ARTEMIS by Andy Weir

Narrated by Rosario Dawson

Unlikable Character / Implausible Story

I loved The Martian and was excited to listen his next book. The Martian was full of altruistic characters and noble efforts to survive in the most challenging of environments. Artemis is a portion of a petulant twenty-six year old child used to defying all authority with impunity. I struggle to express how much this novel grated on me. Now I like a good crime drama and can even appreciate some of the motivations of the crooks in some novels but this character, Jaz, was always a bit too smug about her career outside the law. She has a conscience but never listens to it. The crisis moment of the book is wholy contrived and brought on by the character’s bad decisions (She tries to destroy the oxygen generation equipment her moon city, for money, and almost kills the entire population). On the whole this is an unsatisfying story concerning characters I just could not bring myself to like.

Rosarion Dawson has a fine voice but delivers this book in a fashion I would call a “straight read.” To be fair she is always easy to understand. I would have enjoyed her performance more had she provided some more emotion to the life of the defiant criminal Jaz.