slugs for a better life. Because moon real estate sounds pricier than New York and San Francisco combined. An integral player in the city’s sordid underbelly, Jazz is roped into a scheme by a wealthy benefactor while desperately dodging the ever-watchful moon cop and a new slew of moon mafia. Which, let’s face it, is kinda challenging in a city that’s literally under a bubble. (Note to self: this could be included in the genre: books that effectively employ domes as a device.) Let’s just say that oxygen is at a premium in zero G.

With a seriously diverse cast of characters, an entirely new take on moon landing and a unique pen pal scenario, Artemis is bound to launch to the bestsellers’ list immediately. Pun intended.

Kudos to Weir for introducing a minority female protagonist who is dynamic, intelligent, flawed, and beautiful -  and incidentally, like a lot of the awesome dynamic, intelligent, flawed and beautiful female characters in my own life.  

Plus, reading Weir is like taking a cool science class as an adult, just in a totally different atmosphere.

*B3 received a galley from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.