Publishing Date: November 14, 2017
Publisher: Audible Studios (Audible Exclusive)
Audiobook Duration: 8 hrs and 59 mins
Narrator: Rosario Dawson
Contemporary Science Fiction
The Premise from the Author: "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" (Weir).
My overall thoughts and review: I want to preface this review by saying that I don't always gravitate towards science fiction reads. I really enjoyed The Martian and I knew that when this was coming out I definitely wanted to pick it up. I've dabbled with some sci-fi ,but I'm not well versed in what would be consider intense sci-fi, nor can I make the judgement call about whether or not certain things are probable in the text. I really like Weir because it doesn't feel overly sci-fi. Weir writes in a way that is compelling and fast paced, and he writes about science where it doesn't go over my head. When I saw that there was an exclusive audible version narrated by Rosario Dawson, it was a no-brainer. I'm so glad I opted for the audiobook version because Dawson brings Jazz to life in such a wonderful way. She brought every character to life and kudos to her for doing some fantastic accents. From the get go, I just loved how fun Jazz was. She is sassy, does-not-hold-back badass, and an all around a very interesting protagonist. She doesn't want to be the hero of the day. She simply wants to pay her debts and be filthy rich. How she does it though is being a porter by day, but also a smuggler by night. However, trouble strikes when she finds herself in hot water when a heist goes wrong. Things quickly escalate to being on the run from murderers, the people in charge of Artemis wanting to find something wrong to deport her, and an all around hot mess. There's so much world building for Artemis and I just loved how Weir unraveled everything. The story also has sections with letters and emails between her and someone who started off as a pen-pal. He is basically her bestfriend and I loved reading those parts because they revealed parts of Jazz's past while simultaneously working with her present. Besides Jazz, I really loved some of the secondary characters. I especially enjoyed Svoboda, Dale, and Jazz's dad. They added so much to the narrative and I definitely loved the scenes when they interacted with Jazz. I will say that there are some similarities like sarcastic tone between Jazz and Mark (from The Martian), which might annoy some people, and that's why I think the audio version does such a great job. You have Dawson narrating and making it a clear distinct voice from Mark. All in all, I really enjoyed this book. If you want an incredibly sassy protagonist who is basically a Moon pirate, this is the read for you! And please, opt for the audio version. Dawson does such an amazing job! I want her to narrate all books moving forward.
My rating of the book: ✮✮✮✮ (4/5 stars)
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