So, last time I talked about Andy Weir's The Hail Mary Project under the misapprehension it was his second book; it is actually his third. Once I realized/remembered this, I corrected by oversight, so here goes:
Artemis by Andy Weir. The best this I compliment I can pay this book that Weir's work compares favorably to that of Arthur C. Clarke when it comes to making the the fantastic quotidian and commonplace fantastical. This is essentially a caper story, but since it is set on a lunar colony, the everyday elements of life - shopping, communication, the internet, law enforcement, and so on - have to be explained so that when all the pieces of the plans (there's more than one escapade) start falling into place, it makes sense. Weir pulls this off well, making Artemis, the lunar city, have as real a sense of place as, say,
A Fall of Moondust. (His lunar justice system owes more to Heinlein, but I tried to overlook that.)
Perhaps the best part of the book is that the protagonist is young woman (nice change) who, while still an engineering genius (of course), actually doesn't realize how smart and talented she is (nice touch). There's a nice cast of quirky supporting characters (Weir does a great job of exclusivity and representation) and even if the ending is a little too pat,well, the rire getting was a lot of fun.
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