Editors Reads Verdict
Weir's weakest novel but not without charm: the lunar economics and engineering are as rigorously thought-through as The Martian's Mars science, and Jazz is a more quippy protagonist than Watney. The thriller plot is less convincing than the world-building.
What We Loved
- The lunar city economics — how a moon colony would actually sustain itself — are rigorously imagined
- Artemis as a setting is one of the more fully realized near-future habitats in recent science fiction
- Jazz's Saudi-Kenyan background gives the novel demographic range unusual in hard SF
- The heist mechanics are entertaining even when the thriller plot around them strains credibility
Minor Drawbacks
- Jazz's voice reads as Watney-lite — the quippiness feels borrowed rather than organic
- The thriller conspiracy is considerably less convincing than the world-building surrounding it
- Supporting characters are thinner than The Martian's ensemble
- The plot's resolution relies on coincidences that the novel's rigorous science mode doesn't support
Key Takeaways
- → A functional lunar colony would require entirely new economic models built around mass and transport cost
- → Near-future hard science fiction is most convincing when it derives human social problems from physical constraints
- → The heist genre works best when the obstacles are specific and the solutions are clever rather than lucky
- → A protagonist's voice carries a novel only if the voice serves character rather than just entertainment
- → World-building and plotting are separate skills — excellence in one does not guarantee excellence in the other
| Author | Andy Weir |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Crown |
| Pages | 305 |
| Published | November 14, 2017 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science Fiction, Thriller, Adventure |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Hard science fiction readers who enjoyed The Martian and want more of Weir's engineering-grounded world-building; readers who can accept a weaker thriller plot in exchange for exceptional speculative infrastructure. |
Artemis Review
Andy Weir’s second novel arrives with the weight of extraordinary expectations set by The Martian, and it meets approximately half of them. The half it meets — the world-building — is genuinely excellent. The half it doesn’t — the thriller plot — is the part the novel most wants you to care about.
Artemis is humanity’s first city on the Moon, built inside a series of domes near the lunar equator, sustained by a tourist economy and the specific economic logic that Weir derives with characteristic rigor. Everything in Artemis is expensive because everything had to be launched from Earth. The social stratification follows directly from that cost structure. Jazz Bashara, the novel’s protagonist, is a porter who supplements her income with small-scale smuggling — importing contraband for clients who can afford the convenience and the discretion.
Jazz and the Watney Problem
Jazz is a deliberate departure from Mark Watney: she’s a young Saudi-Kenyan woman rather than a middle-aged white male astronaut, and she has made a series of demonstrably bad decisions throughout her adult life. The problem is that her narrative voice is so clearly modeled on Watney’s — quippy, self-aware, engineering-smart — that the departure feels less like a new character than a reskin. Jazz is most interesting when Weir lets her make genuinely bad choices; she’s least interesting when she sounds like Watney in a different body.
The Lunar Engineering
Where the novel earns its keep is in the infrastructure. Weir has thought through how a moon colony would actually work — the chemistry, the economics, the architecture, the sociology — and those elements are as rigorously imagined as anything in The Martian. Artemis as a place is more convincing than the plot that takes place inside it.
An Honest Assessment
Artemis is a good book that would be unremarkable from anyone else and is slightly disappointing from Weir. The world-building alone is worth the read for hard SF fans.
Our rating: 3.8/5 — Exceptional lunar world-building paired with a thriller plot that cannot carry the weight placed on it. Essential for Weir completists; optional for everyone else.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Artemis" about?
Jazz Bashara is a porter and small-time smuggler in Artemis — humanity's first and only city on the Moon. When she's offered an opportunity to pull off a corporate heist that could solve her financial problems permanently, she discovers the job connects to a conspiracy that threatens the entire lunar colony.
Who should read "Artemis"?
Hard science fiction readers who enjoyed The Martian and want more of Weir's engineering-grounded world-building; readers who can accept a weaker thriller plot in exchange for exceptional speculative infrastructure.
What are the key takeaways from "Artemis"?
A functional lunar colony would require entirely new economic models built around mass and transport cost Near-future hard science fiction is most convincing when it derives human social problems from physical constraints The heist genre works best when the obstacles are specific and the solutions are clever rather than lucky A protagonist's voice carries a novel only if the voice serves character rather than just entertainment World-building and plotting are separate skills — excellence in one does not guarantee excellence in the other
Is "Artemis" worth reading?
Weir's weakest novel but not without charm: the lunar economics and engineering are as rigorously thought-through as The Martian's Mars science, and Jazz is a more quippy protagonist than Watney. The thriller plot is less convincing than the world-building.
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