In October, I saw a flyer for an event at a local high school, where Andy Weir would promote Artemis, his second published novel.  It was a must-read for me that day.  I loved his first offering, The Martian; I’ve since re-read it twice, and the movie is on my “drop everything and watch” list.  So the question is, after your first novel is a commercial and critical success, where the movie got nominated for several Oscars, what do you do for an encore?

Set on the only city on the moon, Artemis follows Jazz Bashara, a genius smuggler (and part-time porter) and an underachieving ne’er-do-well, in a quest to get rich as fast as she can.  She gets the opportunity of a lifetime from industrialist Trond Landvik; more money than she's ever had, and all she needs to do is a little industrial sabotage.  When the plan backfires, she finds herself in the crosshairs of an overzealous cop as well as a ruthless corporate assassin, and right in the middle of a struggle to control the city for decades to come.  In the middle of this, Jazz searches for something—anything—that can keep her from getting killed, or worse, deported to Earth.

Let’s start with the things Artemis is not: This is not The Martian.  This is not the sequel to The Martian.  It’s got its similarities—solid premise, realistic and plausible science, and a protagonist whose smarts and humor keep them one step ahead of certain death—but that’s about it.

There’s one other thing Artemis is not; it’s not a bad book.  It was an enjoyable read the whipped by at a quick pace, and the science was genuinely fascinating.  Andy Weir used physics, current technology, and possibly existing plans to create a blueprint for how a lunar city could be established and administered.  He includes an economy, food source (made from flavored algae), and how it would impact terrestrial geopolitics.  Hell, he even envisioned a plausible scenario where Kenya is the center of space exploration and one of the most influential countries on Earth.  Unlike The Martian, all of the science of this takes a back seat to the tightly plotted caper.  There’s plenty here to enjoy, and it’s a deceptively quick read.

Artemis proves that Andy Weir is not a fluke, and will likely be counted among the greats in sci-fi.  And like the best of the genre, it doesn’t take a huge leap of plausibility to see that.

4 out of 5 stars

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