Tagged: eoin colfer
Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of the Reader Store.)
When Artemis Fowl’s mother contracts a life-threatening illness, his world is turned upside down. The only hope for a cure lies in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. Unfortunately, the animal is extinct, thanks to the money-hungry deeds of a younger Artemis.
Though the odds are stacked against him, Artemis is not willing to give up. With the help of his fairy friends, the young genius travels back in time to save the lemur and bring it to the present. But to do so, Artemis will have to defeat a maniacal poacher, who has set his sights on new prey: Holly Short.
The rules of time travel are far from simple, but to save his mother, Artemis will have to break them all…and outsmart his most cunning adversary yet: Artemis Fowl, age ten.
Ah, time travel. It’s definitely a complicated subject in fiction and very few writers can truly pull it off, but for the most part, Eoin Colfer is one of them. What’s interesting is that when Artemis and Holly travel back in time, they age differently. As a result, Artemis is suddenly older and Holly is suddenly younger, as in the human equivalent of a teenager.
If you haven’t guessed what’s going to happen already, I’m disappointed in you because it’s so typical of YA: romantic tension. When I first read The Time Paradox, I was pretty angry about Eoin Colfer forcing the tension between Holly and Artemis, but now I’m just slightly disappointed. It felt like he caved in to the demand that romance has to be part of every YA book, although thankfully things were sorted out in the end.
We learn a lot more about Artemis’ ‘childhood’ and why he was quite the sociopath when we met him in the first book. With a childhood like he had, assuming the role of man of the house at the age of ten, wouldn’t you be a sociopath too? Having the older, more human Artemis meet his ruthless younger self was one of the highlights of the whole novel. In addition to Artemis’ expanded backstory, we also get to learn more about Holly and how her mother died.
There were a few rough spots (see the aforementioned ‘romance’), but overall I enjoyed The Time Paradox. It had an excellent plot that sets up the next two books, helped expand on the backstories of main characters and showed just how far Artemis has really come since the beginning of the series.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Reader Store.)
Thousands of years ago, fairies and humans fought a great battle for the magical island of Ireland. When it became clear that they could not win, all of the fairies moved belowground—all except for the 8th Family, the demons. Rather than surrender, they used a magical time spell to take their colony out of time and into Limbo. There they have lived for decades, planning their violent revenge on humans.
Now the time spell is unraveling, and demons are beginning to materialize without warning on Earth. If humans were to find out about them, all fairies would be exposed. To protect themselves, the fairies must predict when the next demon will materialize. But in order to do so, they will have to decipher temporal equations so complicated, even a great brain like Foaly can’t understand them. But he knows someone who can: Artemis Fowl.
So when a very confused demon imp appears in a Sicilian theater, Artemis is there to meet him. But he is not alone. Someone else has unlocked the secrets of the fairy world and managed to solve complex mathematical problems that only a genius could. And she is only twelve years old…
The Lost Colony is probably one of my favourite Artemis Fowl books, aside from The Eternity Code. I love how Artemis is finally given a run for his money by a twelve-year-old girl and how his plans turn out far from perfect for once. He makes mistakes and finally, in some respects, actually behaves like a normal teenage boy who’s going through that dreaded time in everyone’s life: puberty.
New characters like N°1 and Doodah Day are very colourful and add a lot of depth to Eoin Colfer’s fantastic world where fairies are real and dangerous. Of course, old favourites like Foaly, Holly, Butler and Juliet return and continue along their character arcs. Artemis himself changes quite a bit and gains sympathy for other people, which has been hinted at in earlier books, but really shows through in The Lost Colony. Of course he’s still manipulative when he needs to be, but the difference is that he feels guilt over it.
There were truly unexpected plot twists and Eoin Colfer used the demon island in Limbo to expand upon the history of the fairies, particularly why they went underground. I was up reading The Lost Colony until early in the morning and I have to say that I didn’t regret it one bit because it was well-written, entertaining and the characters were sympathetic.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Tower Books.)
After his last run-in with the fairies, Artemis Fowl had his mind wiped of his memories of the world belowground. Any goodness he had grudgingly learned is now gone, and the young genius has reverted to his criminal lifestyle.
Artemis is in Berlin preparing to steal a famously well-guarded painting from a German bank. Little does he know that his every move is being watched by his old rival, Opal Koboi. The evil pixie has spent the last year in a self-induced coma, plotting her revenge on all those who foiled her attempt to destroy the LEPrecon fairy police. And Artemis is at the top of her list.
Once again, it’s up to Artemis Fowl to stop the human and fairy worlds from colliding—only this time, Artemis faces an enemy who may have finally outsmarted him…
As I’ve mentioned before, I was a victim of moderate bullying for about five years and the memories of those incidents haunt me to this day. If you had offered to wipe all those painful memories from my mind only a year ago, I would have said yes without a second thought. Now, however, I’m not so sure because as a human, I am nothing more than the sum of my memories. Like it or not, those memories are a part of who I am today and I would be a much worse person without them. So with that in mind, consider what wiping all of Artemis’ fairy memories would do to him.
Well, in The Opal Deception, we find out and it isn’t pretty. Without even the scraps of goodness Holly Short and the other fairies taught him, Artemis has reverted to his default setting: evil criminal mastermind. Did this actually come as a surprise to anyone but the LEP? Probably not. And thanks to their brilliant idea to wipe Artemis’ memory, they are in even worse trouble when Opal Koboi escapes, bent on revenge.
Unfortunately, one of my favourite characters is killed off in this book in a very touching death scene. The plus side is that we get to see more of the eccentric centaur, Foaly, and the kleptomaniac dwarf, Mulch Diggums. Both Artemis and Holly go through significant character development as they join forces once again to stop Opal Koboi, becoming friends again along the way. With a well-paced plot and a satisfying end to the novel, fans will love this fourth installment of the Artemis Fowl series.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Today’s Wednesday, so you know what that means: guest posting over at We Heart Reading. So what did I review for my third guest post over there? Why a science fiction retelling of Cinderella, of course! What else? For those of you that are interested, here’s my review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
And for those of you that are just checking in, here are some things you’ve missed:
Sunday: Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
Monday: The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge and Things Authors Should Know About Bad Reviews
Tuesday: Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
(Cover picture courtesy of Book Advisers.)
Artemis Fowl is going straight—as soon as he pulls of the most brilliant criminal feat of his career…
At least, that’s the plan when he attempts to sell his C Cube, a supercomputer built from stolen fairy technology, to Jon Spiro, one of the most dangerous businessmen in the world. But Spiro springs a trap—stealing the C Cube and mortally injuring Butler. Artemis’s only hope of saving his loyal bodyguard is to employ fairy magic, so once again he must contact his older rival, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon fairy police.
It’s going to take a miracle to save Butler, and Artemis’s luck may have just run out…
Despite its sad beginning, The Eternity Code is my favourite out of all of the books in the Artemis Fowl series. In the third book, Eoin Colfer has given Artemis a significant amount of character development, raised the stakes even higher than before and added just enough humour to balance it all out.
First off, the characters in The Eternity Code are amazing. We see the more vulnerable side of Artemis, the softer side of Holly and more of the obnoxious side of Foaly. Characters who have only made minor appearances in the first two novels, like Juliet Butler and Commander Root get a lot more page time and one of my favourite characters, the kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch Diggums is back. Mulch Diggums’ biting wit (pardon the pun) takes centre stage in the scene where he taunts Jon Spiro’s two big dumb henchmen. I love this line in particular:
“Mulch groaned. If stupidity were a crime, these two would be public enemies one and two.” (Pg 273)
A fast-paced plot, amazing characters and great humour…what more can you ask for? Well, after the cliffhanger ending, you’ll be begging for the fourth book, Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception.
I give this book 5/5 stars.