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.

Trigger Warning: This book takes place on the moon, meaning characters are subject to the dangers of space. There are a few claustrophobic moments as well.

When I first read that Andy Weir was writing another space based novel after the popularity of The Martian, I was ecstatic. I read – nay, devoured – The Martian and greatly enjoyed it. Even when I wrote my original review I do not think I gushed enough over how entertained I was by the book.

Oh how I wish I could say the same of Artemis.

Artemis is completely different from The Martian. The main character, Jasmine (Jazz) Bashara isn’t a very likable character. She’s rude and brusque and doesn’t take things as seriously as she should. Something that causes more than one person to snap at her over the course of the book.

Like many small time criminals, she doesn’t consider herself a criminal. She believes she is doing something of a service for the people of Artemis. It is a point she even makes towards the end of the book. And when she takes an offer that ends up getting people killed and she finds herself in over her head, she is still reluctant to ask for help.

While the overall idea of the book was interesting, the actual book itself fell very short. Many of the characters were either insultingly stereotypical or downright annoying, there were far too many dumb jokes, and the entire plot line felt like a mess.

I know there are a number of readers who enjoyed Artemis as much as The Martian. Unfortunately, I am not one of those.