Artemis by Andy Weir

Artemis by Andy Weir is the story of the struggle for control of the first lunar city and how a young smuggler got caught up in the deadly fray. There is lots of action and a main character I loved but would get so exasperated with. I have to give lots of kudos to Mr. Weir for another great story.

Jasmine, aka Jazz, immigrated to the moon with her father when she was just six years old. She is a bright young woman but suffers from poor life choices.  She currently works as a porter, though she could have chosen almost any career path given her intelligence. Being a porter allows her to smuggle in contraband from Earth with the help of her friend Kelvin. But Jazz has standards, no guns or drugs, just a few harmless items to make a bit of extra cash on the side. A girl has to make a living. Right?

When one of her regular clients offers her a chance to make one million slugs (moon currency), Jazz sees it as the opportunity to finally get out of poverty. So what if she has to move up in the criminal world from smuggler to saboteur. No problem, for a resourceful girl like her. What could go wrong? Everything of course, and she ends up unwittingly messing in the mob’s territory and the stakes are high and the consequences far reaching.

There is a lot to like about this book. My favorite aspect was the main character of Jazz. For someone so brilliant, she could be so stupid and arrogant about… well most everything. I wanted to reach into the book and just slap her sometimes and tell her to grow up and put her big girl panties on. It is always a good thing when I get this invested with the character(s). Also, the plot was well thought out and the action and twists kept the reader full engaged with the story.

I was expecting a more science oriented story, given Mr. Weir’s reputation, and there is a fair amount of science in the book but not overly so. Since the story is not hard core Science Fiction, I think it will appeal not only to sci-fi fans but fans of young adult and general fiction readers.

I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.