Artemis A novel

Review by New York Times Review

ARTEMIS By Andy Weir. Read by Rosario Dawson. (Audible Studios.) Dawson's nuanced voice takes us to the moon in the second novel by the author of "The Martian." UNCOMMON TYPE By Tom Hanks. Read by the author. (Penguin Random House Audio.) The Oscar-winning actor brings to life his debut collection of 17 loosely linked short stories. THE PURLOINING OF PRINCE OLEOMARGARINE By Mark Twain, with Philip Stead and Erin Stead. Read by Keegan-Michael Key, Philip Stead et al. (Listening Library.) The comedian and producer (and one half of the dynamic Key and Peele) narrates a previously unfinished and unpublished manuscript by Mark Twain, newly completed by the husband-and-wife children's book team behind the Caldecott Medal-winning "A Sick Day for Amos McGee." THE BOOK OF DUST By Philip Pullman. Read by Michael Sheen. (Listening Library.) The Welsh actor transports us into the fantastical parallel universe of Pullman's latest Y.A. trilogy, in which everyone has an inner daemon. PROMISE ME, DAD By Joe Biden. Read by the author. (Audible Studios.) The former vice president delivers his candid, heartfelt and inspiring memoir of losing his son Beau to cancer while facing political challenges foreign and domestic. & Noteworthy "O.K., I'm a nerd. I loved THE ODYSSEY from my first encounter in ninth-grade English class (the Robert Fitzgerald translation). The great questions of survival, cunning, treachery, exploitation and parental and marital love have never failed to transfix me, in whatever translation (Richmond Lattimore, Robert Fagles). But Emily Wilson's, the first into English by a woman, is a revelation. Never have I been so aware at once of the beauty of the poetry, the physicality of Homer's world and the moral ambiguity of those who inhabit it. Don't miss reading her enlightening translator's note, which explains how seriously she took up the challenge posed a few lines into the first book: 'tell the old story for our modern times./Find the beginning.' She wrestled with contemporary questions of feminism and colonialism without imposing them on the values of Homeric Greece. Her decisions to discard flowery conventions, and to limit herself to the number of the lines in the original poem, produce a version both fleet and vivid. Read for all this, but mostly to savor lines like these: 'he plunged into the sea and swooped between/the waves, just like a seagull catching fish,/wetting its whirring wings in tireless brine.'" -SUSAN CHIRA, SENIOR EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT FOR GENDER, ON WHAT SHE'S READING.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 16, 2018]

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Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Jazz Bashara grew up in Artemis, the only city on the moon. She's a young, misanthropic, underachieving genius who side-hustles as a smuggler. One day, she takes on a job that proves too dangerous and finds herself wrapped up in murder and an interplanetary struggle for control over a new technology worth billions. This exciting, whip-smart, funny thrill-ride boasts a wonderful cast of characters, a wide cultural milieu, and the appeal of a striking young woman as the main character. It's one of the best science fiction novels of the year but to make it clear, Artemis is not The Martian (2011) redux. Tone, characters, structure are all very different. It's more traditional sf and lacks the cheery novelty that characterized Weir's famous first novel. The setting is just as detailed and scientifically realistic, but science isn't the focus this time. Weir's sarcastic humor is on full display, but Jazz delivers it with an anger that Watney (The Martian's protagonist) never had. The Martian appealed to a broad audience beyond regular sf fans, and Weir's second novel will be in high demand, thanks to that, though it may not be to everyone's taste.--Keogh, John Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Jazz Bashara, the heroine of this superior near-future thriller from bestseller Weir (The Martian), grew up in Artemis, the moon's only city, where she dreams of becoming rich. For now, she works as a porter, supplementing her legal income by smuggling contraband. She hopes that her situation can improve drastically after she's offered an impossible-to-refuse payday by wealthy entrepreneur Trond Landvik, who has used her in the past to get cigars from Earth. Trond asks Jazz to come up with a way to sabotage a competitor so that he can take over the moon's aluminum industry. She develops an elaborate and clever plan that showcases her resourcefulness and intelligence, even as she continues to have misgivings about her client's true agenda, suspicions borne out by subsequent complications. The sophisticated worldbuilding incorporates politics and economics, as well as scientifically plausible ways for a small city to function on the lunar surface. The independent, wisecracking lead could easily sustain a series. Weir leavens the hard SF with a healthy dose of humor. Agent: David Fugate, LaunchBooks Literary Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

In 2014, Weir astounded readers with his brilliant and best-selling debut novel, The Martian, which was turned into a blockbuster movie. Now sf fans everywhere can once again rejoice because he's done it again. This time the action takes place a little closer to home-on the moon. Jazz Bashara lives and works in Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, as a full-time porter and part-time smuggler of Earth luxuries. But Jazz has dreams of moving up and out of her tiny sleeping space in Conrad Down 15, which she describes as "shitty with overtones of failure and poor life decisions." A financial opportunity knocks when high-level businessman Trond hires her to sabotage Sanchez Aluminum's harvesters. But there's a catch-Sanchez Aluminum is owned by O Palacio, Brazil's most powerfully organized crime syndicate. Of course, Jazz takes the job, which leads to much mayhem, high jinks, the overthrow of the beloved (and morally dubious) Artemis administrator, and the potential death of everyone on the moon. VERDICT Narrated by a kick-ass leading lady, this thriller has it all-a smart plot, laugh-out-loud funny moments, and really cool science. A four-star read. [See Prepub Alert, 6/12/17; "Editors' Fall Picks," 9/1/17.]-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage P.L., AK © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Weir (The Martian, 2014) returns with another off-world tale, this time set on a lunar colony several decades in the future.Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is a 20-something deliveryperson, or "porter," whose welder father brought her up on Artemis, a small multidomed city on Earth's moon. She has dreams of becoming a member of the Extravehicular Activity Guild so she'll be able to get better work, such as leading tours on the moon's surface, and pay off a substantial personal debt. For now, though, she has a thriving side business procuring low-end black-market items to people in the colony. One of her best customers is Trond Landvik, a wealthy businessman who, one day, offers her a lucrative deal to sabotage some of Sanchez Aluminum's automated lunar-mining equipment. Jazz agrees and comes up with a complicated scheme that involves an extended outing on the lunar surface. Things don't go as planned, though, and afterward, she finds Landvik murdered. Soon, Jazz is in the middle of a conspiracy involving a Brazilian crime syndicate and revolutionary technology. Only by teaming up with friends and family, including electronics scientist Martin Svoboda, EVA expert Dale Shapiro, and her father, will she be able to finish the job she started. Readers expecting The Martian's smart math-and-science problem-solving will only find a smattering here, as when Jazz figures out how to ignite an acetylene torch during a moonwalk. Strip away the sci-fi trappings, though, and this is a by-the-numbers caper novel with predictable beats and little suspense. The worldbuilding is mostly bland and unimaginative (Artemis apartments are cramped; everyone uses smartphonelike "Gizmos"), although intriguing elementssuch as the fact that space travel is controlled by Kenya instead of the United States or Russiado show up occasionally. In the acknowledgements, Weir thanks six women, including his publisher and U.K. editor, "for helping me tackle the challenge of writing a female narrator"as if women were an alien species. Even so, Jazz is given such forced lines as "I giggled like a little girl. Hey, I'm a girl, so I'm allowed." One small step, no giant leaps. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter 1 I bounded over the gray, dusty terrain toward the huge dome of Conrad Bubble. Its airlock, ringed with red lights, stood distressingly far away. It's hard to run with a hundred kilograms of gear on--even in lunar gravity. But you'd be amazed how fast you can hustle when your life is on the line. Bob ran beside me. His voice came over the radio: "Let me connect my tanks to your suit!" "That'll just get you killed too." "The leak's huge," he huffed. "I can see the gas escaping your tanks." "Thanks for the pep talk." "I'm the EVA master here," Bob said. "Stop right now and let me cross-connect!" "Negative." I kept running. "There was a pop right before the leak alarm. Metal fatigue. Got to be the valve assembly. If you cross-connect you'll puncture your line on a jagged edge."  "I'm willing to take that risk!" "I'm not willing to let you," I said. "Trust me on this, Bob. I know metal." I switched to long, even hops. It felt like slow motion, but it was the best way to move with all that weight. My helmet's heads-up display said the airlock was fifty-two meters away. I glanced at my arm readouts. My oxygen reserve plummeted while I watched. So I stopped watching.  The long strides paid off. I was really hauling ass now. I even left Bob behind, and he's the most skilled EVA master on the moon. That's the trick: Add more forward momentum every time you touch the ground. But that also means each hop is a tricky affair. If you screw up, you'll face-plant and slide along the ground. EVA suits are tough, but it's best not to grind them against regolith.  "You're going too fast! If you trip you could crack your faceplate!" "Better than sucking vacuum," I said. "I've got maybe ten seconds." "I'm way behind you," he said. "Don't wait for me." I only realized how fast I was going when the triangular plates of Conrad filled my view. They were growing very quickly. "Shit!" No time to slow down. I made one final leap and added a forward roll. I timed it just right--more out of luck than skill--and hit the wall with my feet. Okay, Bob was right. I'd been going way too fast.  I hit the ground, scrambled to my feet, and clawed at the hatch crank.  My ears popped. Alarms blared in my helmet. The tank was on its last legs--it couldn't counteract the leak anymore. I pushed the hatch open and fell inside. I gasped for breath and my vision blurred. I kicked the hatch closed, reached up to the emergency tank, and yanked out the pin. The top of the tank flew off and air flooded into the compartment. It came out so fast, half of it liquefied into fog particles from the cooling that comes with rapid expansion. I fell to the ground, barely conscious. I panted in my suit and suppressed the urge to puke. That was way the hell more exertion than I'm built for. An oxygen-deprivation headache took root. It'd be with me for a few hours, at least. I'd managed to get altitude sickness on the moon. The hiss died to a trickle, then finished. Bob finally made it to the hatch. I saw him peek in through the small round window. "Status?" he radioed. "Conscious," I wheezed. "Can you stand? Or should I call for an assist?" Bob couldn't come in without killing me--I was lying in the airlock with a bad suit. But any of the two thousand people inside the city could open the airlock from the other side and drag me in. "No need." I got to my hands and knees, then to my feet. I steadied myself against the control panel and initiated the cleanse. High-pressure air jets blasted me from all angles. Gray lunar dust swirled in the airlock and got pulled into filtered vents along the wall.  After the cleanse, the inner hatch door opened automatically. I stepped into the antechamber, resealed the inner hatch, and plopped down on a bench. Bob cycled through the airlock the normal way--no dramatic emergency tank (which now had to be replaced, by the way). Just the normal pumps-and-valves method. After his cleanse cycle, he joined me in the antechamber. I wordlessly helped Bob out of his helmet and gloves. You should never make someone de-suit themselves. Sure, it's doable, but it's a pain in the ass. There's a tradition to these things. He returned the favor. "Well, that sucked," I said as he lifted my helmet off. "You almost died." He stepped out of his suit. "You should have listened to my instructions." I wriggled out of my suit and looked at the back. I pointed to a jagged piece of metal that was once a valve. "Blown valve. Just like I said. Metal fatigue." He peered at the valve and nodded. "Okay. You were right to refuse cross-connection. Well done. But this still shouldn't have happened. Where the hell did you get that suit?" "I bought it used." "Why would you buy a used suit?" "Because I couldn't afford a new one. I barely had enough money for a used one and you assholes won't let me join the guild until I own a suit."  "You should have saved up for a new one." Bob Lewis is a former US Marine with a no-bullshit attitude. More important, he's the EVA Guild's head trainer. He answers to the guild master, but Bob and Bob alone determines your suitability to become a member. And if you aren't a member, you aren't allowed to do solo EVAs or lead groups of tourists on the surface. That's how guilds work. Dicks. "So? How'd I do?" He snorted. "Are you kidding me? You failed the exam, Jazz. You super-duper failed." "Why?!" I demanded. "I did all the required maneuvers, accomplished all the tasks, and finished the obstacle course in under seven minutes. And, when a near-fatal problem occurred, I kept from endangering my partner and got safely back to town." He opened a locker and stacked his gloves and helmet inside. "Your suit is your responsibility. It failed. That means you failed." "How can you blame me for that leak?! Everything was fine when we headed out!" "This is a results-oriented profession. The moon's a mean old bitch. She doesn't care why your suit fails. She just kills you when it does. You should have inspected your gear better." He hung the rest of his suit on its custom rack in the locker. "Come on, Bob!" "Jazz, you almost died out there. How can I possibly give you a pass?" He closed the locker and started to leave. "You can retake the test in six months." I blocked his path. "That's so ridiculous! Why do I have to put my life on hold because of some arbitrary guild rule?" "Pay more attention to equipment inspection." He stepped around me and out of the antechamber. "And pay full price when you get that leak fixed." I watched him go, then slumped onto the bench. "Fuck."    I plodded through the maze of aluminum corridors to my home. At least it wasn't a long walk. The whole city is only half a kilometer across. I live in Artemis, the first (and so far, only) city on the moon. It's made of five huge spheres called "bubbles." They're half underground, so Artemis looks exactly like old sci-fi books said a moon city should look: a bunch of domes. You just can't see the parts that are belowground. Armstrong Bubble sits in the middle, surrounded by Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, and Shepard. The bubbles each connect to their neighbors via tunnels. I remember making a model of Artemis as an assignment in elementary school. Pretty simple: just some balls and sticks. It took ten minutes. It's pricey to get here and expensive as hell to live here. But a city can't just be rich tourists and eccentric billionaires. It needs working-class people too. You don't expect J. Worthalot Richbastard III to clean his own toilet, do you? I'm one of the little people. I live in Conrad Down 15, a grungy area fifteen floors underground in Conrad Bubble. If my neighborhood were wine, connoisseurs would describe it as "shitty, with overtones of failure and poor life decisions." I walked down the row of closely spaced square doors until I got to my own. Mine was a "lower" bunk, at least. Easier to get into and out of. I waved my Gizmo across the lock and the door clicked open. I crawled in and closed it behind me. I lay in the bunk and stared at the ceiling--which was less than a meter from my face. Technically, it's a "capsule domicile" but everyone calls them coffins. It's just an enclosed bunk with a door I can lock. There's only one use for a coffin: sleep. Well, okay, there's another use (which also involves being horizontal), but you get my point. I have a bed and a shelf. That's it. There's a communal bathroom down the hall and public showers a few blocks away. My coffin isn't going to be featured in Better Homes and Moonscapes anytime soon, but it's all I can afford. I checked my Gizmo for the time. "Craaaap." No time to brood. The KSC freighter was landing that afternoon and I'd have work to do. To be clear: The sun doesn't define "afternoon" for us. We only get a "noon" every twenty-eight Earth days and we can't see it anyway. Each bubble has two six-centimeter-thick hulls with a meter of crushed rock between them. You could shoot a howitzer at the city and it still wouldn't leak. Sunlight definitely can't get in. So what do we use for time of day? Kenya Time. It was afternoon in Nairobi, so it was afternoon in Artemis. I was sweaty and gross from my near-death EVA. There was no time to shower, but I could change, at least. I lay flat, stripped off my EVA coolant-wear, and pulled on my blue jumpsuit. I fastened the belt then sat up, cross-legged, and put my hair in a ponytail. Then I grabbed my Gizmo and headed out. We don't have streets in Artemis. We have hallways. It costs a lot of money to make real estate on the moon and they sure as hell aren't going to waste it on roads. You can have an electric cart or scooter if you want, but the hallways are designed for foot traffic. It's only one-sixth Earth's gravity. Walking doesn't take much energy. The shittier the neighborhood, the narrower the halls. Conrad Down's halls are positively claustrophobic. They're just wide enough for two people to pass each other by turning sideways. I wound through the corridors toward the center of Down 15. None of the elevators were nearby, so I bounded up the stairs three at a time. Stairwells in the core are just like stairwells on Earth--short little twenty-one-centimeter-high steps. It makes the tourists more comfortable. In areas that don't get tourists, stairs are each a half meter high. That's lunar gravity for you. Anyway, I hopped up the tourist stairs until I reached ground level. Walking up fifteen floors of stairwell probably sounds horrible, but it's not that big a deal here. I wasn't even winded. Ground level is where all the tunnels connecting to other bubbles come in. Naturally, all the shops, boutiques, and other tourist traps want to be there to take advantage of the foot traffic. In Conrad, that mostly meant restaurants selling Gunk to tourists who can't afford real food.  A small crowd funneled into the Aldrin Connector. It's the only way to get from Conrad to Aldrin (other than going the long way around through Armstrong), so it's a major thoroughfare. I passed by the huge circular plug door on my way in. If the tunnel breached, the escaping air from Conrad would force that door closed. Everyone in Conrad would be saved. If you were in the tunnel at the time . . . well, it sucks to be you. "Well, if it isn't Jazz Bashara!" said a nearby asshole. He acted like we were friends. We weren't friends.  "Dale," I said. I kept walking. He hurried to catch up. "Must be a cargo ship coming in. Nothing else gets your lazy ass in uniform." "Hey, remember that time I gave a shit about what you have to say? Oh wait, my mistake. That never happened." "I hear you failed the EVA exam today." He tsked in mock disappointment. "Tough break. I passed on my first try, but we can't all be me, can we?" "Fuck off." "Yeah, I got to tell you, tourists pay good money to go outside. Hell, I'm headed to the Visitor Center right now to give some tours. I'll be raking it in." "Make sure to hop on the really sharp rocks while you're out there." "Nah," he said. "People who passed the exam know better than to do that." "It was just a lark," I said nonchalantly. "It's not like EVA work is a real job." "Yeah, you're right. Someday I hope to be a delivery girl like you." "Porter," I grumbled. "The term is 'porter.' " He smirked in a very punchable way. Thankfully we'd made it to Aldrin Bubble. I shouldered past him and out of the connector. Aldrin's plug door stood vigil, just as Conrad's did. I hurried ahead and took a sharp right just to get out of Dale's line of sight. Aldrin is the opposite of Conrad in every respect. Conrad's full of plumbers, glass blowers, metalworkers, welding shops, repair shops . . . the list goes on. But Aldrin is truly a resort. It has hotels, casinos, whorehouses, theaters, and even an honest-to-God park with real grass. Wealthy tourists from all over Earth come for two-week stays.  I passed through the Arcade. It wasn't the fastest route to where I was going, but I liked the view. New York has Fifth Avenue, London has Bond Street, and Artemis has the Arcade. The stores don't bother to list prices. If you have to ask, you can't afford it. The Ritz-Carlton Artemis occupies an entire block and extends five floors up and another five down. A single night there costs 12,000 slugs--more than I make in a month as a porter (though I have other sources of income). Despite the costs of a lunar vacation, demand always exceeds supply. Middle-class Earthers can afford it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience with suitable financing. They stay at crappier hotels in crappier bubbles like Conrad. But wealthy folks make annual trips and stay in nice hotels. And my, oh my, do they shop. More than anywhere else, Aldrin is where money enters Artemis. There was nothing in the shopping district I could afford. But someday, I'd have enough to belong there. That was my plan, anyway. I took one more long look, then turned away and headed to the Port of Entry. Excerpted from Artemis by Andy Weir All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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