After Weir’s first sci-fi novel, The Martian, became a best seller, Weir signed a contract with Penguin Random House to finish his second book within a year. “Bean is sort of like suburban life - it’s town folks - and then Shepherd, there are, like, really rich people there.”īefore Artemis, there was Zhek.

“Armstrong is industry, Aldrin is the tourist center with casinos and hotels and stuff, and Conrad where the blue-collar folks live,” Weir explained. Called Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, and Shepherd. “You know, as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”Īrtemis is split up into districts. “Lunar tourism would be something middle-class people could afford,” he said. It’s a tourist location (and economic boon) that anyone can visit for around $70,000, for two weeks. But “Artemis exists because there is an economic reason for it to,” he added. Artemis takes place around the late 2080s and “Earth is fine,” Weir said vaguely.

Read on for eight more things we learned from Weir and Dawson about the forthcoming book and film. The story centers on Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara, a young Saudi Arabian porter and newbie smuggler trying to survive on the first city on the moon, Artemis.

Both the audio and print version of the book will be available on November 14, but 20th Century Fox has already acquired the film rights and filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ( 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) were swiftly tapped to make the film after they exited the Star Wars Han Solo spinoff film. After the massive success of his debut book, The Martian, sci-fi author Andy Weir has written a crime caper, titled Artemis, with a heroine whom actress Rosario Dawson describes as “super MacGyver.” Dawson, who voices the protagonist, Jazz, in the audio version of Artemis, took part in a panel at New York Comic Con with Weir (via satellite), moderated by New York Magazine and Vulture contributing editor Jada Yuan.

Artemis by Andy Weir