So this is the most recent book in the Artemis Fowl series and I have to say it was a bit of a let down. Colfer does once again show off his mastery of random knowledge and creativity with the genius world of Artemis Fowl, but overall the book seemed rushed and somewhat tangential to the other novels. As I haven’t read the graphic novels or the additional material I’m not sure if that covers a lot of what I feel is missing, but it is still a bit of a random book.
The novel starts off with Artemis meeting Foaly (which yes I’ve misspelled in every other post), Holly, and Commander Vinyaya in a remote region of Greenland to show them his newest invention in an attempt to stave off the melting of the polar ice caps, the Ice Cube. Similarly based off Faerie technology and his own genius which produces micro mirrors and has the sun reflected back into the sky and they’re designed to look like snowflakes.
So Colfer pumped some volume back into the series with The Lost Colony, but how does he keep it going? By bringing back a psychotic mastermind. This novel begins after the last novel ends (clearly) and picks up with Artemis who hasn’t aged at all, but is supposedly three years older than he was due to the final trip in time during the last novel and bringing Hydras back to the current plane of existence.
What better way to spice up a series than to throw in a new species and add a love interest? I can’t think of any! (This is only said with partial sarcasm and disdain.)
As readers begin the fourth book of the Artemis Fowl series we are in essence starting over again from Artemis’ perspective. After the mind wipe at the end of The Eternity Code I can imagine readers not knowing whether the series would continue. I hope that when Colfer wrote the book he actually questioned whether there would be additional adventures. As we begin this novel in the series, we wouldn’t know who would or would not appear with half the main cast receiving memory wipes and the other half forbidden to approach them.
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.