Some Bits: Nelson's books
The cover of Artemis

Artemis

★★★★★Read Oct 24, 2020

Fun book! I read this right on the heels of re-reading The Martian. While Artemis doesn't quite have the magic spark that The Martian did, it's also a much better structured novel with actual characters and stuff. Turns out Weir can write more than one human being, so that's good.

Basically this turns out to be a heist movie. On the moon. With lots of attention paid to the details of the heist, even a scene of getting the crew together. With Weir's trademark attention to kinda-hard science in the narrative. Good fun!

The part that bugged me is the nature and seriousness of the heist. I mean first she tries to destroy the means of oxygen production for the whole city. Then she nearly kills the entire city. These are serious mega-crimes. The book sort of acknowledges that and lets her get away with it with some hand-waiving about how everyone's corrupt. But really I think Weir just wanted to write the caper consequence-free and it felt kinda fake.

Goodreads readers give it 3.67★, from 367,985 ratings. I gave it 3★, −0.7, where I'm usually −0.9: I rated it like most.
Readers call it Science Fiction, Space, Fantasy, Thriller, Adventure.
Won Geffen Award 2019, Goodreads Choice Award 2017, Dragon Award 2018.
Also nominated for Audie Award 2019, Prometheus Award 2018, Seiun Award 星雲賞 2019.