These days, Andy Weir’s The Martian is a household name. Whether it be the book itself or the subsequent movie adaptation, you’d be hard pressed to find a sci-fi fan who doesn’t know about the author’s tale of surviving against the odds on Mars. Both the book and the movie secured acclaim from fans and critics alike, so it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of anticipation surrounding Weir’s next project.
Back in 2015 (we’ve really been waiting for this for a while), Weir teased us that his next novel, Artemis, would follow a colonization effort on the Moon. Now, we’re getting more concrete details on the story’s plot and key characters.
Via Nerdist, we learn that Artemis is the name of the first human colony on the Moon, and the book’s protagonist is a young Artemis citizen by the name of Jasmine Bashara, a.k.a. Jazz. Unfortunately for Jazz, Moon life isn’t all you might think it’s cracked up to be. Just like it does on Earth, money rules the roost on the Moon, and with Jazz’s day job as a porter only allowing her to scrape by, she’s forced to moonlight as a smuggler. But, with those rewards come great risks, and Jazz soon finds herself mixed up in a dangerous battle for control of the Artemis colony.
“The Martian was a straight-up ‘Human vs Nature’ story where the goal was simple survival,” Weir told Crown Publishing. “Artemis is a much more complicated crime story with mysteries involved…it was a lot more difficult to write, but also a lot more interesting.”
Artemis isn’t slated for release until November, but 20th Century Fox has already recognized its potential for the big screen, snapping up the rights to adapt the novel in a major deal. So, once you immerse yourself in the written world of Weir’s Artemis, it probably won’t be too much longer before you get to see it come to life at the theater.
