Reviews

The Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

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princessrobotiv's review against another edition

4.0

3.5

Spoiler

Holly had been dead and now she was alive.

Artemis's hand tingled with the phantom memory of a gun it may or may not have held moments before.

There will be consequences for this, he thought. You can't alter time and be unaffected. But whatever the consequences are, I will bear them, because the alternative is too terrible.

The main issue with the Artemis Fowl series as a whole is that it has no central plot. There are series-long character arcs and certainly series-long themes, all of this set within an established universe that doesn't change overmuch, but the plot of each book is totally variable. The series antagonist, Opal Koboi, seems to take center stage more prominently as we near the finale . . . but we have incredibly random interludes like this one in between that make me go, Huh? Demons . . . REALLY?

But yes, demons, really. In this volume, Artemis heads off against another child genius named Minerva in the quest to intercept a demon phasing from another dimension, where the demon race--an offshoot of the faerie races--had been trapped for thousands of years. There's also a fair bit of time travel, as evidenced by the quote I included above, and a lot of magic / science nonsense about the 'time stream,' which will feature a bit in the next book, as well.

I really didn't care much for the entire framework of this novel, and didn't have any investment at all in the demon society or its narrator, a new POV led by an outcast demon who will become a recurring part of the ensemble cast. It was fine, but it just felt too auxiliary to the main plot, especially after book four.

However, the frantic game of matching wits that Artemis played with Minerva resulted in some pretty interesting, classically Artemis Fowl scenes which were quite entertaining. I liked Minerva's character well enough despite Colfer's fairly obvious ploy in crafting an opposite-gender "equal" for Artemis (presumably set up with the intention of suggesting they later become romantically involved). I prefer my ships to be between characters who are slightly unlikely, opposites in just enough ways to make their romance surprising but equals and partners in less visible ways (such as core values, fatal flaws, etc.). It makes things more interesting to me if I can see how two people balance, gentle, and/or elevate one another.

Ultimately, this book got four stars from me instead of three not because of Minerva or the demon narrative but because of those final scenes where Holly, Artemis, and co. are attempting to return to their dimension. They were some of the strongest passages in the series thus far and truly highlighted the unique and fantastically touching bond between Artemis and Holly, which is really the lifeblood of this series. The implications of them literally becoming part of one another when returning to their dimension (resulting in a magically-induced heterochromia for each) were so blatant and yet so affecting.

Anyway, one more review to complete before I can move on to the next AF volume!