Artemis: A Novel
Hardcover | Paperback | Kindle | Audiobook
By Andy Weir
Publisher: Crown Publishing | Audible Studios (Audiobook)
Release date: November 14, 2017

Writer Andy Weir made a name for himself with his successful debut The Martian, a self-published novel about an astronaut stranded on Mars that went on to make the New York Times Best Seller list in 2014 when it was reprinted by Crown Publishing. The science fiction tale was a hit with readers, and was later adapted for the big screen with Matt Damon as the ill-fated spaceman. Now, Weir is back in the cosmos with his follow-up novel, Artemis, another scifi story, this time set in the near-future on Earth’s first and only colony on the Moon. For the audiobook edition from Audible Studios, actress Rosario Dawson (Marvel’s Daredevil, Sin City, Clerks II) provides the narration.

After being relieved of their duties directing the untitled Star Wars spinoff centered on a young Han Solo, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have found their next project.

The duo has signed on to direct Artemis, which is based on the book of the same name by The Martian author Andy Weir and is described as an “adrenaline-charged crime caper that features smart, detailed world-building based on real science.” It follows your average twenty-something struggling to get by, only this particular twenty-something happens to live in the one and only city on our moon, and an opportunity to greatly improve her situation has presented itself.

The Martian
Paperback | Kindle
Written by Andy Weir
Broadway Books
Publication Date: February 11, 2014
Cover Price: $15.00

Let’s get the opinion stuff out of the way: The Martian, the book upon which the recent movie starring Matt Damon is based, is pretty fantastic. The premise, like most science-fiction, doesn’t initially come across as compelling. There’s an astronaut named Mark Watney who, through chance and misfortune, was left for dead on Mars by his team. He’s got to find a way to let humanity know he’s still around, and he’s got to figure out how to survive for as long as possible, hoping all the way that NASA can figure out a way to get him back home.

Rather than yet another science fiction blockbuster epic, Andy Weir‘s novel eschews the grandiose space empire stuff in favor of focus and intimacy. In that respect, The Martian is a minor work with major scope. The author achieves this in some interesting ways. There’s a focus on the “how” things get done. Put another way, Weir’s protagonist, Mark, delivers the action of the story to the reader with both high-level strategic sci-fi love (“I have to generate food”) and then drills down into the tactics of how that’s achieved (“I’ve created 192 square meters of farmland and have 600 liters of water for the potatoes I’m about to plant, which should last me 200 Sols beyond my NASA rations”).

Fox has released the second trailer for Ridley Scott‘s The Martian, starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on the planet Mars after he was thought to be dead. Drew Goddard wrote the script, which is based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name. The new trailer provides us with all sorts of brand new footage with gives us more context as to how he does the impossible, use the very limited resources and science he has to create sustenance. But it will all be pointless if he doesn’t find a way to make contact with NASA, for which he also has limited resources. Even though he is millions of miles away and four years from Earth receiving his message, he does make contact. However, the surviving crew must decided whether to go back home as NASA ordered or mutiny and go on what could be a suicidal rescue mission.

Check out the newest trailer for The Martian here below.

In what has become a quintessential part of making a “going to space” movie, the dreaded interview process to determine mental faculties is now a staple of the genre. In a new spot for The Martian, we see Matt Damon and crew answer the really tough questions after being isolated for 10 days. Tough questions like…why Aquaman shouldn’t be able to control whales because whales aren’t fish, they’re mammals.

Yeah, this movie is gonna be awesome. Check out the official synopsis and movie spot video below.