In my opinion Weir is learning to write in full public view. I tolerate it largely because he is definitely getting better. But its not everyones cup of tea.

The scenario is definitely contrived to introduce interplanetary travel to a near future setting.

The amnesia parts of of the book are not very coherently written.

However what Weir IMHO excels at is having fun self insert characters solving problems. When you get past the cruft and get to the "This is a book about troubleshooting in space" sections, it takes off.