Artemis by Andy Weir
Jul. 8th, 2020 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaI liked it. He writes very light, fun books.
+ I liked Jazz. She's snarky and kind of an asshole, she has a mouth on her and can be unforgiving. But she's an honest crook, she cares about other people, she's brilliant and she was a fun POV character. I loved how competent she was even as she kept making mistakes and having to come up with new fixes.
+ I liked the whole society created in the moon colony of Artemis, and the details of how it worked.
+ I loved Jazz's relationship with her dad. They were great. I was so pleased that the issues between them wasn't about religion or even her sex life but rather his disappointment in how she wasn't living up to her potential and her being a criminal. Meanwhile she was still ashamed of the accident, disappointed in herself and in making him disappointed in her. They have a complex relationship but it's base is their love for each other. I really loved the reveal that the 416, 922 slugs that is Jazz's end goal throughout the entire book was the exact amount that she needed to replace the second welding shop she'd inadvertently destroyed as a teenager. That got me.
+ I liked how women were treated for the most part. There were women in a large variety of jobs which is nice, and a bunch of them were powerful which is great. I liked Jazz supporting Lene and her stepping up to take her father's place. I loved that Lene hired Loretta Sanchez to build and run her smelter. Ngugi was great.
But - I wish some of the main supporting characters had been female since the characters who got the most screen-time were mostly male. It would have been nice if Jazz had had a close relationship with another woman. That annoyed me a lot. It would have offset her calling several women ‘bitches’ (not a fan, but whatever.) I'm also torn about Jazz's sex life and how it's mentioned.
+ I rather loved what we saw of Ngugi and I wanted to know more about her. I also wish that she’d had more of a role at the end. I get why Jazz was pissed at her but I wish we’d had it offset with Jazz’s previous hero worship + understand why she did it and agreeing with her end goal (which she 100% does), and we’d had them working together, or Jazz formally working for Ngugi in her plot to take down Sanchez Aluminum, instead of Ngugi throwing her out as a lightning rod. It would have worked better for me that way, especially if we'd ended with Ngugi ending the book taking on a mentoring role.
+ I liked how the book wasn't Western/American centred. Kenya was in charge of Artemis with it based there and run by a Kenyan Administrator, our POV Jazz is originally from Saudi Arabia and our 'bad guys' are from Brazil. Hong Kong, Norway and Canada all have their representatives. It was just really neat that it was so internationally focused instead of the expected American.
+ Mostly neutral on the 'romance' with Svoboda. I loved the scene between them when Jazz realised that she trusted him (when she trusted no one else) and his happiness that they were friends. It was great. Things going romantic - eh, okay I guess. I like that romance was very background but it would have been better if it had been dropped all together.
+ There were a couple lines I really liked: ”I channelled my inner “dumbass in a movie” and walked back to the door.” and ”It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. And that’s a field of intense competition.” and “I probably looked like something out of a horror movie. Oh well. I was about to be horrible.”
+ I liked the penpal interludes with her penpal/co-conspirator Kelvin.
+ I liked Jazz. She's snarky and kind of an asshole, she has a mouth on her and can be unforgiving. But she's an honest crook, she cares about other people, she's brilliant and she was a fun POV character. I loved how competent she was even as she kept making mistakes and having to come up with new fixes.
+ I liked the whole society created in the moon colony of Artemis, and the details of how it worked.
+ I loved Jazz's relationship with her dad. They were great. I was so pleased that the issues between them wasn't about religion or even her sex life but rather his disappointment in how she wasn't living up to her potential and her being a criminal. Meanwhile she was still ashamed of the accident, disappointed in herself and in making him disappointed in her. They have a complex relationship but it's base is their love for each other. I really loved the reveal that the 416, 922 slugs that is Jazz's end goal throughout the entire book was the exact amount that she needed to replace the second welding shop she'd inadvertently destroyed as a teenager. That got me.
+ I liked how women were treated for the most part. There were women in a large variety of jobs which is nice, and a bunch of them were powerful which is great. I liked Jazz supporting Lene and her stepping up to take her father's place. I loved that Lene hired Loretta Sanchez to build and run her smelter. Ngugi was great.
But - I wish some of the main supporting characters had been female since the characters who got the most screen-time were mostly male. It would have been nice if Jazz had had a close relationship with another woman. That annoyed me a lot. It would have offset her calling several women ‘bitches’ (not a fan, but whatever.) I'm also torn about Jazz's sex life and how it's mentioned.
+ I rather loved what we saw of Ngugi and I wanted to know more about her. I also wish that she’d had more of a role at the end. I get why Jazz was pissed at her but I wish we’d had it offset with Jazz’s previous hero worship + understand why she did it and agreeing with her end goal (which she 100% does), and we’d had them working together, or Jazz formally working for Ngugi in her plot to take down Sanchez Aluminum, instead of Ngugi throwing her out as a lightning rod. It would have worked better for me that way, especially if we'd ended with Ngugi ending the book taking on a mentoring role.
+ I liked how the book wasn't Western/American centred. Kenya was in charge of Artemis with it based there and run by a Kenyan Administrator, our POV Jazz is originally from Saudi Arabia and our 'bad guys' are from Brazil. Hong Kong, Norway and Canada all have their representatives. It was just really neat that it was so internationally focused instead of the expected American.
+ Mostly neutral on the 'romance' with Svoboda. I loved the scene between them when Jazz realised that she trusted him (when she trusted no one else) and his happiness that they were friends. It was great. Things going romantic - eh, okay I guess. I like that romance was very background but it would have been better if it had been dropped all together.
+ There were a couple lines I really liked: ”I channelled my inner “dumbass in a movie” and walked back to the door.” and ”It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. And that’s a field of intense competition.” and “I probably looked like something out of a horror movie. Oh well. I was about to be horrible.”
+ I liked the penpal interludes with her penpal/co-conspirator Kelvin.
