“Very few people get a chance to quantify how much their father loves them. But I did.”
Fast forward a few decades and picture a city built on the moon where people have lived most of their lives. Artemis is a tourist attraction, but in order to keep the tourist attraction running, there have to be people who work there. Jazz has lived on the moon since moving there with her father when she was 6 years old. Her father is a welder, but Jazz has chosen to find her own way after squandering her potential, as everyone tells her. She can barely afford a room that is slightly larger than a coffin and works as a runner delivering packages. She needs more money and is offered a deal that she finds hard to turn down.
I really enjoyed reading and watching The Martian by Andy Weir, so when I found out he had a new book coming out, I put Artemis on my to-read list and requested it from the library. It took a few months before it was my turn to read it, but it was worth the wait. Weir can take an interesting plot and set it in places we don’t often find books – Mars and the moon.
Jazz must commit the perfect crime and then she will have enough money to finally do what she wants in life. Her plans go awry and she must enlist others to help her save the city from becoming run by a criminal gang. The cast of characters includes her father and people she has tried to not associate with, including her boyfriend’s new boyfriend and an eccentric acquaintance. It makes for an interesting scenario where the odds are completely stacked against them.
I would recommend Artemis to anyone who enjoyed The Martian or who like books and movies that are light on the sci-fi when telling the story. There are plenty of facts in the book about how life in a city on the moon would work, but it is intertwined with the story. The characters are a bit rough around the edges, so it’s not a G-rated book, but there’s nothing really graphic in it either. I would guess it might make it onto the big screen, too.
Do you enjoy sci-fi books? Which one is your favorite? Comment below!
