My first read for this year’s A to Z Reading Challenge was ARTEMIS by Andy Weir. I was really looking forward to this one – after all, I loved THE MARTIAN and PROJECT HAIL MARY was about as perfect a book as I have ever read. But this was more of a good read than a great one.

Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara is a resident of Artemis, the only city on the moon. It’s populated by 2000 people who are involved in mining, research, and tourism. Jazz is currently working as a porter (and part-time smuggler) delivering shipments to various customers when one of them makes her an offer too good to turn down. In return for sabotaging a competitor of his, she’ll get paid a staggering amount of money. Of course, it ends up being not as easy as she’d hoped, and she gets sucked into a convoluted mess of crime families, politics, and murder.

Jazz is a brilliant and resourceful main character with a feisty personality and a good heart, despite her semi-nefarious activities. The book moves at a brisk pace, and the supporting characters are all well-written and unique in skills and personality, but this just missed the mark in more than a few places. For a girl with a strong sense of honor, she has no qualms about pulling her friends, family, and associates into her convoluted schemes, and despite having a whole lot go wrong she seems to get away with a slap on the wrist for a ridiculous amount of criminal activity – to the point where it seriously strains credulity. She very nearly kills a lot of people (critically injuring a few) and everyone just sort of shrugs it off, or at worst, offers a stern word or a harsh glare. There’s also a running sub-plot involving a pen pal on earth that seems to be given a lot of importance but has no real weight other than its occasional utilization for plot convenience.

I’m giving this one four stars. Like I said – it’s still a good read, just not on par with Weir’s other books.