Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony

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It’s funny how sometimes you can be so completely immersed in a series, be so eager to open the cover on the next instalment, and then there are those times when you just can’t wait to close the book and stop… While I really have been enjoying the Artemis Fowl series, I have to admit that I am really quite glad that I have finished reading all the books that we have and can finally stop.

Book 5 in the series is Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony, which chronicles an adventure in which Artemis discovers a rival juvenile genius who has discovered the existence of the Fairy People; more worryingly, the existence of demons. She plans to capture a demon for scientific study; a most misguided plan, as demons are the most fearsome and human-hating species of the Fairy world. When the plan goes awry, it falls to Artemis, Butler, and Captain Holly Short to, once again, save the world.

Now, I felt that the books were getting a bit strained and convoluted in The Opal Deception, but The Lost Colony was really the nail in the coffin, as Colfer decides to go all fantasy-sci-fi and have a dabble in time travel and alternate dimensions. Narratively, there are so many complicated themes in this book that, sadly, don’t really work with Colfer’s simple and to-the-point prose. As if time travel and different dimensions were not complicated enough, the ‘villain’ of the book is a character with a dense psychological backstory that doesn’t get the attention it needs for the drama to fully form.

As a result, a lot of the stuff that happens in this book feels tacked on, explanations for actions are vaguely hand-waved and gestured at, and that sense of excitement that is so prominent in the first three books gets completely lost.

HarperCollins Publishers

While I still found this book entertaining and easy to read, it took me longer than I would have liked because the initial thrill of the series has completely worn off and I was not inspired to continually pick up this book and continue reading. Sadly, I think I’m done with Artemis Fowl. I am glad that I have added the characters and a few of their adventures into the literary pool of my brain, it’s just a shame that this was one of those series that went on for too long and let its flare peter out.

Author: Eoin Colfer, 2006

Published: The Penguin Group Australia