I am SO far behind on posting my books that I don't know if I will ever catch up, so I am starting with the most recent and working my way backwards. Just raced through this book by
Andy Weir, author of the book,
The Martian, which I did not read, although I saw and enjoyed the movie.
Artemis has already been optioned for a movie. This was really a great plot, supported by interesting characters and lots of well thought out details about living on the moon. Yasmine (Jazz for short) is a 20 something wise-ass who has rebelled against her father's upbringing and his Muslim faith. She has lived on the moon in the small town of Artemis (pop. 2,000) since she was 6 years old and calls this home, although she was born in Saudi Arabia. She has had the same pen pal (e-mail pal, actually) since she was 9 years old and, since he now works as a loader at the main port for freight deliveries to the moon and Jazz is a delivery porter on the moon, they have set up a nice little smuggling operation for contraband like cigars, lighters, alcohol, etc. Then one of her customers, a very rich resident of Artemis, offers Jazz an enormous amount of money to help him take over the local aluminum smelter, which also produces all the oxygen for Artemis. She agrees, but only partially completes the job before he is murdered. There have been less than a handful of murders in Artemis in the entirety of its existence, so the population is shocked. And Jazz is even more disturbed to find that the killer is now after her. It turns out that the aluminum smelting company is actually owned by a criminal cartel back on earth who will stop at nothing to maintain their exclusive contract. Jazz needs to finish taking down the smelting operation if she is to have any chance of survival. Then she uncovers a complicated plot to take over the city of Artemis, and she is not going to stand by while that happens. She formulates a plan and rounds up some friends, some not so friendly acquaintances, and her father to help her execute the idea. Nothing ever goes quite to plan, but Jazz is resourceful and committed and wins through in the end. Jazz is an engaging character and her supporting cast is terrific. You don't need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this one.
See reviews from
The Guardian,
Salon, and
Publishers Weekly for more details.
