Bob Cottingham

I really liked The Martian and Andy Weir appears to have tried hard in Artemis to replicate everything he must have thought were a success in his first book. His protagonist, Jazz Bashera, is a female version of Mark Watney, including all the quips and insults every teenage boy loves. It doesn't work this time.

But what really killed it for me was the plan that Jazz buys into that is set up so that it would be incredibly obvious as to who was ultimately responsible, only they all thinks it's some master plan and nobody will be the wiser. The “perfect crime” described in the book summary is far from any definition of that idea that I've ever seen. There was no subtlety, no attempt to make things look like an accident or redirect blame somewhere else. This threw me completely out of immersion.

I did like the setting and the description of how being on the moon impacted their day to day lives, however, unlike The Martian, the detailed science often was superfluous and dragged things down rather than being an integral part of the plot.

With all the plot holes and character issues, I would not recommend this book.

This was tough because I found the idea very intriguing and enjoyed the journey, while absolutely hating the characters, stilted dialog, misogynistic tropes and hero complex.

Very interesting, much better than the previous book. No glaring plot holes and the writing was much better in general. An insightful view of how AI could evolve without human direction and establish ethics and guidelines with other AIs and humans to mutual benefit.

I was really disappointed. I enjoyed Old Man's War, but Collapsing Empire just seemed juvenile and, frankly, lazy. I had the impression that it was written by a teenager that was snickering behind one hand while he wrote with the other. And when he finished he said “eh, good enough”. I certainly realize that writing well isn't easy, but I expected more from Scalzi. Perhaps my response was exaggerated because I started Collapsing Empire immediately after finishing the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. The quality of the writing couldn't be more different and the effective (and profuse) use of profanity in each made a stark contrast as well.

Seemed more like a collection of loose ideas than actual stories. Very little in the way of plot.