Andy Weir’s «The Martian» was a real boom, especially after the movie starring Matt Damon. I admit that I only learned about the book after hearing so much hype around the movie. The novel was astounding! Emotional, yet incredibly witty. Mark Watney was a delight of a character to follow. Science, jokes, life threatening crises – it had everything!
It was very difficult to not compare «Artemis» to «The Martian», and I must say that this new book was not as good as the previous one. Still very entertaining and full of science, but something was missing.
Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
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Jasmine Bashara, short Jazz, moved with her father to the only city on the Moon – Artemis, when she was just 6 years old. Growing up on the Moon can be very exciting, especially for someone as smart as Jasmine, but! Life is not easy, even on the Moon.
No matter how much I enjoyed this book, I had many MANY issues with Jasmine. Let me dissect things a little bit:
1 – She was incredibly lazy! Someone who’s goal is to be rich and get to this fancy dome in Artemis, without actually working for it. According to everyone Jasmine was smart, a quick learner. My question is: Why waste so much potential? Maybe it is something I will never understand, but apparently smuggling and being homeless on the Moon, while having all these amazing intellectual capacities, is a new trend.
2 – My second question would be: How come Jasmine knew so much about such a broad array of science fields? In «The Martian» it made sense that an astronaut, botanist and mechanical engineer, who probably spent many years preparing for his ascent to Mars would be capable of coming up with unconventional ways to survive in such harsh conditions. But Jazz.. I wasn’t convinced.
3 – Already mentioned in the point 1, but when your only dream is to earn exactly 456.789.00 (not sure if a correct amount but you get my point!) just so you can live in the fancier side of town, I don’t think we can be friends. Unless there is a way to expand your horizons!
4 – Jasmine was rude, stubborn and overall difficult character to love or root for. Maybe the humor didn’t do it for me this time around.
5 – And finally, Jazz was no Mark Watney, not even Matt Damon… Maybe Andy Weir should write more male characters instead… Or maybe that is what I expected from him, so the disappointment hit me even harder!
From all of these negative remarks you probably think that I hated this novel. WRONG! It was fast-paced and super entertaining! «Artemis» has an amazing plot. A city on the Moon! This was enough to get me excited! And besides the flaws of the main character, I really enjoyed this book.
My rating:
⭐⭐⭐ / 5
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing, Del Ray for the free ARC of this book! Initially I gave it 4 stars, because Andy Weir writes one of the best Sci-fi there is and immediately after finishing the book I was still very hooked. After writing this review, I had to drop it to 3 stars – I finally realized how much I disliked Jazz!
Does it happen often to you to dislike the main character? If so, how do you usually deal with it?
With love,
Alex
WhimsyPages 
So sorry to hear this didn’t do it for you 😦 I’ve never read The Martian, so I can’t compare, but I actually liked Jazz. It might have to do with the fact I had been reading textbooks all month and longed for something lighter, but her humour entertained me a lot. I didn’t mind her being lazy and wasting her potential – there are some people whose power of will isn’t just as big as society expects to, and I was okay with that. Now that I think of it, though, I do mind the fact we never got to learn the reason she knows so much about science …
Great post! 🙂
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I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it. The story was actually very fun and I love Andy Weir’s writing. But Jazz… me and her did not get along 😀
But I think it’s nice when characters leave such a strong feeling behind (negative or positive).
Thank you ❤
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I just finished the book and liked it a lot! As for her knowledge, I know a girl, that is very intelligent like her so I can relate. These are ppl that get bored quickly, so they try different things every day and since their memory is great, they just remember all kind of stuff but mostly they can piece it together. And it will amaze you how much stuff ppl, making a living on the streets know. Ah and my friend is also lazy, she can barely keep a job. Gets bored quickly, hates rules, always tries to make her life more interesting(breaking stuff, doing all kind of crazy things just to keep her from the boredom)
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Wow! thanks! Your friend sounds a lot like like Jazz haha
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I didn’t really get fond of her either. I’m not sure Andy Weir succeeded creating a believable female character. Yes, there are women who are not very feminine (myself included) but she was so full of herself that she did sound like a man.
Regarding your 3. point: she needed this exact sum to give her father back what he lost because of her. It wasn’t to make herself a better life.
And just like you I still enjoyed this book and hope for more from Andy Weir. Maybe next time with a nice guy. 🙂
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