Book 33: The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl, Book 3) – Eoin Colfer

So how should I begin this review? I’m already another book past this review (as I said in the last one) and I’ve managed to stay mostly off topic for the last reviews and I will do so again at least for the first part of this review.

What I don’t understand is why the publishers feel they have to take a perfectly good (and interesting and simple) book cover and ‘spice it up’ for the mass-market paperback release? The book cover to the right (and all of the book covers for this series) are the original hardback covers. After the jump (if you’re reading on the main page or in the email) at the end of the blog you can see the American and British paperback version of this book. I understand you want people to buy the book once it comes out, but why the need to spice it up especially if it’s later in the series?

In this novel we find Artemis planning one last scheme, but it is a noble scheme. He plans to con one of the foulest (pun intended) businessmen in the US, however not all goes according to plan. His C-Cube, built from a hybrid of human and Faerie technology, scans the lower elements and shuts down Haven City and as ever, the fast paced action in the book keeps the readers on your toes and makes you question everything that’s about to happen. From the opening cafe scene to the final mind wipes, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen next and you’re definitely not sure if it’s permanent.

The remainder of the series, starting with this novel (and for at least the next two novels), seems to hinge on the major drama of humans discovering the Faerie Folk. This is in direct correlation with the first book, Artemis Fowl, and his discovery of the Faerie Folk. As a major plot point it allows for the increase in roles of other characters aside from Artemis. We also have gathered our core party of characters, Mulch Diggums (a dwarf), Holly Short (a pixie), Foaly (a centaur), Artemis Fowl, II (criminal mastermind, human) and Butler (bodyguard, human). This core group appears and reappears throughout the series with other minor characters and nemeses.

Again this book was a fascinating and quick read and again I love how Colfer pulls together seemingly disparate elements of Crime novels, fiction, fantasy, folk-lore, science fiction, technology and a hodgepodge of other genres to create this series.

I’m only one book behind right now updating as I finished it on the train this morning! I’m going to force myself to review it tonight so that I can keep moving forward with my goal! (Plus I recently found a couple more interesting novels I’ve added to my list that I really want to read.)