“On a scale from one to ‘invade Russia in winter,’ how stupid is this plan?”
Houston…. It’s very stupid.
So I might be a little mean, but I’m going to use the quotes from the book to help me make my point.
Point 1: This book is drier than moon dust.
If you want to know how a scientist writes a book, look no further.
But come on…. Weir literally fell into the trap. Just because someone is an engineer does not mean they lack the imagination to pull off some colorful whimsy of showing not telling. Being good at math does not mean you can’t use your eyes to describe what the world looks like instead of shoving Artemis’s theoretical existence down reader’s throats. It’s grey, it’s hard living on the lunar surface, but what makes your story so different?
“A clumsy, awkward success is still a success.”
Not really Wier. Not really.
I need to include before I go further that I have not read The Martian. I really wish I had before jumping into this one. I feel then my point would have been better made. But…. I have seen the movie so I’m going to use that and some research that I did before writing this review.
In The Martian, a gentleman is left on Mars. So, to survive and not go crazy, this gentleman had some interesting internal conversations with himself. Cool. It works with the storyline. Something that a guy stranded alone would probably end up doing. The internal dialogue of a girl on a lunar space city…. doesn’t entirely work that well.
Essentially, Weir took the character from The Martian, placed him on the moon, and shoved him into a girls body. Yup, you heard me right….
Point 2: Guys cannot successfully write a female perspective.
“The city shined in the sunlight like a bunch of metallic boobs. What? I'm not a poet. They look like boobs.”
Case in point. Yes, this is Jazz everyone. A pre-teen boy. Oh, excuse me…. I mean a 26-year-old female living on the moon.
I appreciate that guys want to try a new perspective. Female writers do it to them all the time. But for some reason, when most guys attempt a female protagonist, they miss crucial wavelengths that allow their character to come across as female. I think it’s also very funny that Weir credits a bunch of female friends - this even includes his girlfriend - in helping him to achieve his success in capturing Jazz.
*Face. Palm. Groan.*
Weir, girls don’t obsess over sex like you’ve protrayed in the book.
On top of this very poorly executed decision, Weir also decided to be cool and make his protagonist not only female but also of Saudi Arabian descent. Salt on the wound. I get that we need more diverse characters in this world, something that more readers can connect to, but Weir, as a white male of the upper class, might not be the best one to deliver this. I’m going to take us back to the first thing I learned in writing class…. write what you know. And I’m pretty sure Weir doesn’t know either one of these things.
So Weir’s an author now. He’s made it big. The Martian took him far. He’s quit his job and can write full time. Sorry to say but I think it might have been a one trick pony.
Artemis is the story of one brave smuggler given the opportunity of a lifetime because all she wants more than anything in the world is to have her own private shower. So, in the middle of her grand payout, something goes terribly wrong, and what was just a job turns into a life-saving endeavor.
The story was very interesting. I like where he went with things, even if at times I struggled to follow him down the rabbit hole. Not everything he presented makes sense. Example… his need to put on repeat that the city could never leak oxygen. One and done man. That’s all we needed. At times, Jazz just seemed very unbelievable in her abilities. We get it, she’s smart, but if she’s smart enough to spend a few hours browsing electrical engineering schematics and become a master at it…. Ok, maybe you see what I’m trying to say. It just takes a lot of going along for the ride to fully get into the story.
I was originally going to give this 1 star. Seriously, that is how much I hated this book. The ending though boosted it up half a star. I was pleasantly surprised and did find myself turning the page pretty quickly. So if you can make it that far you will definitely be in for a nice surprise. Good luck though, I think you might need all your strength to stick it out. The only reason I did was because this was for book club.
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 45/100