“Artemis” by Andy Weir

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Rating: 3/5 Stars

An interesting story set on a lunar colony, Artemis. The main character, Jazz Bashara, is introduced as a smuggler involved in getting minor prohibited items (like cigars) into the city for her clients. We soon learn that she has apparently made some bad life decisions early in her life that has lead her to become estranged from her father and people who thought she would make something of her life due to her high intelligence.

She also has a past debt to pay off, and one day she is given the opportunity to pay if off when one of her clients proposes an audacious sabotage attempt by her in order to corner a market on Artemis. But the attempt goes wrong and Jazz now finds herself not only a fugitive from the law, but also a target of a mob that is very angry at the sabotage. Running for her life, she has to discover who is after her and the connection to an item that she saw earlier in the story.

More of a SF thriller than a Hard-SF story like the author’s previous book, “The Martian”, this story also has lots of technical details, but they form more of a background to the story and illuminate how life might be like on a lunar colony. The character of Jazz is shown to not only a smartass, but also very intelligent and she would require her quick thinking to save herself from some life-threatening situations. But the solution to the final crisis in the story may well need her to do the ultimate sacrifice to save the city.

The story ends with a short Q&A session with the author as well as some notes on the economics behind Artemis and getting people to the moon.

Book read from 2020/06/20 to 2020/06/27