Artemis is a quick and fun sci-fi novel by Andy Weir. I hadn’t read anything about this book going in, but after having read both The Martian and Project Hail Mary I was ready for another man surviving alone in space novel, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I got.

Artemis is the first and only city on the moon - but don’t call the locals lunies - they don’t like that. Our story follows the story of a young woman - Jazz Bashara - who has lived on Artemis since she was 6 years old. No one is born on the moon, due to the problems that come with gestating and raising a baby in 1/6G, so Jazz is the closest one can get to truly being an Artemisian, and she takes great pride in this and in her city.

Jazz has been a smuggler for most of her adult life. When she was 8 years old, she was assigned a pen pal on earth who she has stayed in contact with her whole life. This pen pal ended up becoming a load master for KSC, the space agency that handles all shipping too and from Artemis. Jazz is a porter on the moon - basically she delivers cargo from incoming ships to the people who need it. This gave them the perfect setup to import and distribute goods without anyone knowing. It takes the occasional bribe, and the local cop, Rudy, is very much so onto Jazz, but their operation pretty much runs without issue

The Big Gig#

The main arch of the story follows the attempt of Jazz to assist a local billionaire in taking down a local company - Sanchez Aluminum. Why would this billionaire want to take out some local metal company on the moon? The main reason we are presented with early on is that Sanchez Aluminum has a contract with the city where so long as they supply the city with oxygen, they get free power from the city’s nuclear generator - pretty much as much as they want.

What the billionaire wants to do with this power is unclear for the first half of the book. He claims it is to make his own aluminum company but we are told that is not a profitable industry anymore, so we know he is likely lying. Either way, he offers Jazz one million slugs to do a job, that job being to stop Sanchez Aluminum from delivering the oxygen they need to in order to keep their free power contract. This will allow our billionaire to supply the city with oxygen he has been stockpiling in order to get the free electricity, then setting up his own company.

Jazz#

This book, like most of Andy Weir’s books, are a first person retelling of the story. Jazz is by far the most entertaining character Andy has told a story through. She is the daughter of a highly skilled welder, who is also very devoted Muslim. This causes most of the conflicts between Jazz and her father as she begins doing petty crime in her early teens. Despite becoming a career criminal, Jazz is generally a good person. She does smuggle, but makes it clear that she tries to limit the amount of harm that can be done with what she exports - no guns, no hard drugs, limited flammables, etc. She also cares deeply about those around her, which can sometimes cause her to be an asshole to others, but for all the right reasons.

Everyone also constantly talks about Jazz’ potential. She hates when anyone brings this up, as she likes her job and the lifestyle she has - aside from the lack of money. Jazz is undeniably intelligent and street smart. She has very strong intuition for both technical topics and people, a powerful combination. Her father in particular always talks about how she could have been a master welder, or really anything she wanted to be.

Jazz is also funny. She is sarcastic as hell, quick witted, and self deprecating enough to always keep the internal dialog interesting. Her sass with both her friends and enemies is great, and keeps you engaged through the whole book. It was also nice to follow the story of a woman in a living city she loves, rather than a man alone in space.

TLDR#

This book is fun, short enough to finish in a day if you were dedicated, and overall a great read. Jazz is a very engaging and fun character, and the city of Artemis is realistic and believable.