I’m listening to the audiobook and it’s honestly a struggle. Only the weird completionist part of me is keeping me going.
The main character, Jazz, is one of the worst protagonists I’ve personally experienced from several perspectives.
Firstly they knowingly and intentionally make incredibly poor choices for little to no reason other than to seemingly add drama to the story. They also treat every single person in their lives with arrogant contempt, from their overbearing but well meaning father to old friends or even random people. Everybody gets shat on in one way or another because what apparently makes a compelling protagonist is somebody completely incapable of forethought and empathy? This also seems to be viewed from the lens of the author as totally justified and reasonable (or at least it is so far) and that makes it even worse.
Which is odd considering she is also a super cool mega smart engineer smuggler crime girl who can do basically anything. It’s mentioned explicitly at multiple points that she could do basically anything she set her mind to. Unironically.
She also is incredibly hot and likes to apparently think that to herself multiple times a day, constantly referencing how banging her body is or how she has a reputation for being easy because everybody wants to sleep with her. Like normal real people totally do.
This all culminates in reading like a horny teenager’s fantasy woman crowbarred into an underwhelming story. Except a lot of the dialogue is also written very much in the style of what a 51 year old man thinks people in their 20s talk like i.e. complete rubbish. Lots of strange inappropriate slang, overly flippant reactions and unnecessary and unfunny quipping.
Not quite finished yet but in all it really comes off feeling almost sexist, the portrayall of the main female character is that bad.
Curious to know what other people thought of it.
by Skeet_fighter
7 Comments
A rare DNF for me. About a third in it became childish for me. The MC started out savvy and competent – interesting even. Then she crumbled into garish ineptitude and neediness.
I agree completely. I loved Hail Mary so much, enjoyed The Martian, and was really looking forward to Artemis. I finished it but really did not enjoy it. I found the main character unlikeable and unbelievable. I also did audio and I did not care for the narrator which may have amplified the problems.
The high hopes after reading Project Hail Mary made it even more disappointing. Hail Mary is one of my favorite books of all time and Artemis is one of the worst books I’ve read. I think about the contrast between these two often.
You may not like it, but believe it or not, there is a version of most non superhero book characters that exists in real life. It’s ok to DNF but people are complex and varied
It’s really not a good book. I loved the Martian, and happily bought Artemis when it came out. It was so bad I almost didn’t read Project Hail Mary. And despite the bookverse general view, I think PHM is just a worse rewrite of the Martian. Proves to me that Weir only had one good book in him, probably won’t read another.
I got 50 pages into Hail Mary and determined that Andy Weir is not for me.
All of Andy Weirs characters are terrible, maybe especially the protagonists.
100% agree. I didn’t even finish