Book review: Artemis, by Andy Weir
Artemis, by Andy Weir
Andy Weir has a pretty reliable book formula: use science to both complicate, and then resolve, problems for the protagonists in his books. Sprinkle in some humor for warmth, and voila. A best seller. Even a movie or two.
“The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary” are two of my favorite sci-fi reads ever.
But in “Artemis,” Weir’s tried-and-true formula misses the mark.
The concept for Artemis is interesting enough: a crime caper on a moon settlement, complete with mobsters, government corruption, and corporate misbehaviors. But the main character, a young porter and smuggler named Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara, seems awfully adept at metallurgy, space welding, and advanced off-planet ventilation concepts for someone who works as a porter and smuggler.
On the moon, Weir’s jokes don’t land as smoothly as the Apollo 11 once did. And Weir’s characteristic scientific rigor is here, as always. But there’s too much exposition this time. I’m just not that interested in how various gases behave, or the industrial process behind melting metal.
Artemis isn’t awful. It just isn’t as compelling and funny as what I’ve come to expect from Weir. The story languishes as scientific explanations drag on, and while Jazz has some good moments firing off smart one-liners, she’s just too overpowered to be believable.
Artemis Kindle highlights
Writing I highlighted because I laughed, learned something, gleaned an insight, or just nerded out on because it was well done.
If my neighborhood were wine, connoisseurs would describe it as “shitty, with overtones of failure and poor life decisions.”
There’s nothing more annoying than trust-fund boys looking for “moon poon.”
Earth’s air is 20 percent oxygen. The rest is stuff human bodies don’t need like nitrogen and argon. So Artemis’s air is pure oxygen at 20 percent Earth’s air pressure. That gives us the right amount of oxygen while minimizing pressure on the hulls. It’s not a new concept—it goes back to the Apollo days.
Thing is, the lower the pressure, the lower the boiling point of water. Water boils at 61 degrees Celsius here, so that’s as hot as tea or coffee can be. Apparently it’s disgustingly cold to people who aren’t used to it.
Most people don’t know it, but there’s a ridiculous amount of oxygen on the moon. You just need a shitload of energy to get it.
You can’t gestate a baby in lunar gravity—it leads to birth defects. And you can’t raise a baby here, anyway. It’s terrible for bone and muscle development.
People will trust a reliable criminal more readily than a shady businessman.
Travel’s a bitch. Even when it’s a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. You leak money like a sieve. You’re jet-lagged. You’re exhausted all the time. You’re homesick even though you’re on vacation.
I stood from the bar and downed my Bowmore. I assume everyone in Scotland gasped in psychic pain.
Yes, she was sixteen and Hartnell’s was a bar, but there’s no drinking age in Artemis. It’s another one of those vague rules that’s enforced with punching.
“On a scale from one to ‘invade Russia in winter,’ how stupid is this plan?”
A smelter I poured my life and soul into, which you just destroyed, you reckless puddle of exudate!” “Don’t think I won’t look that up!”
The pressure in the airlock decreased, so my ball grew like a balloon in a vacuum chamber. That’s not an analogy. It was literally a balloon in a vacuum chamber.
He took both my hands. “Jasmine. I accept your recompense, even though I know the source is dishonest. And I forgive you.” I gave him a firm handshake and we called it a day. Not really. I collapsed into his arms and cried like a child. I don’t want to talk about it.
“It’s all part of the life-cycle of an economy. First it’s lawless capitalism until that starts to impede growth. Next comes regulation, law enforcement, and taxes. After that: public benefits and entitlements. Then, finally, overexpenditure and collapse.”
An economy is a living thing. It’s born full of vitality and dies once it’s rigid and worn out. Then, through necessity, people break into smaller economic groups and the cycle begins anew, but with more economies. Baby economies, like Artemis is right now.”
Review and key quotes: The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson
“The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson
You may know about Winston Churchill’s prowess as an orator.
But what do you know about Churchill the writer and writing teacher?
Erik Larson’s excellent book, “The Splendid and the Vile” is about Churchill at the time of the London Blitz. I’m sure many potential readers ask, “Did we really need another Churchill book?”
Yes. We needed this one.
Larson tells the story of the London Blitz from deeply personal perspectives. Not only from Churchill, but from members of his family, his cabinet, and his support staff. We see the dawn of war and all its terrors from well-sourced documentation, which Larson uses to crawl inside the minds of the participants.
As a result, we get much more than another academic tale about the London Blitz. Instead, we feel the anguish and triumph from those making decisions shaping the war and those simply victim to it.
And for writers, there’s a bonus.
Weaved throughout the book are insights into Churchill the writer: his struggles, his methods, and plenty of examples of his prose.
Here are 14 things we can learn from Churchill, all summarized from “The Splendid and the Vile,”to become better writers.
Editing cures lazy writing
Winston Churchill implored staff to keep memos to one page or less:
“It is slothful not to compress your thoughts. Nearly all [memos] are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points.”
A leader’s writing style shapes organizational culture
“Churchill’s communiqués tumbled forth daily, by the dozens, invariably brief and always written in precise English.”
His writing pace and precision kept his staff sharp, accountable, and on task in the fog of war.
Respect the reader by writing honestly
Winston Churchill’s blunt honesty built credibility, which made his inspirational messages believable:
“If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.”
To persuade, make the reader the hero of story
Churchill persuaded the British people by making them the hero in his writing:
“… if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
Even great writers struggle to write. Persist!
“To watch [Churchill] compose … is to make one feel that one is present at the birth of a child, so tense is his expression, so restless his turnings from side to side, so curious the noises he emits under his breath.”
Maintain your sense of humor in your writing
Even in war, Churchill was quick to joke:
“After [Churchill’s wife] Clementine once criticized his drinking, he told her, ‘Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.’”
Used sparingly, uncommon words create high emotional impact
Churchill wrote to the French:
“Such an act would scarify their names for a thousand years of history.”
Scarify was a six-hundred-year-old word. Churchill selected it for impact.
If writing is a priority, you will find time to write
Winston Churchill had a writing side hustle!
“He wrote books and articles to supplement his official income … until his appointment as prime minister, he had written columns for the Daily Mirror and News of the World.”
Eliminate formal prose that obscures key points
Like Bezos at Amazon, Churchill set expectations for memos:
• “Set out the main points in a series of short, crisp paragraphs.”
• “Let us not shrink from using the short expressive phrase, even if it is conversational.”
Write to understand what you think
Winston Churchill knew it would benefit both writer and reader if staff were forced to write out their thoughts:
“… the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking.”
The shortest prose can deliver the greatest emotional impact
Lord Beaverbrook tried to resign from Churchill’s government 14 times. He closed one resignation letter with, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.”
Churchill fired back a two-word response:
“I do.”
Use metaphors to deliver vibrant mental images
Churchill on Harry Hopkins, a sickly but powerful confidant to FDR:
“His was a soul that flamed out of a frail and failing body. He was a crumbling lighthouse from which there shone the beams that led great fleets to harbor.”
Get feedback on small pieces of content & ideas as you iterate
Winston Churchill trialed ideas and phrases by mixing them into conversations and cabinet meetings. If they resonated, he used them in speeches.
This is @david_perell’s content triangle theory, WWII style.
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Be authentic. Let it all hang out. (But not literally.)
In writing and life, Churchill was not one for pretense:
“‘You see, Mr. President, I have nothing to hide.’ … for the next hour [he] conversed with Roosevelt while walking around the room naked, sipping his drink.”
Even at the most trying time in World War II, Churchill didn’t just find time to write. He used writing to clarify strategy, lead and inspire the British people, and to set the pace and precision of his staff’s efforts as they worked to protect their country.
Writing is powerful. It can even save nations.
The TL;DR on writing lessons from Winston Churchill:
Make the reader the hero
Uncommon words = high emotion
You do have time to write
Write to understand what you think
Short prose = high emotional impact
Metaphors give writing vibrance
Get steady feedback
Let it all hang out
How to easily create unique and valuable content from the books you read
The story doesn’t end when the book does.
That’s when it’s time for you to create from what you consume. But I often struggle with how to write usefully about what I read.
On Twitter, I asked how people write about the books they read, and got some excellent responses. You’ll see those interspersed throughout these writing suggestions.
Everything is a remix.
And you can remix the books you read into content that serves your mission, your voice, and your readers.
First thing’s first: take notes as you read
It’s easier to create content from notes. The key is to take notes through the lens you normally write from.
For example:
I’m into writing and writing techniques. So I highlight sentences that resonate with me as great writing, or provide insight on writing well. I also highlight and note techniques like foreshadowing and callbacks that are done well.
Take notes as you go, and you won’t stare into the gaping yaw of 60,000 swirling words, desperately trying to parse passages looking for something to write about. Instead, you have notes and highlights ready for assembly into a rough outline.
You’re on your way to writing well about books when you take notes along the way.
Write a book summary
Writing a book summary helps cement your understanding of a book’s ideas and themes. But there’s plenty of online competition for most book summaries: many people use this approach. So while writing a deep summary can be useful to you personally—go for it, if that’s the case—don’t expect a huge readership or SEO bump.
Summarize a few key points
Rather than a full summary, expand on a few key points or passages that resonated with you. Share how it changed the way you think or act. Describing a transformative journey (even a small one) through the lens of a book’s key ideas, is storytelling. And stories are what captivate us all.
As Charlotte says here:
Alex Wieckowski does this well in his newsletter, curating a few ideas to help readers learn and decide if they’d like to read the book themselves.
Go deep on one point
Drill down and then go wide on a single idea from a book, expanding on it based on your observations and experience.
As Charlie says:
And Coach Willis:
There’s a bonus benefit: this technique can help you create several pieces of content from every book you read. Choose several ideas to go deep on, breaking them into individual essays.
Write a review
Most book reviews are commodities: Amazon is happy to shovel you thousands of reviews for many titles.
Hard to be unique in that case.
I like Ayomide’s take here, though:
Strong opinions are compelling, but not the key to a good book review. The key is to be of service to the reader. Ayomide’s framework shows the way.
Write consistently from your unique perspective
What’s your area of expertise or experience that resonates? Use that as your lens to review and share ideas from what you read, like George does:
Combine several approaches
You don’t have to stick to a single formula, of course. You could summarize several ideas from your unique voice and perspective, for example.
The north star: Be of service to yourself and your reader
Writing about the books you read helps cement a book’s ideas and themes for you and helps your readers A) learn and B) decide if they want to read the book themselves.
So write about what you read. Sharing how a book changed you changes your reader, also.
Quick writing power up: ditch the adverbs
Adverbs are the DMV of writing.
They create unnecessary delays, complications, and steal the joy from your reader’s journey.
Adverbs typically end in -ly and and are used to prop up boring, non-descriptive, and generic verbs:
“Stop it!” he shouted angrily.
Vs.
Tyson fumed. “Stop it!” he barked.
Adverbs break a cardinal rule of writing
Writers are always told: “Show, don’t tell.” Vibrant writing appeals to a reader’s senses, rather than detailing actions through exposition.
Conveying emotion through powerful and active verbs beats explaining how something happened every time.
Go ahead and use adverbs as you draft. But as you edit, delete them ruthlessly. Dig deeper for more descriptive verbs that richly convey emotion and action.
Writers: Let’s write with less self-pity
It pains me to disagree with a superstar writer like Susan Orlean.
Her book, “The Library Book,” is a tremendous treatise on the history of libraries in America and their impact on our culture and society. I loved it.
But her essay “Writing is Nightmarish Hellscape” is exactly what we don’t need when it comes to encouraging others to write online.
Is writing difficult? Yes.
Is publishing online scary—even gut-wrenching for some? Absolutely.
Take a deep breath and inhale some perspective
But come on. We’re tapping on keys here. Maybe nibbling on chocolate or nipping on whiskey, even, as we put our thoughts to bits and bytes.
There are tasks far more daunting and dangerous. Jobs and responsiblities with more pressure, more consequences.
I firmly believe we can all write. The climb as never as steep as the mountains we create in our minds around drafting, editing, and, horror of horrors, pressing publish.
Let’s focus on the miracle of modern writing
Writing isn’t easy. You have to do a lot of it to get “good,” and you‘ll probably never feel like you are good.
And the fear and frustrations of writing are real.
But writing is also deeply personal, creative, and expressive. In all of history, we’ve never had a greater opportunity to create and have our work seen. And that miracle supersedes all the self-flagellation about how “hard” it is.
Creators: don’t do this with affiliate marketing (even though everyone says to)
I see this advice over and over. It sucks.
It goes something like this:
1) Sign up at Clickbank or any of the other platforms where advertisers host their programs.
2) Scroll through programs in your niche.
3) Pick one to sell. One with good reviews or a high commission rate.
No.
Do not do this.
Affiliate marketing should serve your audience
What you promote is a direct reflection on you, your values, and your brand.
Play a longer game
Try the products and services first. Get to know the companies behind them. Build a relationship with someone in the company, if at all possible.
Refer products, services, companies, and people you trust.
Only then can you have the confidence to promote a third-party offering to your audience. Done right, affiliate marketing improves a creator's brand and builds audience trust.
Your writing isn’t original. So quit worrying about it, and create.
One of the most important sentences in American history is nearly a word-for-word ripoff.
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” a foundational statement in the American ethos, was remixed from the philosopher Locke, who wrote of ”life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”
And you’re worried that what you want to write has “already been written?”
Of course it has. And that’s great news.
There are no original thoughts, no original stories
Free from the imaginary shackles of needing to be original, you might think, “Then what’s the point of writing at all?”
There are a million reasons, but here are two. One self-centered and one other-centered.
Write to understand how you think—to clarify and sharpen your ideas, to crystallize what you just learned, to get feedback from others.
Someone else, on their own journey, desperately needs to hear what you have to say, and how you will say it, right at this moment in time.
Your thoughts, experiences, and timing are the elixir that creates all the originality needed.
There’s no originality. Congratulations—you’re free to create.
Write. Then publish.
Embrace the detour. It might be the best part of the journey.
The tandem bikes, the attendant said, are only for use on the flat road that traces the island’s coast.
The interior trails of Mackinac Island’s forest were for hikers and trail bikes.
And that was fine. The tandem bike, with my 13-year-old daughter as co-pilot, handled like the lumbering freighters churning by far offshore.
We managed the bike well enough through waves of 4th of July week visitors on a brilliant Tuesday afternoon. Until we were stopped. The road was closed about 4 miles into the ride.
Frustrating. No one said anything about road closures.
It was decision time: give up and turn back … or take the bike up a trail through the woods, hopefully rejoining the main road later on.
We took the detour, walking the bike as the trail climbed a steep hill. Then a trail biker rode by, mentioning the biggest incline was behind us, and the main road was about a mile and a half ahead.
“Screw it,” I thought. ”Let’s ride.”
So we bumped and thumped our tandem bike freighter down the trail, against the better guidance of the rental company. We navigated tight turns. Avoided stumps (barely). Squished through numerous mud pits. Pedaled hard. And laughed, a lot.
Eventually, the path opened to the main road, with its sweeping views of Lake Huron. The obstacle forced us to use teamwork, laugh, and be rewarded as the trees gave way to the clear expanse of the coastline.
The unexpected and unwanted detour became the most rewarding part of the trip. It was a reminder to embraced the unexpected and go for the ride. Even when we we’re not equipped.
The no-stress, no-sweat method to write an attention-grabbing headline
Headlines are my kryptonite.
(Also bats. But that’s another essay.)
Ship 30 for 30’s live session, “The Art of Writing Headlines” was loaded with practical tips. Nicolas Cole shared one idea that will transform my headline writing process.
Maybe yours, also.
Start your essay with one big sentence that coveys:
•What the essay is about
•Who it is for
•Why it matters
Writing these three things first not only helps guide your essay, but also removes some creative stress so you can focus on your draft.
That’s it. And remember to tease what the essay is about, without making a big reveal. Build a curiosity gap so the right people will click through and read your work.
Later on, edit and reshape that original headline. But Nicolas’ simple step will add some clarity and a foundation to get your draft process moving.
To write well, read fiction. But to take it up another level …
Which book genre acts as a cheat code?
One genre both entertains and enlightens.
You get all the fun and benefits of reading great prose, while also learning a little history.
It’s historical fiction. My favorite genre.
What makes a historical fiction book great?
The key to historical fiction is to get the “big facts” and the small lifestyle details of the era exactly right. With a solid structure in place, great writers propel the story forward by weaving in emotionally powerful—but fictional—narratives within and amongst the characters. Most books include both historical figures and fictional characters.
Where to start with historical fiction?
My favorite is “The Devil in the White City,” by Erik Larson. Larsen’s book takes place as a serial murder mystery wraps around the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.
RIght now, I’m enjoying ”New York,” by Edward Rutherfurd, a 900-ish page tale that opens with the earliest European settlements of the city.
The best writers write fiction
It’s an old saying, and I think it’s true. The most creative writers, the writers who care most about their prose, write fiction. And what we consume fuels what we create. So reading the best writers can only improve our own writing.
But when you’re picking your next book, try historical fiction. There’s nothing like content that both improves our own writing and makes us just a little smarter.
That’s historical fiction.