The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for the Winter 2017 Group Read Artemis. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

Anyone else reading this one? I've had it now for about 3 weeks, and I'm finding it hard to get into it. Part of it is that Jazz makes such stunningly BAD decisions that I keep putting the book down in exasperation. I know that was part of the author's goal ... to make his new MC more fallible, but I'm just spending a lot of time wanting to smack her.

Alycia wrote: "Anyone else reading this one? I've had it now for about 3 weeks, and I'm finding it hard to get into it. Part of it is that Jazz makes such stunningly BAD decisions that I keep putting the book dow..."

I just finished it, and I had the same problem - that her decisions were so bad that they seemed ludicrous. The other thing that really put me off was that I thought she sounded a lot more like a 17 year old boy than anything else. Just the comments she made with sexual innuendos or about her own body just didn't ring true to me. If a male author is going to try to write from a female perspective, better that he not channel his own teenage self.

I listened to it on audio and I thought that Rosario Dawson did such a good job that those comments didn't bother me at all. She did have a swagger, but also a real vulnerability.
I liked that it was set in a relatively new colony and that they were still working out the kinks of living in that environment. I thought the science was interesting and fun.
My dad is a welder so lots of the technical talk was stuff that I could relate to, but I did wonder if others would appreciate all the welding specifics.
I wished more of the book would have been the caper. It did get bogged down after it, and then just coasted to the ending.

Maybe listening to it read by a woman would have made a difference. Reading it, I didn't "hear" it as a swaggering vulnerability, but as rather dopey teenage boy comments.

Readerboard named: Rebecca OH

Based on other reviews, I'm really glad I got the audiobook. Rosario Dawson did an excellent job! I really enjoyed Jazz's character and that she really did have flaws, not just "flaws." I also enjoyed the really diverse cast, and how it was worked into the moon colony set-up. The only thing I didn't really didn't like about the narration was the fourth-wall bending/breaking bits, because no reason was ever given for that choice. Jazz is only talking to herself.

My biggest dislike was all the welding. I have trouble picturing things like that when reading (any book that mentions how ships work just makes my brain glaze over...I guess without having seen something like it before, it's hard to process) but it's hard to fault a science fiction book too much for having Science in it. I'm sure if this was a movie, I would've been really interested and tense during those scenes. I did like that the politicking had some twists and turns, but I could always follow who wanted what.

Overall, I'd give it 3*, and I would probably like a film version even more than the book.

Well, I finished. The last 25% was definitely the best part and played to Weir's strengths. Character-building is not one of those strengths. I was shocked when I realized, about halfway thru, that Jazz was about 27 years old. With the immaturity and attitude, not to mention that she was still sulking about having her boyfriend stolen, I'd figured she was barely into her twenties, not almost thirty.

I gave it 3 stars. I won't be buying it, and I doubt I'll go see a film version.

Rebecca wrote: "Readerboard named: Rebecca OH

Based on other reviews, I'm really glad I got the audiobook. "

Oh, this is good to know! I've had the audiobook on my audible wishlist for over a month, so now I have a good excuse to purchase!

Hm. I really wanted to love this, and the beginning got me hooked. Weir creates an interesting world and characters (though I have to wonder whether the word “Gizmo” was a placeholder for something he was going to name and then just didn’t bother to). But I didn’t love it. I found Jazz interesting and believable as a character, but I couldn’t believe her recklessness when it came to her community, her greed and amorality. Definitely not what I expected in a MC of Weir’s, after The Martian. Rosario Dawson was fabulous on the audiobook, though (I alternated between audio and kindle). Now that this was a letdown, at least I can move on to other things.

I really enjoyed this Group Read selection. I read it over the space of a day and didn't have the issues with Jazz as mentioned above.

Quite true . . . she did make some bad choices. I know I've made some bad choices throughout my life as well. It was apparent early on why she wanted to get 400,000 slugs and I appreciated that she did want to make some type of restitution for some such previous bad decision despite knowing a get rich quick scheme is going to backfire in some way.

I enjoyed it - listened to the audio, and didn't particularly notice the sexual innuendos as being inappropriate - so yeah, Dawson did a good job there.

I felt some of the science was overplayed - we probably didn't need Weir to dump all the research on us, but would accept it as reasonable.

I enjoyed the caper, the setting, and the economics chat, about how Artemis will develop.

Overall good.

I really enjoyed Artemis. Like others above, I agree that Jazz made some bad decisions but I also know people who learn from bad decisions.

I didn't think this had as much science in it as his last book and that was a little disappointing. However, I think the book told an interesting story and a very unique setting. I did feel like the ending fell a little short and would like to know more about how some things turned out.

I will recommend this to others. However, unlike The Martian, I will be more hesitant to not recommend this book to everyone as I felt that it was more of a New Adult fiction than science fiction.

I love Andy Weir, and more specifically, the science he incorporates into his books. I thought all the info on welding was fascinating, and I liked that it was actually crucial to the plot. It was also super interesting to think about the logistics of putting a colony on the moon. I thought it was a satisfying story. Definitely fun.

Beyond that, I didn't really like Jazz, but I don't think she was really meant to be likable. I'm in favor of the unlikable female protagonist trend though. She came off as a dumb teenager, so I was surprised to find out she was 26. I did like that it seems like she was growing up through the story, at least a little bit.

(Bookwrm526) I agree with a lot of what has already been said here. I love the science-y bits, and the overall story is good...but Jaz made incredibly bad life decisions that hurt a lot of people and yet somehow they all still seem to be willing to help her? She doesn't seem to add much to any of her relationships, and yet they all go out of their way to help here no matter how much she's hurt them or screwed them over in the past...because she's an ethical crook? Because she's hot? Because she's really smart even though she doesn't live up to her potential? I'm just not buying it from anyone except maybe her dad.

That said, it was still a good caper, and I still enjoyed it, I just gave it a LOT more side-eye than The Martian, and it oddly required a lot more suspension of disbelief.

I enjoyed The Martian so much, I still haven't watched the movie. They always seem to spoil things for me. I was hoping this book would be on the same level but I also was disappointed. I just didn't care for the character development of Jazz. I agree with Sandy, this is one male author who should never write a female character lead. With so many of the sexual innuendos and immature comments it didn't mash well with how intelligent she was supposed to be and wanting to educate her friend on how to talk to girls. I think I enjoyed the Martian because of some of the science bits, and while this had some, they weren't quite as entertaining, more like, I'll throw this in here to show how smart Jazz is, yet she still couldn't complete anything without help. Overall, it had a good premise, it moved quickly and I did enjoy some of the angles life might have living on the moon sprinkled throughout. It was the character development that held me back from giving it anything more than a three star rating.

Janice AB

I didn't enjoy this story as much as I did The Martian. Still, it was a fun romp across the moon. Weir is not to be taken seriously.

I liked that Jazz was a snarky bad ass . Yes, she made some bad decisions, but who doesn't? I don't think she had an easy life - uprooted to the moon at an early age and abandoned by her mother. That must have had some lasting effects on a young person. Then, there's the situation in which she destroyed her father's shop, adding guilt and creating distance between herself and the only person she truly loved. I didn't approve of all her actions, but I think she did the best with what she had.

And here we are, getting all serious again when this isn't a serious story. At least she didn't (view spoiler)[ test out the recycled condoms. I really didn't want to hear about that. (hide spoiler)]

I read the audiobook and thought that Rosario Dawson did a great job with all the accents. There were times when I zoned out. Some of the technical aspects didn't hold my interest. The last quarter was quite exciting. I liked that Jazz reconciled with her father, and that she was able to give him a replacement for the shop she destroyed.

i listeded to this as part of the 15 point task - i loved the Martin (both the book and the movie) - but based on some reviews from other people, I was kind of skeptical going in. I think Artemis has much of Weir's previous MacGyver-like problem solving storyline, but i think the traditional publishing route cleaned him up a bit - but i think that also destroyed the charm and why i enjoyed The Martin so much.

Jazz was kind of annoying - but then i felt the same about Mark Watney at times - how they always figure out the perfect way to solve a problem and just do it. I do think some of Jazz's recklessness was due to her guilt...I think that she missed her dad, but felt like she couldn't fix their problems until she paid him back (whether or not that is true is another story). I struggled to figure out her age - someone mentioned above she was about 27 - i didn't figure that old, I was thinking more 23/24, but she did come to the Moon when she was 9 - so that would have been an interesting transition at a crucial time of her life

i'm sure i'll have more thoughts as i think through and write a review. Rosario Dawson did a great job with the narration - i'm typically hesitant of celebrity narrators - but she was good

Enjoyed Artemis...Agree with Rebecca.

While the story was interesting and I found Jazz an enterprising young woman who made the most of what life threw at her, the science behind living in a foreign environment was educational, fascinating and memorable. I have not read any of Weir's other books, but you can be sure I will seek them out the next time I am looking for science fiction. He builds his world and sets out the parameters and then sticks to them.

The world-building is definitely the strength of this book. The moon's city setup was interesting and details like not being able to heat water to the earth's boiling point were fun.

Jazz's bad decisions - okay, fine, in the end it was All For The Good Of Artemis, in a way, and I appreciated that she had solid, consistent motivation throughout. And I'll even forgive the "I read about chemistry for three hours so now I know all of these details and how to combine them with my prior knowledge to be the only person on the moon who can solve this problem" stuff - that was just very Andy Weir, so whatever.

But Jazz's voice was so very Andy Weir, too. A 26 year old who lived 6 years in Saudi Arabia and the next two decades on the moon, but whose cultural references (in addition to "boobs are funny, heh heh heh") were the same ones as a 50-something (?) American? A few Star Trek references, sure, but all the cowboy movie adulation (Trigger, John Wayne)? And so many idioms were outdated/out of place, too, though sometimes that was laboriously explained by saying that digging a hole to China was also a big task from the moon, ha ha. And this was all supposedly taking place about 40 years from now, making it seem all the more unrealistic and dated for Jazz's character.

I tried to ignore how bad the 1st person voice of Jazz was to focus on the caper side of it all, but it just felt like a bunch of storyboarding for 'pretty young actress occasionally strips (but it's okay because she's only in front of a gay friend) and does various action things with big explosions and some fighting and a quirky multicultural band of admirers in vast CGI settings' and if I wanted that, I'd just wait for the movie.

I'll get a few points of agreement with previous posters out of the way:
-Not as good as the Martian, check
-This will make a better movie than a book
-Audio version read by Rosario Dawson made the character as believable and not as "teenage boy" as possible

Those points aside, I'm going to defend Jazz as a character. I am in a job with very few women (~5%). I work with a bunch of dudes who often have the sense of humor of 10 year olds. In the decade plus in my job, I have acquired the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy. While Weir could have done a better job of pointing it out, I'm going to guess that there are more men than women on the moon, especially in the industrial jobs, not to mention all the important people in Jazz's life are guys. No girlfriends mentioned. It makes plenty of sense to me that she speaks fluent "dude."

Also, the whole other point of her character is that she is a diamond in the rough. She is supposed to be a low key brilliant but immature. She is a rebel who will specifically go against what people expect of her, sometimes for no good reason other than to rebel.

I also expect Weir's characters to not be great though... I think he cares more about the science and the story than who is in them.

Excellent points about Jazz's influences, EShay. I would suspect that the sarcasm and tough mannerisms were used as a means of protection, too.

I think you're right about Weir being more about the science than the characters.

READ 60

After reading the comments I really wish I had listened to the book, I might have enjoyed it more. Jazz was a petty crook making very bad decisions and destroying most everything her father worked for. The author lead you to believe that under all that "bad" thinking there wad a brilliant mind but really got the opinion that no mater how smart she was , she could not think through plans , usually at the expense of others.

I did enjoy how the economics and trade for the colony was explained.

First of all, I was a bit disappointed this was chosen for the 'space opera' group read since it is definitely not a space opera.
This book had a lot of the great features that made me love the Martian - a funny and witty voice, lots of science, and fast-paced action. The moon settlement setting was also really fascinating and well described. However, the thing I really disliked, was that unlike the hero of the Martian, the protagonist of this book - Jazz - is definitely not a hero. She is basically a terrorist. She doesn't mean to hurt people but she engages in very dangerous sabotage activities that put thousands of lives at risk for no reason but money. Sure she feels bad when people die, and tries to fix her mess, but essentially she is a very bad person. It was hard to sympathise with her or want her to succeed.
I give it 3.5*

I agree with most of what's already been said above. The thing that really stood out to me at the end of this book was the complete lack of consequences for Jazz, particularly given the amount of havoc she wreaked. Sure, she made her "voluntary donation" to the city's coffers, but her slug balance was still inflated by what she had left, she had repaired her relationship with her dad (fair - given what happened to the rest of her slugs), she repaired her relationship with Dale, and she had repaired her relationship with the entire city despite knocking them all out and leaving them minutes away from death. And she gets to stay on the moon and gets put in charge of the entire smuggling black market. She comes away with a few more responsibilities, but manages to wipe away years of failed relationships by virtue of nearly killing off the entire population of Earth's first space colony.

The dialogue in the book just seemed extremely clunky to me too. I could see how it might be better as an audiobook as it struck me that this was written with adaptation in mind.

I just finished last night. It took me awhile to get thru. I agree with the post above that the last quarter was much better than the rest and I was finally able to complete it. The whole concept of a life on the moon and how it was formed and how they lived was interesting. The ending left it open for there to be a sequel in my opinion. Would anyone else agree? I would rate this a 3.

I enjoyed this, but not as much as "The Martian". Jazz just kept making so many bad decisions and anything that could go wrong did. Lefty getting out of the airlock was the last straw for me. That just detracted from the suspense, for me. I did enjoy the description on how they were able to live on the moon.

I agree with the above comment: she sounded a lot more like a 17 year old boy than anything else. That used to happen a lot in science fiction, wherein the females were either "irrational and beautiful" or were exactly like the males except with female parts. I had a hard time believing in Jazz as a character.

In the first half, I also had a hard time sympathizing with what Jazz was hired to do: (view spoiler)[the sabotage of the city's sole air supply!!!! (hide spoiler)]. I was rooting for her to fail, which I don't think the author intended. The second half the goals of the characters changed and so I was more willing to root for Jazz.

I agree with everyone here -- The Martian was better.

And, you know, I thought both books seemed geared to a movie sale!

I agree with most of the comments here. I thought the world building was better than the character development. The descriptions of the city and life on the moon was fun but I found Jazz to be immature and unlikable.

I wonder if so many books these days seem to be geared to a movie sale simply because the authors watch too many movies and think movie style rather than novel style (or am I being overly generous?).

I really did enjoy this, and on the same level I enjoyed The Martian: Its structure consists of Set Up a Problem/Work the Problem. How can we help humans survive in an extremely hostile environment? Once those systems are in place, how can smart, creative people hack them for personal advantage? When it all goes to hell - and it will - what do we do? Whereas TM was stripped down to the stakes of basic survival, this one has a noir caper plot overlaid onto it, but noir caper plots are catnip to me, so I'm good with that.

I enjoyed this, though I didn't love it. The sarcasm was fun and I kind of liked Jazz (though I agree that she seems incredibly immature). I'm not a fan of the science parts in general, so I got a bit annoyed from time to time.

This was a pretty good thriller. Science fiction is not a genre I enjoy, at all. I had read The Martian previously for a book group, and it wasn’t too bad. Though I had no interest in the science and it was way over my head, the book moved along well enough for a non-science, non-science-fiction person to enjoy the story. I would say the same with Artemis. There’s a lot of chemistry. But the plot line is OK and the book is entirely readable by said non-science, non-science-fiction person (myself).

The protagonist, as noted by others, is an immature, wise-cracking, criminally-inclined Saudi woman with welding skills. I liked that she was a Saudi woman. That was unexpected. Kenya is the country at the center of the global space industry. I liked that, too. The international mix of characters added interest, though wasn’t integral to the story line.

A few things seemed kind of 20th/early 21st century for a futuristic setting. For example, slang/profanity in their speech doesn’t seem to have evolved at all, and people are as attached to their Gizmos as people currently are to their phones, which one would expect to evolve somehow (don’t ask me, though; maybe not). And I loved this bit of humor: “He connected his Gizmo and, as usual with technology, it didn’t work.”

I went into this knowing that it wasn't going to be like "The Martian" from the reviews I read. Perhaps going in with that in mind, I enjoyed it far more than I expected to. I was nervous about how Weir and his sense of humor would translate for a 20-something female, but it actually worked for me.

I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I have a long commute, but I actually read this one in hardcover. While it sounds like I missed out on a good audiobook, I found it was a page turner and kept my interest even with the science-y technical stuff. I would describe myself as a non-science person (I majored in English and now work in a history museum), but I have an appreciation for science and I have a curiosity about how it all works. I would say that my non-science background steered me away from "The Martian" for a long time. I'm so glad that I finally ripped the band-aid off and just read it last year because it was probably one of my favorite reads of 2017. It's also opened a door to a new must-read author for me, which is why I knew I must read Artemis when I saw it as a Group Read this season.

I love Weir's sense of humor and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed either of his books half as much without it. I wasn't bothered by some of the cruder things that Jazz said or did because I thought they were still in line with her character. What did bother me were the cultural references that seemed like they were coming from an American, not a Saudi-Artemisian, as others mentioned above. It then felt like he'd add an explanation as to why Jazz would make this statement, even though she's never lived in America. This felt like his editor pointed out these errors and he'd come up with a way to explain it away, which didn't always ring true for me. That aside, I really did enjoy the book and look forward to more Andy Weir books in the future!

I agree with a lot of the previously made comments but to add my own opinion, I thought this was a fast paced readable book.

I think the charm of Andy Weir science fictions books is that the science introduced in these books is often achievable in the next couple of decades. It's recognizable science and it doesn't make actual scientists scoff that often. I was talking to my cousin about this book before I started reading it; she was afraid that a colony on the moon might be stretch for the almost realist science fiction he writes but I think he did it fairly well. I love generally well paced description of the colony throughout the moon and the economics discussion.

That said, there were large parts in this book that pissed me off. I feel like he misplaces all the technical discussions in this story. They were fascinating and well placed in the beginning but as the tense moments in the story line started appearing, they started becoming annoying. The tense and adventurous parts of the story line felt bogged down at times by all the technical descriptions. I realize that many authors like to keep the solutions to themselves to build suspense and then reveal them during the caper but that only truly works if we could think of the solution in the first place or actively understand it. Layman science..so to speak. I enjoyed the science but I feel like it would have been better paced if the solution was described to use first then shown how it worked during the caper so we wouldn't loose the paced.

Finally, Jazz herself really really honestly truly irritated me. I remember a point in the story line where I flipped to where it said she was 26-27 just to double check. It wasn't until I finished the book that I realized I had felt this same irritation towards Harry Potter in books 5-7. Poor comparison for a 27 year old woman.

I feel like Andy Weir started this like..so how would a city on the moon start...we could do this..and this..and this would make a great explosion...and omg you can do this as crime and sabotage... now how do I communicate this..? Shit I have to add characters...and then it all went down hill from there.

I came to this book without reading "The Martian" so I wasn't mentally comparing the two. Maybe that lack of expectations contributed to my enjoyment of the book, but I really liked it. I also listened to the audio book which I agree was very well done. Jazz struck me as the type of women who is sometimes found in rough frontier areas. She had the salty language of the guys.

I did think the book was left open ended enough for a sequel without leaving too many loose ends in the current story.

Boston Kate

First of all, The Martian was one of my favorite reads of 2014. However, I wasn't expecting this one to be the same book, and it actually fared better than some other follow-ups to impressive debuts that I've read. The Martian was definitely better, but I really enjoyed Artemis as well.

I agree with other reviewers that Jazz seemed immature, but I took it to be somewhat a measure of her upbringing. She was raised in a very different environment that most of us were. Yes, some of it might have been poor writing, but it didn't bother me as much as it did a lot of you.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, I thought it was interesting and was excited to see how it worked itself out, and I loved the world-building.

One thing I did find interesting - this book seems written to be a movie. And especially after the success of The Martian, Weir had to know that this would be made into a movie as well (I'm assuming it will). So I found it interesting that his main character is of Saudi Arabian descent. I wonder if his publisher fought him on that. It will be interesting to see who plays her in the inevitable movie version. [To clarify, I'm not saying he should have made her a blond, white woman... I liked the character as she was. Just something that made me wonder.]

Kate I was wondering that too...visually I see the one actress off the TV show quantico (but blanking on her name)

Dee wrote: "Kate I was wondering that too...visually I see the one actress off the TV show quantico (but blanking on her name)"

Yeah, Priyanka Chopra (had to look up the spelling, haha). I pictured her a bit, too. Can't see her headlining a movie, though. (Not a bad actress or anything, but not exactly an A-list star.)

i maybe see an A-list for some of the supporting characters - but i love seeing new ones mark their mark

i mean i loved Matt Damon in The Martian but could someone else have played him - possible; ditto with I HATED Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci code - because they went for a big name that didn't match the character

Ultimately I enjoyed this book. Not nearly as much as The Martian, but a lot more than I expected based off of all of the reviews I read on the book page, as well as the book discussion here.

Jazz definitely wasn't my favorite character of all time, and she seemed super lazy and unwilling to try at anything if she wasn't going to make a million "slugs", but it didn't bother me too much. I knew there was going to be some dirty jokes and whatnot from reading the reviews, but I was okay with that. I know it was an attempt to create a "Moon culture" that takes some things less seriously than we do. The story took a few deviations from what I was expecting, but it made me want to read to the end and I finished most of the book in an afternoon. I have no idea what was happening with the welding, but no surprise there because all I know about welding is that you should wear a face mask. In terms of these parts in particular I agree with previous reviewers that it was written thinking of a movie, along with some of the movements within the moonscape itself. But that was also very similar to The Martian for me because while I understood the science Andy Weir was describing made sense, I don't have that background and was much more able to appreciate it with some visuals.

Anyway, not my favorite book of all time but not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

I went into this with mixed expectations. On the one hand, I really enjoyed The Martian, which was a rare five-star book for me. On the other, I'd seen the various negative comments in this thread, and was afraid I'd actually hate it because of the POV character.

Well, its true that I didn't like Jazz as much as I liked Mark Watney, and she did make some bone-headed mistakes. I also agree with those people who've commented that she was more like a teenaged-boy than a mid-twenties girl (sorry, Andy, you didn't quite beat the challenge of writing a female narrator that you mention in the Acknowledgements at the back).

That said, I did find myself rooting more for her as the book went on. Possibly, because that was because I thought the various supporting characters were decently realised, both the good and the bad (although Alvarez was a bit of a cartoon baddie), and I was glad to see them contributing to the overall goal. And I did like her Dad.

My favourite aspect of the book, though, was the set-up of the city of Artemis, and the explanations of the science behind making it "possible", especially as the majority of it was understandable to a non-scientist like me.

Like some of the other folks in this thread, I also liked the fact that the heroine, for all her flaws, wasn't a standard WASP; and that in the end it was Kenya, rather than the US-dominated West, that made a go of building the moon base.

Overall, enjoyed it - it was a good heist/adventure romp, and I kept turning the proverbial pages. I hope Andy Weir revisits Artemis as a setting, as there's a lot of potential there, with plenty of other characters instead of Jazz he could focus on.

All in all, I gave it four-stars for the background, down from the five of The Martian, because of Jazz being an idiot, and I'm not really convinced that given the stated character of the Administrator earlier in the book, she would quite have acted as she did towards Jazz at the end.

Readerboard name: MIKE DENNIS

Dlmrose wrote: "I listened to it on audio and I thought that Rosario Dawson did such a good job that those comments didn't bother me at all. She did have a swagger, but also a real vulnerability.
I liked that it ..."

Concur! Rosario Dawson made Jazz 3-dimensional for me, and I think saved her from being some Mark Watney revenant -- same voice, reincarnated into a new body.

I feel that author Andy Weir is on the path to developing into a really good science-fiction author, but he needs more practice time developing more voices.

Overall, I found the story very Heinlein-esque in writing quality, talented protagonist, and grounding in hard sciences.

I struggled with the three foundational premises for Artemis-the-moon-city: the non-U.S. Space Center, that it is the only connection to Artemis, and that Artemis is the only city on the moon. Don't get me wrong, each premise, individually, I can believe. But the world is more complex than it has ever been, and for one nation to hold a path to the moon, solo, for twenty or more year -- I had to suspend my disbelief.

I didn't hate this, but I didn't like it very much. I think that's because I didn't like Jazz - she wasn't someone I could empathize with. I agree with the people who posted that she was more like a teenage boy than a 26 or 27 year old woman. (I read the book, not listened to audio.)

I had a hard time understanding some of the science and what was happening - the chloroform part was confusing - I understand it was her fault because that was repeated over and over after the city was saved, but I still don't know whether it's because she did something silly or because it really was more complicated. And was this something that the reader should have been able to figure out?

I appreciated the author's attempts at diversity (Arabic women, gay Jewish man, multiple ethnicities in a relatively small city), but I never really felt that the characters were that different.

I had not read The Martian, so I didn't have a sense beforehand of what Andy Weir's writing was like.

Mike wrote: "Readerboard name: MIKE DENNIS

Dlmrose wrote: "I listened to it on audio and I thought that Rosario Dawson did such a good job that those comments didn't bother me at all. She did have a swagger, b..."

Yes! Do we really think NASA (and more to the point, Americans) would just be okay with a non-American station cropping up around the Apollo site? I mean, we already act like we invented everything--I just don't see us being magnanimous about a site that we've already "claimed."

Readerboard name: witchygal

I'm not usually a big science fiction lover but the story sounded interesting so thought that I would give this a go. I did enjoy the story and found it easy to read. To be completely honest, I think I skimmed some of the technical description of welding and the harder science replacing it in my head with "she welded....".

I enjoyed getting information about the construction and political background of Artemis and was really glad that it was a Kenyan outpost rather than American. I had just assumed it was going to be good ol' US of A that got there first and it was really nice to hear the scientific background as to why Kenya was in a good position to colonise.

I agree with a lot of other people on this thread, I didn't see Jazz as a 27 year old woman. I think she was written a lot more like an 18 year old boy and at the very least thought she was a young girl. Some of Jazz's speech was a bit unbelievable - women don't really talk like that.

But overall, it was an enjoyable, quick, easy read and I actually did recommend it to my hubby (who is a hard core science fiction nerd).

Brooke TX

This one was so-so for me, which was disappointing. I enjoyed The Martian, especially because provided an accessible entry point into hard sci-fi for non-SF readers. This book tried to do the same, but the characterization was thin, and even though it's an extremely fast-paced plot, it was hard to get invested in the story because the stakes weren't made clear until nearly 2/3 of the way in.

I gave this book 2 stars, and really had to force myself through it. I normally enjoy sci-fi, so this was disappointing. I enjoyed the speculation about what a moon colony would be like, and the political implications with different countries on Earth. The protagonist was so annoying and unbelievable as an adult woman, though, that the reading experience was just irritating. I listened to the audio book, and I agree that Rosario Dawson did the best she could with the material she was given. However, all the (adult!) characters in this book just came off as so juvenile that I felt exasperated. Jazz's father seemed to be the only exception to this, but even he did not take much convincing to join Jazz on her ultimate "caper".

I did notice a few things that felt out of place. Jazz (a Saudi-Artemisian) often used American pop-culture references that seemed strange. (I specifically remember an "I Love Lucy" reference.) Also, when they are having their big meeting at the bar and her friend brings in the screen, Jazz narrates something about technology being unreliable. But... didn't we just spend this whole book learning about how technology was enabling human beings to live on the moon??? I get that this was maybe a joke aimed at modern readers, but it seemed a bit out of place for this story.

By the end, I just didn't care. I didn't care about Jazz or her dumb decisions or the sexual overtones of all her relationships. I didn't care about how everyone recognized how brilliantly smart Jazz was and how she was wasting her potential. I'm just glad I'm done with this book.

ETA: What was the deal with the condom thing? Just stupid and irrelevant... Also, I cringed when she mused about what a great disguise she had as an Arab woman dressed in traditional clothing to basically commit terrorist acts... "Gizmos" and "slugs" is not the most creative naming of technology. This book was just awful. On second thought, I am downgrading to 1 star.

Just finished The Martian. It was a slow start for me, but got more exciting toward the end.

What I liked about this book was the world-building. The combination of imagination and science impresses me. I also like the diversity of the characters.

I liked The Martian more than this book, but I liked seeing Weir starting to branch out and having to build in other characters into his stories (after the Martian being mostly a one-man show). Was the character development great? No. But it's fun to watch Weir develop as a writer. If he writes another book, I will read it.

Speaking of another book, did anyone else feel like the ending was a set up for a sequel?

I had been looking forward to this book for months due to my LOVE of The Martian!

I, like many of you, listened to the audiobook and loved Rosario Dawson as Jazz! I thought she brought that something extra to what could've been an average read. I thought she hit the humor and the tone just right. I agree that Jazz made some horrible decisions but luckily she never got to be so annoying that it made me lose my interest in the story.

The writing was fine (not as horrible as some people make it sound because there are a LOT worse out there!), and I could've done without all that technical jargon (I just get lost). But I thought this was a fun read and thought Weir did a good job in creating this unique world and kept me engaged with a fast-paced plot.