Book notes: Artemis by Andy Weir

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Artemis by Andy Weir

Synopsis:

“The best-selling author of The Martian returns with an irresistible new near-future thriller – a heist story set on the moon.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you’ve got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she’s stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself – and that now her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.” -Audible

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Opening thoughts:

I recently finished a book by this author and I loved it. This book came up on my recommended reads and I’m pretty excited to pick it up. Hopefully, my expectations aren’t too high but it seems like the reviews are good for the book.

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Key notes:

Chapter 1 

• She failed the test because there was a malfunction in her EVA suit and had to retake the test in six months
• She lives on Artemis, the only city on the moon with several domed buildings
• She snuggled in contraband regularly for this rich guy named Trond. She also met his business associate, a man named Jin Chu

Chapter 2

• Jazz helped rescue workers from a factory after a fire accident
• The administrator of the moon and Artemis was a shrewd businesswoman from Kenya who created KSC and the empire it became
• Trond offered Jazz a job to sabotage the oxygen production of a business rival so that he could take over his aluminum business
• She took the deal when he offered her 1M slugs

Chapter 3

• She agreed to do product testing for her friend’s new invention which was a reusable condom

Chapter 4

• She paid a visit to her father to borrow some welding equipment for the job
• She pretended to be a tourist and went on an EVA tour in disguise

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

• She managed to destroy three of the harvesters but was spotted and had to make a run for it
  • Then she had to figure out how to get back without being captured

Chapter 7

• She almost made it back clean but got caught by her ex-friend Dale
  • He agreed to keep quiet if she hung out with him once a week
• Rudy seemed to figure out that it was her who did the sabotage, but eventually left her alone and didn’t turn her in

Chapter 8

• When she tried to meet up with Trond, she found that he had been murdered
  • She was now on the run and asked her friend Kelvin from Kenya to help her escape
• Jazz disguised herself as a prostitute and snuck into the Asian hotel that Trond’s business associate Jin Chu was staying at

Chapter 9

• She managed to escape the Latino hitman
• Jin Chu, Trond’s business associate who Jazz tried to contact, emailed her thanking her for saving him and asked her to meet up

Chapter 10

• She managed to subdue Jin Chu and the assassin. But then she ended up detained with both of them in Rudy’s “police station”
• The administrator convinced Rudy to let her go
  • She then met up with Dale and told him what was going on and how the Brazilian crime syndicate wanted to murder her
• Jazz questioned the administrator and got her to slip up
  • She discovered that the administrator helped the assailants track her gizmo

Chapter 11

• The administrator told her that her plans to use ZAFO to help Artemis become an export economy with the new industrial boom from the fiber optic cables
• She told Jazz that she and Trond had plans together, but Jin Chu ruined everything by double-crossing them and selling the info to the Brazilian syndicate
• She got Lene and Kelvin to help her with her plan to fight back against the aluminum company

Chapter 12

• She got all of her most trusted people in the room and explained to them the situation and her plan
• The welding job she worked on with her dad took extra long because he wanted to be extra thorough
  • She felt so loved by this

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

• The reactor explosion caused a chloroform leak
  • She had to figure out how to flush all the bad air out with a reserve supply

Chapter 16

• She and Dale had to turn a valve to save the people. But they couldn’t do it without the pipe Jazz had
  • She sacrificed herself to open the valve

Chapter 17

• Miraculously, Dale and Loretta saved her
  • She was in a vacuum for 3 minutes and barely survived
• With the 400k slug goal she had, she used the 1M payout from Lene to rebuild and replace everything she destroyed from her father’s shop when she was younger
• Jazz made the argument to the administrator that she helps to regulate and keep the smuggling underground safe for Artemis
  • Since they were expecting a population and industry boom soon, they would need her to keep the city safe
• She wouldn’t get deported but she had to pay almost all of her leftover money to Artemis
  • And also, she would be the unofficial and unpaid contraband regulatory officer, who would be responsible if anything bad came in
• She made plans with Kelvin to make money off of the incoming industry boom

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Closing thoughts:

I enjoyed this book! It was a fun read and a solid fiction/sci-fi book. It was such an interesting concept and plot, and I appreciated the twists and turns in the story.

As the main character, Jazz probably wasn’t my favorite. She had decent growth and development by the end, but I found she was a bit annoying in the middle. I didn’t quite understand why she acted so stuck up and particular about things like why she chose to live the way she did despite having so much potential and being so smart. Also, she was openly promiscuous which I felt wasn’t necessary as a character trait, especially in the context of this story. But I understand it’s just a personal preference.

Overall, I think it’s a good book if you particularly enjoy this genre. Not my favorite book from this author, but still very entertaining.

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One Takeaway / Putting into practice:

I’m not really sure I have a solid takeaway from this book. But if I had to make one up, it would be:

• Find people in your life who you can depend on and protect those relationships

I think the factor that allowed her to succeed and get out of this mess was the help of her close friends and people who supported her, including her father, Kelvin, and her other friends on Artemis.

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Nutshell:

Jazz Bashara, a criminal smuggler who lives on the moon, finds herself caught up in the middle of a conspiracy to take over the city. She then has to figure out how to get out of the mess she got herself in.

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Similar books:

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Rating:

3/5

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