You may or may not have heard of Andy Weir’s titles, Project Hail Mary and Artemis, but maybe you’ve heard of The Martian since Matt Damon played in the movie version of the book. I have a bust of Artemis sporting an evil sneer at another bust of Apollo unlike the random set below which has a playful gaze. My set is a cheap knock-off of… well probably another cheap knock off, but I have to say I like mine better because it more closely matches my cynical nature. I mention Artemis because the main protagonist in the book is Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara, who has a quite lively personality and just happens to live on the moon, and thus aligns neatly with the Greek goddess refs from which the title is obviously derived. I’m not sure why, but while enjoying the book I got some Heinlein – The Moon is a Harsh Mistress vibes minus the polyandry of course. I can’t put my finger on it, but it has to be more than just because of the moon setting and concepts.
I posted links to the audiobook versions which is normally how I read/listen to a book. I immediately recognized the narrator, Rosario Dawson of Unstoppable (film) fame, and I’ve seen her on a lot of other shows/movies – most recently in the Star Wars universe as the jedi Ahsoka Tano on The Mandolorian and The Book of Boba Fett. While it is the first time I’ve heard her narrate an audio book, she absolutely nailed it with Artemis.
Next up is the better book in my opinion and apparently others as well since the rating is higher for PHM on the sites that I frequent. Story line and execution were quite stellar and it was quite the page turner or should I say play button tapper since I listened to the audiobook. This page isn’t meant to be a review, and I don’t want to risk any spoilers or such, so I’ll leave off most details. Maybe this one is better served fresh, undoubtedly like the unique meals (eek) the author introduced at the end of the story and I guess throughout the story for that matter – coma juice or pulp or whatever – yuck.
Finally, I’ll wrap it up by saying I finally graduated to listening to audiobooks at 2x speed. I’ve been at 1.5x and 1.7x for a while and some audiobooks especially those based on deep physics I have to stick with 1x. It’s easy to parse the right audiobooks at 2x, but harder to deeply interpret and retain the story in memory; thankfully, I finally achieved both, however, so I can blast through even more books.
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