Paperback Perils: Artemis

Title: Artemis

Author: Andy Weir

Publication Date: 2017

Publishing House: Crown Publishing

To start this off, I enjoyed Artemis. It is a fun, fast read full of cursing, a few jokes involving sex and characters with unique pasts. Artemis is the second Andy Weir book that I have read and after The Martian I was excited to get my hands on a copy. Artemis is not a sequel but a stand alone story unrelated to The Martian. Although both books do exhibit Weir’s love of science fiction and space along with an appreciation of Greek mythology. Artemis in Greek mythology is the goddess of the hunt and of the moon. Twin sister of Apollo and daughter of Zues and Leto.

Artemis is also the name of the lunar colony on the moon. As a small town of 2000 people, the inhabitants play by their own rules. Jazz is the main character in all of this. She does things to better herself and save herself; she is full of sarcasm, fire, and brains that she doesn’t use enough. Weir enjoys writing intelligent characters. Jazz is a smuggler with dreams of being rich. This lands her in trouble. I’ll let you find out how exactly she handles that trouble. There are a variety of other characters in this book from scientists to craftsmen to businessmen. They are all essential to the success of the solo lunar colony and to the book.

Artemis does have a fairly decent amount of technical terms in regards to the lexicon of space travel and living on the moon. However, it is not full of equations to figure out survival. In that sense it is an easier read than The Martian. Artemis has residence from all over the globe and thus the reader gets a small view into many cultures and how those cultures work together as one small community on the moon. Also, this book looks at the economic of a city in both the forms of exponential growth and a plateau.

I don’t want to give too much away but I hope that you have enjoyed this short  review. If you want to read the first chapter before deciding if you want to buy the book, click here. I got my copy of Artemis through Book of the Month and if you want to check it out at a reduced fee, click here.  Currently I’m reading The Name of the Wind I will post a review about it as soon as possible. With the holidays around the corner that might take longer than I prefer. Please let me know what you think in the comments. Happy reading!