Review: Artemis

Artemis, Weir's follow up to The Martian skirts "difficult second album" territory.  It's a decent fast-paced read as before, but is softer on the science, Jaz's inner dialogue is nowhere near as compelling or convincing as the titular martian and neither is the key conceit - which is closer to conspiracy rather than cock-up.

Fair play to Weir for attempting to create a central character who is pretty the polar opposite of Watney (and likely himself), but it doesn't wholly succeed. It doesn't help that Jaz is close to being a classic Mary Sue - super-smart - academic and street, has practical engineering skills, friends in high and low places, able to tackle foes who are much bigger, stronger and experienced than her etc.  But somehow she didn't convince as a young woman.

Artemis - the moon city base itself - is quite a good example of building a realistic world as is the analysis of the emerging politics.

It's by no means a terrible book, it just feels like curiously old fashioned sci-fi - weakly drawn characters used to present some interesting ideas.

In a nutshell: Watney was from Mars alright, I'm not sure Jaz is from Venus (or the Moon). 

Review: Joker

Phoenix is excellent at capturing the Joker's transition from hapless schmuck to ascendent criminal mastermind.  Of note also are Beetz who gives a naturalistic performance as his love interest and De Niro's subtly sneering talk show host.   It's an impressionistic watch seeding just enough to fill in the gaps of Fleck's past and present insanity.

The overlapping story with the Wayne family was a touch on the nose for me.

Well made though it is, I can't see myself returning to it.  It's less uplifting than the comparable V for Vendetta and lacks the engaging central character of Taxi Driver - another possible source of inspiration.  But ultimately the Joker is just too toxic a personality to want to spend too much time with.

Verdict: Grim and grimy interpretation of the Joker's origins.