Artemis

The follow-up to [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181], which is a lot of pressure. And now that we're past it, maybe his next book can be better again? This one only paled in comparison. It has similar elements - a setup in space, lots of science, technical procedures, high stakes - but is lacking in character and story. Once I got past my first disappointments with the book, I re-adjusted and still managed to enjoy the ride, but then somewhere in the last quarter I lost that joy again due to some character choices that kept bugging me. For example, I don't quite get why forcefully stealing a legal contract from a crime syndicate wouldn't lead to even more violence in the future? It felt like no one involved in the plot fully thought this through? And everyone was just too forgiving with Jazz and all the fuckups she caused. She got to stay so she can regulate the contraband underworld, really!?There was a little segment where the leader of the station talked about economics and the station's future, which I thought would have been a great subject to put some more meat into this. 2.5 and I am only rounding this up to 3, because I found it quite charming to imagine a not-so-distant scenario of the moon as a tourism destination.