Artemis Fowl Series Overview

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

A Mostly Spoiler Free Overview of the Series

 

I find the Artemis Fowl series a bit hard to categorize. I remember enjoying the first four books as a teenager but never got around to reading the rest of the series until now. I honestly can't say that the series is amazing, though it is, at least original. Sci-fi-is fairies aren't a dime a dozen, after all. It was fun getting to know the characters and their world, for the most part. It is also quite clear that 30-something is not the intended age range for the Artemis Fowl series. I was rolling my eyes at some of the jokes and honestly felt talked down to at times. If I were to recommend an age-range for these, it would probably be the Junior High set.

The main batch of characters -- Artemis, Holly, Mulch, Butler, Foaly, and Opal -- were all fleshed out quite well. I enjoyed all of them at certain points, though, if you've read my reviews, you will know that I have a disdain for Butler's apparent body-guarding "skills." Artemis' character progression was believable and gradual enough to work for me. The less said about his alter ego in The Atlantis Complex, the better. Holly, Foaly, and Mulch were pretty steady throughout the series, which I expect considering they're in at least their 80s. Fairy aging might be different than human aging, but a well-adjusted adult is still not going to change that much over the course of a few years. Butler, as I've said before, is a crap bodyguard, but he's essential to the series. Artemis did need someone to do the physical stuff after all. And finally, Opal Koboi. Hooo boy does Opal need some serious, actual therapy. That said, I did enjoy having an uncomplicated, almost completely insane villain.

The secondary characters were alright, though honestly the rest of them were relegated to the background pretty quickly. I definitely did not enjoy most of the interim antagonists, can't even recall their names off the top of my head. I'm not really sure why we had to have them in the first place, but they exist. I did like Commander Julius Root, for the short time we had him. He was very stereotypical of a hard on the outside but a cinnamon roll in the middle police captain that seems to make their way into these things. I guess I would have liked him to stick around, but I feel like he would have been just a background character, like Kelp, there at the end so it's probably a good thing he was taken out early. Myles and Beckett Fowl were cute and largely served to soften Artemis some. Artemis Fowl Sr. and Angeline Fowl were just kind of there as very background guides for Artemis' continued growth through the series and, of course, motivation in those first three books. Lastly, Juliet Butler had some semi-complex character growth. She figured out what she actually wanted to do with her life (masked wrestling) and then promptly discards it to bodyguard the Fowl twins? I'm confused, but hey, if that's apparently what she wants, more power to her.

I did also enjoy the fairy upgrade we got. By that, I mean that the fairies are a borderline sci-fi alien species as opposed to the stereotypical stuck in medieval ways kind of species. I also liked the diversity of them. We've got elves, sprites, trolls, dwarfs, goblins, and centaurs, each with their own characteristics. It's not often we get more than just elves and dwarfs. Speaking of dwarfs, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about getting a new ability for them every book. They seem to be ever-evolving where the rest of the fairies are just kind of mini-humans with a tiny bit of magic. Not even sure what most of fairy society uses magic for. Holly always seems to be using it for healing and shielding, but most of fairy society is underground just going about their business so they don't need magic, really. Much shrugging. I'm still wondering how tall centaurs get, given that the other fairy species (aside from Trolls) seem to top out at around three feet.

Finally, I want to talk a bit about Colfer's environmental message. It's really obvious that Colfer is pro-environmentalism. I second that view, for what it's worth. However, I do think Colfer slams the reader over the head with it at least once a book. I get it, I do, get the kids onboard with the pro-environment message as soon as you can. Not sure how much in-depth detail really needed to be added, though. I know my brain kind of glazed over when Artemis' glider was described in The Last Guardian, for example. I'm also pretty sure I ranted about the Extinctionists in The Time Paradox, too. They were definitely "on stage" for a lot longer than I thought was needed. But yeah, Colfer definitely has a strong pro-environment message that's ridiculously hard to miss. To be clear, I'm not knocking the inclusion of the message, I'm just not feeling HOW it was included. That said, it's also clear that Colfer is hopeful for us. His path for humanity in The Last Guardian shows that.

Yeah, overall, I think Artemis Fowl is pretty good. Worth a read, at least. In my personal opinion, one could definitely skip over a few books. They pertinent plot points are summed up in the following books, so you don't have to kill any brain cells actually slogging through them. I would personally skip The Eternity Code, The Time Paradox, and The Atlantis Complex on reread... assuming I ever get the urge to reread this series.

Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: August 9, 2022

Well color me suitably impressed. Or as impressed as I can get with a young adult novel that is also the finale of a series. Artemis Fowl has been up and down, but the end is definitely up, for which I am immensely happy.

I’m still salty about The Atlantis Complex. Like, literally the dumbest mental illness/plot point. Pretty much waved away here at the beginning. Also not very happy to see Dr. Jerbil Argon back. Just… ugh. Didn’t like him in The Opal Deception, still don’t like him here. Luckily, it’s only in order to assure everyone that Artemis is indeed cured of the annoying plot device so he can continue on being the hero.

I was very glad to have Opal back in the villain chair. There was no way she was going to be locked in that Atlantis prison for the rest of the series. I am a tad torn as to the way she managed to escape, but that’s the version of me that is more into alternate timelines than exploding universes. That said, I did wonder how they were going to deal with two Opals in the same time and it was handled as best as one could hope. I’m also glad the Opal clone, Nopal, was dealt with. I’d honestly forgotten Nopal existed, so it was a bit of a surprise when she showed back up.

The way Colfer did Berserkers was interesting. Very few fantasy authors that I’ve read treat Berserkers as anything more than rage machines, so to see them more as a military unit was pleasant. It was also interesting to see how the Berserkers had to overcome the difficulty of disparate hosts. I liked it. It was amusing at times. Also, ya know, always fun to have that mind-controlled loved-ones trope show up.

I even enjoyed the aside focused on Foaly and Caballine. At the beginning of that, I was sure I was going to be annoyed with it, as the action had been following Artemis, Holly, and Butler up to that point. However, it was actually nice to have a little break from them to follow Foaly around and actually get to know Caballine a bit. I liked her a lot.

The story as a whole was mostly paced well. There were points where I was rolling my eyes a bit, but not enough to completely break my immersion. Everyone was also in character, which was very nice. Also, no mention of the Holly/Artemis romance. Good riddance. I don't think it's strictly necessary to have your male and female leads be in some kind of romantic relationship. It's often shoehorned in, as it was here. Getting rid of it in favor of the platonic relationship is much better and definitely more valid for these characters.

There is a point at which the world basically explodes. It’s more of a technology explodes kind of deal. For everyone, humans and fairies alike. Colfer is apparently convinced humans would have been rocked back to the stone age by this. He says as much. I disagree. I think there’s enough non-tech and tech that was developed before the five year cutoff that we would by no means be back in the stone age. Back to the 90s, maybe, but definitely not stone age. Also, have a very big beef with how he says humanity recovered from this catastrophe. Like, it’s nice to think we’d go all solar and wind powered, but we were mostly gas powered before any of the tech got going. Doubt we’d bounce back in environmentally friendly ways, to be honest. I don’t have that much faith in humanity. But hey, it’s Colfer’s universe.

I’m also honestly not sure how much more I can say without spoiling things. Part of the fun is the play-by-play of the adventure. I am glad it ended as it did, though I’m a tad tired of sacrifices being undone. That’s definitely all I’ll say on that, though, as giving away the ending is definitely a spoiler. Anyway, I am very, very glad the series ended on a high note.

In Other News

I will be doing a Series Overview for Artemis Fowl, but it will probably take me a little while to do so. This post will also be the last of my daily posts for a good long while. I've been posting all my reviews for 2022 (and 2021 due to when I started The Women of the Otherworld/The Otherworld) and we're now all caught up. All subsequent reviews will be posted when I finish reading and/or watching whatever I'll be reviewing.

Currently reading: The Princess Bride by William Goldman and Midnight's Daughter by Karen Chance

Currently watching: The Sandman and The Umbrella Academy

As a rather personal side note: Please, please, please be patient, polite, and flexible when dealing with your service professionals, no matter which service they're providing you. We're all overworked and understaffed and would really appreciate some understanding on the part of the consumer. We're also STILL dealing with product shortages and variable product availability, so please keep that in mind.

Artemis Fowl

Here be spoilers for books and movie. You have been warned.

Alrighty so, this was the movie I originally had picked as my first movie review for this blog. Figured if I was going to reread/finish reading the Artemis Fowl series, I would subject myself to the movie as well. I knew it was going to be bad. I'd heard through the internet that it was bad but I hadn't looked at any reviews or anything. I also knew that "perceived fan wisdom" (to borrow a phrase from Verity! a Doctor Who Podcast) is often wrong. They were not wrong about this adaptation of Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why Disney decided to change the plot to fundamentally. Was it to make Artemis more likeable? Was it to give him something to do? Was it to give Colin Farrell more screen-time? Whatever it was, Disney completely botched this one. Not only was the plot changed, but, as a result, Artemis himself was changed. Book Artemis would not have recognized his movie counterpart. Or, if he did, he would have been extremely dismissive of him. Movie Artemis is much more emotional, physically active, and not exactly less intelligent, but definitely not as focused through that intelligence. I honestly can't see Movie Artemis robbing a bank, for instance. He doesn't show any of the ingenuity Book Artemis does. He spends more time spouting off knowledge apparently gained from his father than figuring anything out for himself. And then he goes and baits Opal there at the end. Just straight up baits her. Book Artemis would never.

Artemis is not the only character changed for this adaptation. Commander Julius Root is now just Commander Root as she is played by Dame Judi Dench. I think Dame Dench does an adequate enough job as Root, but I really think she was cast to put another female in the cast. Speaking of which, Juliet Butler is now 12 instead of 16 and is otherwise pretty unchanged from how she was in Artemis Fowl. I do not, however, actually believe that she is as skilled at martial arts as she should be as she displays absolutely none of this in the movie. Opal Koboi has been reduced to Shadowy Villain We Never See The Face Of But Has A Permanent Voice Changer with more revolutionary sounding plans than just Book Opal's world domination thing. Cudgeon, instead of just being a government toady, is now under Opal's employ for some reason... and Butler... oh Butler... He commands absolutely none of the presence of his book counterpart aaand... Domovoi. Right out the gate, that thing that signals he's in trouble is just trotted out like it's completely normal to refer to him by his first name all the time. Which, in the movie-verse is true, but boy did it bug me every time someone said "Dom." He also shows off none of that Butler prowess, but does fail as a bodyguard at least twice that I decided to count. Second-to-last, Mr. Mulch Diggums. Apparently we couldn't just CG a character for this so instead Mulch is a giant dwarf. Okay, could have lived with that if the rest of the dwarfs had been similarly cast, but they weren't and so it because Mulch's thing apparently. Also, I wasn't sure how they were gonna do Mulch's digging and jaw unhinging thing but... in hindsight, the way they did the digging was fine, but that jaw animation was just weird. Oh, and Foaly was just kinda there.

I'm going to talk about Artemis Sr. separately from everyone else as he's really where the biggest changes are. First, Angeline Fowl has apparently died, so Artemis Sr. is a single father. He's apparently still doing criminal things, though the reasons have definitely shifted. Instead of teaching Artemis everything he knows about how to run a criminal empire, he's taught Artemis everything he knows about fairies. He's definitely more of a loving father than pre-Arctic Incident Book Artemis Sr. was. And then, of course, there's the whole thing about being kidnapped by Opal rather than the Russian Mafia thing... mmm... I didn't like the whole thing with Artemis Sr. and apparently Holly's dead father. Where in the world did that come from? Why could we not have just stuck to the book's plot and not had to shoe-horn that in?

Speaking of plot points... that Aculos. Just... why? Why could we not just have had Mr. Criminal Mastermind do what he did in the books and get ahold of THE BOOK and Holly in order to get the gold? Why did we have to bring in this deus ex machina? Part tech, part magic but apparently the source of all magic? I'm confused as to what the Aculos even is, let alone why it was important.

Speaking of magic... with the loss of a plot involving THE BOOK and kidnapping a fairy for the fairy gold, we lost the magic bit of the plot. No explanation of the rules of magic. No basement cell. No banging bed covering up Mulch's loud activity. No acorn in Holly's boot. Just a sudden "Cut off all magic in the house" so we can have a minute to fear for Butler's life. Like, literally, that was it. Magic reduced to some not-at-all-explained tech gadget in order to endanger Butler's life and then bring him back a minute later. Just... ugh. I'm frustrated at the movie.

However, there were somethings I did enjoy. The L.E.P. suits were pretty. Foaly's hair was nice. His horse-bits animation wasn't jarring. The tech looked alright. I always imagined fairy tech to be more organic looking, but I wasn't super disappointed with how it ended up looking. Their shuttles reminded me of Marvel's Quinjets. The troll looked okay, I guess. I never really thought of them as looking like they stepped out of a Harry Potter movie, though. I also have a question regarding the people who took custody of Mulch. Who were they supposed to be, exactly? Just an unexplained plot point so we could have Mulch basically narrate the story at certain points? Probably.

So, Artemis Fowl wasn't exactly a bad movie, I don't think. It was entertaining enough and I didn't feel the need to turn it off at any point. It was, however, a colossally bad adaptation.

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

A Semi-Spoilery Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: 8-1-22

Welp, Colfer opted for more “script padding” here. Spending a lot of time explaining things that were already quite plain and giving us a lot more insight into characters I’m pretty sure we didn’t need the insight into. This weird third-person limited but limited to whoever I want at any given moment mixed with third person omniscient with a wannabe in-universe narrator thing Colfer does is really not the best. It’s kind of like he’s trying to imitate Douglas Adams and failing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s alright at times, but at other times it’s super distracting and often times feels like he’s talking down to the reader. This writing style also completely leeches any sort of urgency out of the text. I am definitely not a fan.

Orion Fowl is the worst. I didn’t like the Artemis/Holly thing that started in The Time Paradox and I like it even less now. The age gap is still gross. Will always be gross. Orion’s ridiculously flowery language in Holly’s direction is gross. They need to just be friends and firmly stick to that. There’s zero reason for romance between them. Zero.

So, Butler… why the fuck didn’t he attempt to contact Juliet at any point BEFORE showing up at her wrestling match? Turnball’s entire Butler plan hinged on no one actually attempting to figure out what was going on by any other means than in person... and Artemis apparently straight up lying to Butler due to his paranoia. Still not entirely sure how that last bit managed to work out or how Turnball found out about it... but he got what he wanted, but again, this brings up Butler’s incompetence. If he’d maybe tried to ask Juliet for some details, there’s no way he’d have gone to Mexico. Just… ugh. This trope of people not talking to each other needs to fucking die. It's lazy. Especially when pasted onto a character like Butler. Butler is frequently shown to be checking out all the angles of attack and making sure exits are clear and being generally worried about anything involving Artemis being in a crowded area. But to basically NOT do any of his apparently usual prep work when it involves his sister... like, why? Oh, convenient plot development? Cool. Not cool. Not remotely cool. Annoying.

Turnball Root is… I don’t know. Interesting isn’t the right word, even if used sarcastically. He’s not stupid, either. I mean, he somehow figured out how to get the barest bit of magic and mix it with some previously unknown rune thing... He's unhinged, definitely. Not sure how I want to categorize him, but it’s definitely not up there with the great villains. I really don’t understand why anyone who ostensibly works for him does so. He’s condescending and just ridiculous. Not going to lie, I skipped his backstory with Leonor. I’m sure it was properly touching, but as I’m not a fan of the writing style of The Atlantis Complex… I just felt it was going to be eye-roll inducing, so I skipped it. I understand that. Colfer was attempting something different here with Turnball, but I really wasn’t invested and it fell pretty flat for me.

So, the Atlantis Complex as a mental illness is patently ridiculous and treated horribly. I understand that there were circumstances, but ultimately, it’s a plot device that I did not appreciate in the least. I did like that we weren’t privy as to what was going on with Artemis in the first part of the story, even if I was admittedly annoyed by it. However, that does not change the fact that a magical disease caused by remorse, of all things, is not great as a representation of mental illness. It actually kind of reminds me of J.K. Rowling’s short story “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” from The Tales of Beadle the Bard in that remorse ultimately causes the warlock’s death. Also this representation of some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder is annoying at best and not actually how that works at all. Atlantis Complex just mixes a bunch of stuff together basically to sideline Artemis unless it's convenient. Did not enjoy.

Anyway, time to finish out this hit-and-miss series with The Last Guardian. Here’s hoping it’s less eye-roll inducing than this one. Crossing my fingers because I really want to ultimately come out positive on this series.

Favorite Line

"It was more expensive in the long term, but the politicians reasoned that by the time the long term came around, somebody else would be in office."

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

A Very Spoilery Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 30, 2022

This story is bloated and hard to talk about without spoilers. This review, therefore, contains spoilers.

It really feels like Colfer was “padding the runtime” with bad coincidence after bad coincidence. And, as though all of that were not enough, he brings back Opal Koboi from before she attempted her coup and destruction of Haven. Just… ugh. About halfway through the book and I was just so done. Kept pushing til about three-quarters of the way through… and no. Just… no. Ended up skipping part of a chapter. Things got better after that. Seriously, the middle of this book dragged so, so much. Like the middle of a 24 episode TV series.

Everyone’s back in this adventure, even if some are basically their younger selves instead of our friends at this point. The time travel element is a mostly closed loop. Really the only issue left hanging is Opal, unless you count Angeline Fowl, which I don’t really see as an issue. Might be a bit of an issue for Artemis, but that’s really just as well.

I’m not sure how I feel about Artemis’ new brothers. Apparently they’ve got their own little spin-off books, which I won’t be reading. The boys were sweet together in their scene at the beginning, so that was nice, I guess.

I really didn’t like the sudden Artemis/Holly romantic thing that is apparently developing… she’s still way older than him and I think if they end up pursuing this nonsense further, it’ll be a detriment to the series. Honestly, I would like it if Artemis were Ace, but that’s obviously not going to happen so… yeah. Their mutual fixation on the kiss is dumb and I hate it.

The Extinctionists. I fucking hated this part of the story. It’s really the absolute worst and felt like it went on FOREVER. This is really the bit I should have skipped. Kronski reminded me of a drag version of Donald Trump. It was gross. Really should have been substantially cut down. Maybe told from Holly’s POV to just get it over with. Also, we get is Colfer, these people are super stupid rich people with nothing better to do. You could have made your point without being gratuitous about it. I’m not saying not to be political, but seriously… too long, too much.

Seeing Artemis acting without Butler for much of this book just hammers home the fact that Butler is really unnecessary for the job he’s apparently in. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an alright character, but there have been two books where he’s completely taken out and Artemis manages to get along just fine. Now, the boy needs to step up his cardio and combat training, but yeah. Butler mainly just stands around being tall and apparently suuuper dangerous, with the odd conscience-like comment to Artemus. Really, he acts more like a trusted accomplice than a bodyguard. He really spends more time staking out locations and sniping than he does actually guarding Artemis.

I’m not looking forward to The Atlantis Complex mainly due to Opal most likely being the villain again. She’s gone from being kinda quirky to outright annoying. None of what she did in this book spoke to that genius she had before. Also, I feel like her fixation on magic in The Time Paradox is at odds with her earlier (or later, as the case may be) motivations. Actually felt out of character for her. They are going to have to figure out how to pop her back into her proper moment in the time stream at some point, which definitely won’t go well… yeah, not looking forward to the next one, but here we go…

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

 A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 20, 2022

 

A Challenger Appears! Minerva Paradizo, basically a slightly younger, blonder, female Artemis. Although her aims seem more scientific and humanitarian than Artemis’ ever did. Minerva has a thing with demons, though has no actual idea that she’s scratched the surface of the fairy world, so that’s a fun brain blast she gets to have.

I really like the demons. They have a distinct culture that’s so completely different from any other “fairy” species in the series. Abbot was, uh, interesting as a villain to No1, but then kind of devolves into more of an annoyance through the rest of the book.

I am highly annoyed by Billy Kong. He fits into Colfer’s apparently preferred trope of goons who are none too bright. Billy, specifically, has some mental illness something-or-other going on. Trauma, definitely, coupled with a belief that things his brother lied to him about when he was eight are true, even though it’s staring him in the face that it was a lie. I’m really not a fan of these types of unhinged characters, whether they have slightly understandable backstories or not.

Ending is really crazy, which makes sense, given what’s going on. Little hard to follow in places, though. But that’s rapid time travel for you.

Overall, pretty solid story. Colfer writes very cinematically, and that’s very much on show here. There are some bits of overlapping action, though less than in previous books. I enjoyed myself through most of The Lost Colony… when I wasn’t rolling my eyes at Billy fucking Kong. I am interested to see how Artemis gets his shit together for the next book. That explanation will definitely prove to be interesting.

 

Favorite Quote

"No matter what dimension you’re in, there’s a bigheaded male trying to take over the world." - Holly Short's thought

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer

 A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: July 13, 2022

Almost made wading through The Eternity Code worth it. Almost. That said, if you’re reading these for the first time, skip The Eternity Code. The plot is summed up a few times, actually, in The Opal Deception, as are relevant bits, so there’s really no need to subject yourself to The Eternity Code.

The Opal Deception, in my opinion, is so far the best of the Artemis Fowl series. The characters are back on point. The pacing is fantastic, very action movie-esque. I have no complaints… well… Opal’s neuroses were annoying, though they’re also lamp shaded and she gets a very fitting comeuppance. Her insistence on absolutely perfect English sentences from her mesmerized “father” had me wanting to beat her with a stick.

It makes me really happy to know that the fairies have replicas of the “Eleven Wonders” of the world. Sucks that the park they made them in is overrun by trolls, because I would really like to go to there.

Part of me wants to start a drinking game with this book where Artemis’ Irishness is mentioned. I’m not exactly sure if you’d get drunk, but the phrase “the Irish youth” is burned into my synapses.

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer

 A Spoiler Free Reread Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads July 8, 2022

 

You ever read a book and just start wanting to throw it at a wall? That’s how I felt halfway through The Eternity Code. I basically didn’t want to make this a DNF so I forced myself to finish. Now, I realize that I’m nowhere near the target demographic for this series, however, that doesn’t mean jack as I read and have read plenty of young adult books and had a grand old time with them. This was obviously not the case with The Eternity Code.

So, right off the bat, The Eternity Code annoyed me. We’ve got Artemis being rude to a server — which I absolutely hate both irl and in my fiction — Butler in an actual instance of real-world body-guarding in which he doesn’t act like an actual bodyguard, and Artemis being colossally stupid in two different aspects with his super new tech. So yeah, not off to a great start. Getting to The Lower Elements was a breath of fresh air. Just wish we’d had more of that and less of the rest of the book.

There are reasons heists are generally written without the blow-by-blow. Like, you find out what happened after the fact rather than going through everything in chronological order. I think The Eternity Code suffered from this blow-by-blow writing style. And it wasn’t even entertaining most of the time.

I’m really not sure exactly what purpose there is in hammering the reader over the head with the stupidity of Spiro’s goons. Just… why? Why do we have to spend any amount of time with them at all? I guess it’s supposed to be amusing, but it’s really not. I doubt I would have liked it even at a younger age. I literally cannot remember my thoughts from my first read, which was about 15 years ago… or so. Can’t exactly remember that either…

Anyway, I also have a beef with how Colfer wrote the body-guarding bits. I’m not really an expert in these things, but I have read other books in which there are bodyguards and their job is explained in detail so… Butler and Juliet are shit bodyguards. It was alright in the first book, cuz it all took place at Fowl Manor so Butler could act like a glorified thug. The second book was also okay cuz at least Butler did take his body-guarding seriously for the most part. However, literally the inciting incident had Butler acting like more of Artemis’ accomplice than his bodyguard. And Juliet… well, obviously she’s so bad at her not-job that her teacher and even Holly are like “you’re bad at this.” And don’t get me started with Spiro’s goons… all three of them.

Overall, some parts of this needed to be more realistic than they were to help with immersion, I think. Instead, my SOD was shattered and I spent most of The Eternity Code rolling my eyes and wishing for the end. Really hoping The Opal Deception is better.

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer

 Spoiler Free Reread Review

Definitely better than the last one. Artemis is more fleshed out and actually does some stuff this time around. I enjoyed Mulch’s bit of story. He’s quite fun. Not exactly sure how I feel about Cudgeon and Opal… well, Opal’s crazy pants and Cudgeon’s more annoying than anything else. Would have been nice to see what ends up happening to Opal at the end of this book, since we got to see Cudgeon’s comeuppance.

I would honestly compare The Arctic Incident with Spy Kids 2 in terms of fleshing out characters after having the first installment for setup. They get to inhabit the previously built world and flesh it out more.

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Spoiler Free Reread Review

Pretty good, albeit convoluted in places. I like the take on fairies, it’s fresh and more interesting than just having them stuck in some medieval society or something. I also like the differences between the fairy races. I also like the inclusion of their language in an actual visible form. It definitely makes more sense than just being like “they speak whatever and write in runes.” I remember having fun translating it during my first read.

Artemis himself is rather bland. We find out more about him via what others think of him rather than much he actually does, which is not a lot, to be honest. Most of the other characters are much better fleshed out than Artemis.

I vaguely remember really enjoying Juliet when I was younger, but that’s changed. She’s definitely less cool than I remember her being, though I might also be just remembering her in later books.

 

Favorite Quote

“Holmes, Moriarty, they both look the same with the flesh scorched off their skulls.” - Commander Julius Root