21 thoughts on “Andy Weir’s New Book”

1. The tourist stairs are cool.

2. One other comment now that I’ve read all of it. It looks like he’s applying maritime law to space again. I will assume there’s been a change in the treaties. That will make it bearable.

   1. That would be wise.

   2. You should suggest that he add that in the book, if he hasn’t yet. It’s probably a long way from final.

      1. It’s coming out in November, and it’s being published by Random House so it’s probably too late to change. I deal emotionally with a lot of legal idiosyncracies in science fiction by positing changes in the law in the future. Or alternate future histories, like when Michael Flynn used the old code numbers for the Commercial Space Launch Act in the late ’90’s. One develops coping mechanisms.

         1. I really find it difficult to believe that, in 2017, it’s too late to make editorial changes in a book that doesn’t come out for another four months.

            1. The text of sci-fi books still use core rope memory for storage, since its almost immune to cosmic ray and other radiation and magnetic field damage.

               Making a change requires the publisher to send precise sewing instructions to the women who thread the cores.

               It seemed backwards in 1969, and more so today, but there’s good engineering reasons for it. Using our modern storage means a high energy particle event could result in a typo. I don’t tolerate typoes.

            2. “I’m totally gonna culturally appropriate the Incas’ sweet record keeping system.” – Francisco Pizarro, probably.

            3. George, depending on the software they’re using to typeset, and how much manual tweaking they use in the process, that may be only a slight exaggeration on the work required to edit and typeset. Or they could use a modern word processing suite with stylesheets, somewhat less flexible on the layout and might miss some pedantic layout details, but the typesetting is almost instant.

3. I like it. It’s a nice mix of cliff hanger.and mundane. I wonder if dozens of writers wrote that scene, which would come closest to the future reality? I’d debate the narrow halls. People, even the poor, like space and there’s little to prevent that

   Slugs seem an unstable currency. It would guarantee centuries of deflation.

4. Looks good enough to buy. I’ll buy the Kindle version.

   I REALLY did enjoy Mike Flynn’s Firestar series that Laura mentions. So did my wife. Mike Flynn is one of today’s most under rated SF writers IMHO.

   1. Flynn is awesome.

   2. I didn’t know Mike Flynn wrote sci-fi. I thought he just conspired with the Russians to undermine the US government and rig our election system by doing something or other that made Hillary voters press “Trump” in the polling booth.

      1. He’s a man of many talents.

5. Kirk had sex, when this argument started?

   1. Pop culture reference.

6. Haven’t read it yet, but I liked Rand’s pressure cooker reference. I’ve been counting on that for coffee and the like in more realistic (i.e., less than 14.7 psi) habitat pressures since reading “A Fall of Moondust” — and that’s a LONG time ago.

   1. Who knows? Weir may make it a part of the story. Maybe Jazz gets a pressure cooker shipped up, and opens a store in Artemis called “Good Coffee”.

7. I’d love to know if he discussed the name of “Artemis” with the Moon Society? It is fairly moribund now, but it and the original organization, the Artemis Society, are copyrighted names, I do believe.

   1. Artemis is the name of an ancient god. I expect that predates any current copyright/trademark concerns.

   2. You can’t copyright names, although you can get limited trademarks with names, in limited areas. You can write a book with the title “Gone With the Wind” and Margaret Mitchell’s estate can’t do anything, especially if your story is about prisoners escaping Alcatraz with a home-made hang glider…

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