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Artemis Fowl: Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl
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Fairies and demons and time tunnels, oh my!
Artemis Fowl is back and exercising his brain (and local laws) to his usual limits. Let’s just hope he gets out with all his body parts in the right places, or at least a majority of them!
When demons begin materializing in the modern world, Artemis realizes that the spell that threw the demon island out of time long ago is beginning to unravel. Meanwhile, a demon named No1 finds himself stuck in our world and the captive of the new child genius in town, Minerva. With the help of Holly, Artemis must get No1 free and then free Minerva herself when one of her employees decides to double-cross her in his ill-conceived revenge attempt on the demons. Add into the mix the fact that Artemis must still find a way to save all the ungrateful demons from being blinked out of existence, and while not being distracted by that obnoxious human infliction called “hormones.”
Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony is the fifth book in the series, and I personally think that everyone who loves Harry Potter should read these books. Better written and with more intelligent contemplation of elements like magic and technology, this is a series that readers of all ages can enjoy. By book five, we’ve been introduced to a wide and fun cast of characters, and unfortunately had one of our good friends die. There is no over-arcing plot between books, though there are certainly continuing themes and characters, so a reader can pick up the series at any point. I’m a big fan of starting at the beginning, but this is a series that could actually be read from any book.
While I think this book is much more complex and thought-out than many books I’ve read, I did feel that in comparison with the rest of the series, this book just wasn’t as good. I was excited when I got it, drove an hour away to the nearest bookstore to find it, started reading right away, and then I ended up putting it down later that day in favor of watching Veronica Mars . It just didn’t keep my attention like the other books had, and the spot where I drifted away for about two weeks was the same spot that my editor drifted away at too.
Still, if you like the other books, you’ll want to read this one and not give it up. The second half of the book is far more interesting and the ending made me jump up and down with joy for what is being set-up for the next book. It’s kind of nice to have an Artemis Fowl book that I’m sure will have a sequel, since the last few books have ended on more questionable notes. Maybe that was part of the problem with this book, because the last book ended on a note that didn’t *need* a sequel, so this book didn’t have as much of a place to start off from.
Action 4 – The action was fun and the plotting diabolical, but there were some definite slow spots that keep me from rating it any higher.
Romance 1 – Artemis has hit puberty and has begun noticing that girls are cute. A very scary idea and thus an utterly hilarious one. Romance is budding, and I expect in the next book there will finally be an official ship for Artemis Fowl (considering he is only 15 in this book, I’m rather glad there hasn’t been romance before now. 12-year-olds in “love” bother me.) Oh, plus Foaly has a girlfriend, and that’s just damn adorable.
Characters 4 ½ - The only thing I didn’t like about the book is that it seemed like quite of a few of the side characters, like Foaly and Mulch, just didn’t get as much screen time as usual. Still, we did get some new characters that I hope we’ll continue to see.
Overall 4 – While I greatly enjoyed this book, it just wasn’t as good as I was expecting. There were a few times when I put down the book and didn’t pick it back up again for days, which is unusual for me and an Artemis Fowl novel. I did love the ending, though, and what has been set up for the next book. I eagerly await our next adventure in the scheming world of Artemis.
Extras:
I’m not sure how I escaped finding this site before, but the British official site is simply enchanting. I had a lot of fun reading The Biographer’s section and seeing the case files. I like the pictures that they used for each character. I did have a problem with the first page, the one with Artemis’ password, and I don’t doubt that you’ll guess right away what my problem was. The website also made me realize how much cooler the British covers are, and now I want a set. I always liked the American covers, being as how anything shiny will immediately attract me, but those British covers are *nice*. The site also contains some fun games, which I of course played in order to make sure I was only bringing my readers the finest in entertainment.
The Artemis Fowl Files is a companion book to the series, featuring two short stories along with details about the fairies and organizations in the books. There are interviews with the characters and a guide to the gnomish alphabet, making this a great book for any fan to own. Previously, the two short stories were only published in the UK , and I nearly bought them on amazon.co.uk before I found out they were finally being released over here. That’s the trouble with fan-girling a non-American book.
Artemis’s name-sake also deserves a mention, as Artemis is a rather odd name for a boy. When this is pointed out to Artemis in the books, he merely says that sometimes a man comes along who is worthy of the great huntress’ name, and he is that man. I’d give you the exact quote if I had it handy.
There are also never ending rumors about an Artemis Fowl movie, and in fact Miramax has bought the rights to make movies of the first three books. Unfortunately, nothing has come of it yet, and mildly official reports have it that casting will take place soon. Supposedly , all humans will be played by Irish actors while fairies will be played by Americans. The source for what little information I could find is here.
Parents: 10+ - Nothing objectionable as far as the eye can see, and a great deal of enjoyment to be found by all ages. Children under the age of ten, though, might have difficulty with some of the language of the book. If they’ve read and enjoyed the others in the series, then this will be no problem. Plus, the reader might even learn something about art or history from these books.
what is the gnomeish alphabet
Gnomeish is what the faries write in. Its covered mostly in the first book, because Artemis has to translate the lanaguage in order to read their … I forget the name, but essentially, their bible.
A link to the alphabet and a little more information is here- http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gnommish.htm
*sigh* The Gnomish Alphabet is the Language that the fairies write in as you said and in the first book Artemis ends up translating it to read the “Book” or the fairy bible. Again like you said. I once checked out the Artemis Fowl Files from my library and that had the alphabet. At the time I also had the Lost Colony checked out so I started to decode the bottom of the pages. I forgot to write down the alphabet before I returned the book and now I am missing the letters J, Q, and X.
*I always thought of Artemis Fowl to have blonde or fair hair. Not black.*