With all the verve that somehow made reading about Mark Watney’s potato farming efforts on Mars thrilling reading, Weir briskly and beautifully lays out an Oceans 11–style crime spree, to be carried out by the resourceful Jazz and her eclectic cadre of friends. It’s great fun, but what’s most remarkable is how carefully Weir has considered the real science behind his high-concept hijinks. He sprinkles in real chemistry, gravitational considerations, mathematics, and other hard science in concise and engaging passages this English major would probably skip over in any other book. Science is integral to the plot (and, in the unforgiving atmosphere of the Moon, a matter of life and death for Jazz), and it’s incorporated smoothly, deftly avoiding labored exposition or lecturing. The science is, in fact, delightful to read about, and it’s obvious Weir had just as much fun writing it.

See my full review on the Barnes & Noble Science Fiction & Fantasy blog.