I liked it. Jazz reminds me a bit of Watney but it’s all good. I liked the part where she said “only idiots use duct tape to seal a pressure vessel” as a call back to the Martian. What do you guys think?
Posted Nov 15, 2017, 8:36 PM UTC
I thought it was fun!
Not mindblowing in any way, but I liked the characters well enough, and the snippy jibes were amusing for the most part (they wore a little thin at the end, but the other characters called her out on it appropriately).
Anyone got recipes for Gunk? I'm thinking powdered spirulina, maybe in an agar agar gel bar. (ugh)
What about rehydrated rum? :)
Like you, I enjoyed the book but I have to say it wasn't anything like as good as The Martian.
Just read it today. I loved it.
I thought it was a good follow up to The Martian. There was a lot of Watney in Jazz, but it was the parts of Watney I liked.
Compared to Armada. That book felt rushed and incomplete. A great premise, but not executed well.
Armada was Ernest Cline though, right?
Right.
Ernest Cline wrote Ready Player One, and followed that up with Armada. But it felt rushed and incomplete.
Andy Weir wrote The Martian, and follow that up with Artemis. I felt Artemis was as good as The Martian.
Both authors were relatively unknown before their debut novel. Their debut novel was very well received and popular. That's where I draw a comparison of Artemis to Armada. They are both second novels that follow a very popular novel by the author set in a different setting.
Alright. I thought that was the parallel you were trying to make but I just wanted to be sure
There was also a mention in one of the emails from her earth friend about the importance of properly secured and balanced loads. That seemed like a clear reference to the Iris probe accident in The Martian
I liked it. The biggest annoyance for me was the part where Rudy says "We don't put security cameras on the airlocks, we're not a police state" ...really?? You've got a city on the moon filled with tourists and there's no cameras pointing at any of the airlocks. I would have much preferred that Jazz hack it or something simple to explain it
I'm about 4 hours into the audiobook and I was really struck by something a little earlier in the book.
When Jazz is in Aldrin Park she has a brief exchange with the old groundskeeper.
She asks him why he moved all the way to the Moon just to mow grass. He states that he likes plants.
She says it was a long way to travel for an old man. He says he used to travel a lot for work so this didn't bother him.
Her friend asks the Groundskeeper if his name is Mike. He simply says "Nope." Maybe his name isn't Mike, but something similar?
The Groundskeeper seems to have this very dry wit. I don't know if he features any more in the book but I really, really get the sense that he's actually Mark Watney.
He says he moved to the moon after his wife died and there was nothing more for him on Earth. In my Martian headcanon I always thought it would be funny and strangely fitting that Mark end up with the woman who watched him and learned his habits and life over more than a year, Mindy Park.
I really wonder if this is the case.
Mate. You’ve just blown my mind!
My boyfriend had the same revelation and emailed Andy Weir and the emailed back to confirm it. Andy Weir responded in 30mins he is seriously a great nerdy guy.
Wait, what? So this is confirmed?
u/SamTornado totally got it confirmed, Andy Weir is so nice and replied back in like 30 mins. I have a screenshot of the reply I'll get it posted.
In his E-mil he didn't tell me to keep it under my hat. I imagine when the chloroform was being piped into Artemis and people where falling unconscious old man Watney said "I'm getting to old for this shit".
You do realize that this means Artemis is part of The Expanse universe as well, right?
You win, this is now headcanon for me. (only plot hole, is the trouble putting on suits that Watney didn't have)
That could probably explain that by saying that the EVA suits in the Martian cost many millions and that the ones in Artemis were more consumer level and therefore more difficult to use.
I'm trying to find the scene in the book, but I can't. In which chapter is it?