There is nothing in this world that Artemis Fowl can't handle. He's a teenage genius with a whole world of magical allies to call on (if he can think up a reason for them to help him, and he usually can) and practically the only person in the world who can match him is in the most secure prison on the planet. But when his mother is struck down by a magical illness, the only cure is to be found in the past. This means that Artemis Fowl and his friend, Captain Holly Short, must travel back in time and go head to head with a ten year old genius: Artemis Fowl. The older version of Artemis may have the experience and the fairy ally, but the younger has Butler, and all the criminal ruthlessness that his older self has lost.

Review: A new Artemis Fowl release has come to be something of an event in he world of children's publishing, which means that there is a lot of pressure on Eoin Colfer to deliver the goods. Perhaps there was a fear that Artemis was getting a little too cuddly to be interesting, but whatever the reason the decision to reintroduce the unreconstructed Artemis Fowl pays dividends. There is something deeply satisfying in seeing Artemis the older realise just what an appalling little scrod he really was.

Beyond this little pleasure, the book is tightly plotted and fast paced enough that if there are any glaring inconsistencies it would take a sharper eye than mine to spot them and a meaner heart than mine to care. Time travel is a tricky tiger to tame, but Colfer has all the corners of his story screwed down tight and everything hangs together neatly. As noted above, the confrontations between the two Artemises are well-written and as satisfying as... well, I think I ran out of metaphors in that last sentence, so let's just say really quite satisfying. 

 Artemis and Holly continue to make a good team, although the side-effects of time travel do lead things to get a little...squick. If the development of these two characters was in any doubt, the presence of younger Artemis and the never-changing Mulch Diggums clearly show up how wel they have grown. As to bad guys, the Exterminationists are a villainous organisation so unutterably nasty as to be cartoonish in their supervillainy, which would be a deep dissapointment if... Well, leave it at that, perhaps. 

 The Time Paradox is a superb entry in the Artemis Fowl series, although not recommended for those as yet unfamiliar with the boy genius.

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2008-08-11