Andy Weir

Both The Martian and Project Hail Mary were 5-star reads for me. Loved them. I was ecstatic to have picked up a signed copy of Artemis in a used book store in Houston since I’d definitely love it too right? Wrong. I now know why “John and the JSC History Office” (as in Johnson Space Center…) did not hold onto this personalized gift.

First, it reads like a YA novel. Which would be fine IF it were actually an YA novel. But Jazz is a 26-year-old child who occasionally solves complex show more problems. Usually problems she created.

Second, the science explanations didn’t flow inside the story like his other books. Previously we learned the science from the characters working the problems based on knowledge they could feasibly have or acquire. But this felt like there was a narrator filling in Jazz’s blanks. Even tho this is told in first-person. So jarring.

Finally, I don’t know how else to categorize all the ick other than to list it. So here we go:
- “Reusable condom” side-side plot
- Pedophile side-side character
- Incestuous couple mentioned for no reason
- Giving his first non-male character all the dick/boob/sex jokes that didn’t make the cut in the first two books (I’m assuming)
- All of the above being entirely unnecessary and contributing 0% to plot or character development

To all the women Andy thanked in the acknowledgements for helping him with a female POV……… I’m so sorry. Clearly he didn’t listen.

I’m holding on to my physical copy for the JSC joke alone. But I will never ever read this trash again. show less

Oh boy was this a good read. I really liked The Martian when it came out, and I always thought of it as a speculative future history, different than scifi proper. This on the other hand is proper scifi. I won't spoil too much other than what's on the cover. Ryland wakes up from a coma, not sure who he is or where he is. He realizes that he's on a spaceship a LONG way from home and his crewmates are dead. The world is counting on his ability to solve the crisis at home. Sure he went to the show more "lone man against the elements" trope again, but I think it worked just as well, if not better this time. As the story unfolds, we go back in time to see what prompted the project and how he got there, as he is unlocking those memories himself. It had some neat twists and turns that I wasn't expecting, all of it seated in very plausible science. Maybe a little bit more on the fantastical side than the Martian was, but I know I want more. Glad he redeemed himself from his sophomore slump show less

This has been a seriously fun book to read. If you are, in any way, a nerd, engineer, geek, space nut, adventure nerd, survivalist, or any other sort of human you should read this. Non-humans might also like it—I can't speak for them.

You know that scene in Apollo 13 where they throw the box of assorted supplies on the table and tell the engineers that they have 6 hours to solve the problem? This entire book is a series of those problem-solving/life-saving adventures. It's really good.

And show more it helps that the protagonist shares the same cynical sarcastic sense of humor that I have. There's also that. So if you like me and my sense of humor—and who doesn't?—then you'll feel right at home.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. show less

When what was originally meant to be a month-long Mars mission is aborted on day six due to a nasty dust storm, astronaut Mark Watney is injured, and his shipmates, believing him to be dead, reluctantly leave him behind and get out while they can. Turns out he's still very much alive, but staying that way is going to be a heck of a challenge, especially considering that he now has no way to contact Earth.

25 pages in, as Watney was telling us all the details of his plan to make water from show more hydrazine fuel and doing endless calculations about how much of everything he'd need and how long it would last him, I started feeling confused. "Wait, how is this book so popular?," I thought. "Why do even people who don't generally read SF seem to be into this? I'm a giant science nerd, and even I'm only mildly interested in all of this!" But then, as the novel went on, a funny thing happened. Even though it continued being more of the same -- lots of Martian MacGyvering, lots of arithmetic -- the story got really gripping.

It seems like it shouldn't have been, really. It should have felt like yet another so-so, tediously technical Tale of Hard SF Space Competence. Seriously, the writing's nothing special, the dialog (in the sections that have dialog, anyway) is stilted, and there's very little human drama at all, no powerful emotional sense of what it would be like to be stranded alone on an alien world. Watney's not a guy we learn much of anything about, beyond the fact that he's a) amazingly resourceful, and b) a total smartass, and his troubles are all physical, not psychological. He ought to seem like an impossible-to-care-about cardboard cutout of a space hero, like a million hard SF characters before him. (And I use the word the word "characters" loosely.) And yet... I wasn't just interested in the science-y problem-solving here, although that was pretty cool if you're into science-y problem solving. I actually cared about this guy, and I felt genuine suspense every time he faced an even-more-dangerous-than-usual situation.

I'm not entirely sure how Weir pulls that off, but it involves a good sense of humor and a surprising ability to summarize a lot of technical details in an accessible way. I'm still a little surprised that this has become something of a genre-transcending hit but, hey, maybe I shouldn't be. After all, Apollo 13 was a highly successful movie, and I think this novel is all about capturing that exact "failure is not an option"/"figuring out how to put the square peg in the round hole" spirit. show less