Review: Artemis

Artemis by Andy Weir
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I loved The Martian. The protagonist solved incredibly complicated problems with a lot of calculations and a dash of dad joke humor. The stakes were so high - a dude stranded alone on Mars with a busted spacesuit - that the character clung to puns and math in the face of existential terror.
Unfortunately, it seems that I inferred that emotional depth. The narrator of Artemis also clings to puns and math to solve a complex problem in space, and while the cast has expanded the characters haven't gained any further depth.
Suspense in Artemis doesn't come from character or atmosphere, but from numbers - the oxygen is running out, the batteries are losing charge, the level of x is approaching y. Success is measured by how often people high-five each other, and romance is measured by teenagers rolling their eyes at each other. The whole thing reads like it's written to be PG-13.
Finally: Andy Weir is a white, middle aged computer programmer-turned-novelist from Mountain View, California. I can't help but question his choice to make his narrator a teenage Muslim girl. The plot certainly isn't affected by it, and it feels artificial. Could he be angling for wider readership? Could he be writing with the Hollywood adaptation in mind? (There's also a slightly pervy computer geek character that drools over the girl - could that be Weir in his own story? Creepy.) I'd like to think there's less cynical reasons for it, but none come to mind.

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