Phew! OK. That was a long thread.
The next book I read, which I just finished this evening, was Artemis by Andy Weir. This is the guy whose debut novel, The Martian, was made into the movie with Matt Daemon. Context: I really, really liked The Martian (the book. The movie was pretty OK). #books
Artemis is the name of the first city on the moon. Like The Martian, there's a pretty high level of rigor in how the space stuff is treated and some very exciting emergency science/engineering improvisation. #books
UNLIKE The Martian, this one has, like, more of a story. The Martian is Man vs Nature. This one is more about people having conflicting interests and agendas bumping into each other in the context of a really hostile environment. I guess it's a bit of a heist story? There's at least two heist-like situations. Or capers? I'm not clear on the distinction. #books
Anyway, I am here for caper-heists + action science. And the main character was pretty awesome. I don't know if she and I could be friends, but she was great to read. I wanted her to win and I wished good things for her. But she was not, like, this morally upstanding person. The author mentioned the movie Chinatown as an influence and you can see it. #books
Small spoiner for Artemis by Andy Weir
One further thought on Artemis: I need more queer, anarcho-communist scifi. I am interested in how Artemis might throw off its corporate masters and become democratically run by the residents. How they might do away with their sheriff and administrator. I think it would be an interesting story and feel like we need optimistic depictions of stuff like that. A bit like Moon War by Ben Bova, but less capitalistic and more prominent queer characters. #books
Anyway, yeah. Other than that thing in the CW, I quite liked the book. There was also an afterward on the rough math he'd done on how the economics of a Lunar city would work out and how much it would cost to visit for two weeks, etc. It was self-described as boring, but I found it funny and interesting. I'll be keeping my eye out for Weir's next book (which I assume will exist). I'd be interested to see him deal with space ships and stations, too. Asteroid mining. Etc. #books