Artemis by Andy Weir

Like a lot of people, I read Andy Weir’s other books first and then let Artemis sit on the back burner for far longer than I should have. The Martian and Project Hail Mary carry such big reputations that a book between them felt like an optional extra, something I would get to eventually. Having finally read it, I can say I was wrong to wait. I loved Artemis, and I’m a little annoyed that it took me this long to find out.

Like the rest of Weir’s books, it takes place far from planet Earth. This time we’re in Artemis, the first city on the moon, a collection of connected domes that exists mostly because of tourism and the industries that grew up around it. The story follows Jazz Bashara, a porter who supplements her income with some small-time smuggling, until a job comes along that is much bigger and riskier than anything she has handled before. The premise is a heist-flavored one, and it gives Weir a reason to walk us through the city from the shiny parts to the rough ones, which turns out to be the best thing about the book.

I know I’m about to spend a lot of this review on the setting, and I’m not sorry. A moon colony is a fun place to set a story, but plenty of authors would have stopped at fun. Weir takes the extra step of making it feel believable. The way the city is built, how people live in it, what they do for work, and what can go wrong when you’re surrounded by vacuum all come across as thought out rather than invented for convenience. I never felt like I was being asked to accept something because the plot needed it, which is a harder trick than it sounds in science fiction.

The grime is what sold me. So many authors build futuristic worlds that feel like showroom floors, clean and efficient and strangely empty of anyone who has ever spilled something. Artemis feels used. It’s imperfect, cramped, and a little rundown in places, with a clear divide between the people who can afford the nice parts and the people holding the whole thing together behind the scenes. That choice does more than add atmosphere. Psychologists who study immersion in fiction often point to concrete, sensory detail as what pulls a reader in, and the same detail that makes a place feel real also makes the stakes feel real. When a setting looks like it has been lived in for years, you believe that people have problems there, and you start caring about how those problems get solved.

There’s also a nice psychological payoff in watching an underdog operate inside a system that wasn’t built for her. Jazz is scrappy because she has to be, and the economics of the city shape her choices in a way that feels earned rather than convenient. Scarcity changes how people think and behave, and Weir clearly understands that, even when the book is just trying to be a fast and entertaining heist story. The tension between what you can get away with and what you can afford to lose runs underneath the entire plot.

The ranking question is where I get stuck, because I’ve been turning it over since I finished. I’d place Artemis right below Project Hail Mary and above The Martian, but even that isn’t an easy call. Those two are beloved for good reasons, and I understand why they overshadow everything else Weir has written. Still, I don’t know why Artemis hasn’t gotten the same attention. It has the same appetite for problem-solving and the same sense that this author did his homework, and it pairs them with a setting that has more texture than either of the others. The fact that it hasn’t become a household name doesn’t make it any less deserving. If anything, it makes it feel like a book that is waiting for people to catch up.

I don’t want to oversell it as flawless, because that isn’t what this review is about. What I’m saying is that I had a great time, that the world Weir built is the best part, and that I came away wanting to talk about it, which is usually how I know a book worked for me. It’s an easy one to recommend to anyone who liked Weir’s other books and skipped this one for the same reasons I did.

If you loved The Martian or Project Hail Mary, pick up Artemis next. It’s also a good fit for anyone who likes heist stories, science fiction with a believable foundation, or settings that feel dirty and lived-in instead of polished. If you’ve been putting it off the way I did, consider this your nudge to stop.