Andy Weir is best known for The Martian—which was also a decent movie—and seemingly writing hard sci-fi, a sub-genre that tries to adhere to the laws of physics as closely as possible. As I started Artemis, I thought I was in for another Martian, but it turned out to be completely different, and I’m glad of that. It’s a hard sci-fi caper—a term the protagonist uses in the book, and is quite fitting for the whole thing—that stands on its own as an excellent book. If you haven’t read either, ask yourself, would you rather be stranded on Mars “science-ing the shit out of [things]” or would you rather partake in a caper on the Moon settlement, Artemis. I’d choose Artemis.

What do you think is better: the book or the movie? The movie offers great action and a condensed story with some hand-wavy science that you have to take as true. The book is longer (obviously) and goes into the minute details of how the protagonist “sciences the shit out of [everything].” I thought the book was better, but then that should be no surprise coming from a book junkie like me. Science-ing the shit out of things was awesome. But I thought Andy Weir’s Artemis was better—or at least more my style.