One of my favorite novels of the past decade is “The Martian” by Andy Weir.
I don’t typically read a lot of science fiction (even though it seems like a genre I would read a lot), but I loved “The Martian.” I also enjoyed Ridley Scott’s movie adaptation starring Matt Damon.
The reason that novel is so compelling is the protagonist Mark Watney — brought to life with Weir’s relatable first-person narrative.
Last December I purchased Weir’s latest novel “Artemis.” The story itself isn’t a follow-up to “The Martian” (not a novel that lends itself to a sequel).
“Artemis” is told through the eyes of Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara — a 26-year-old porter and smuggler on the moon colony Artemis. Her favorite food is ginger ice cream, but Jazz (like many of the permanent inhabitants) primarily eats "gunk" — an algae-based food substance.
Despite the odd cuisine, Artemis is a city that revolves around tourism — featuring high-end hotels, tourist attractions, and gourmet food emporiums.
In Weir’s novel, tourism on the moon is spurred by affordable low-orbit flights (“Paging Elon Musk...”). I learned that little factoid in this terrific talk Weir gave at Google last November:
Readers of “The Martian” will appreciate Weir’s penchant for infusing science into the story. Readers learn that females can’t gestate a baby in lunar gravity because it “leads to birth defects” (and raising a baby on the moon is terrible for bone and muscle development).
The main narrative of the story focuses on Jazz’s life. She lives modestly as a porter on Artemis (supplementing her income smuggling outlawed items from earth). Her home is a scant hovel without a bathroom — an occupant can’t even stand up.
She dreams of simple things, like comfortable beds and private commodes.
Jazz imports contraband for a myriad of inhabitants, including a wealthy businessman named Trond Landvik.
Landvik makes Jazz an offer she can’t refuse — a huge sum of money to commit an act of sabotage so he can take control of services provided by a company called Sanchez Aluminum (the process of extracting aluminum from “moon rocks” has the ancillary effect of creating the city’s entire oxygen supply).
She accepts, but things soon go haywire. To make matters worse, Jazz finds herself the prime suspect in a murder.
“Artemis” isn’t as captivating as “The Martian,” but it is still a fairly intriguing novel.
Weir’s envisioned moon society tends toward “libertarianism” when it comes to certain rules and regulations (a trait my sister-in-law tells me is reminiscent of Robert Heinlein’s writing). That fact creates some interesting dynamics for Jazz to have to deal with in “Artemis.”
Some of the decisions Jazz makes (especially in the early parts of the novel) left me scratching my head, but the character readily admits she makes “poor choices.”
Like “The Martian,” science is employed to great effect in the final act. Things don’t always go according to plan. As Jazz muses during one of her capers, “a clumsy, awkward success is still a success.”
“Artemis” is being developed into a movie by 20th Century Fox. The film will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — the duo dismissed from “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
I’m curious to see what a movie version of “Artemis” will look like.
One of the reasons I was first drawn to Weir’s writing is because the author distributed “The Martian” in serialized form on his personal website — giving away chapters for free.
He eventually put the book in Kindle format (sold it for 99 cents) — attracting the attention of New York City publishing houses as it rose up the charts.
Weir’s path to publishing success is a neat one, and gives hope to aspiring writers.
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