Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer – Book Review

 

Publisher’s write-up:

‘I’ve waited a long time for young criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl to meet his match. Finally, it’s happened.

A second juvenile genius has discovered that fairies do exist, and she is determined to capture one for scientific study. And not just any fairy. The newcomer intends to trap a demon – the most human-hating species unknown to man.

Only an ancient time spell separates the demons from mankind – and Artemis must prevent it from unravelling. If he fails, the bloodthirsty tribe will re-launch their quest to wipe every human from the planet. Because that’s what demons live to do.

The can only be one winner – and this time it might not be Artemis Fowl.

Take nothing for granted.’

Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl octet. The reviews of books; 1, 2, 3 and 4 are available in this blog and in case you haven’t read one of them, don’t continue reading this review.

Coming to the crux of the plot, another person has come to know about the existence of fairies, that is, the eighth fairy family, the demons. And this ‘another person’, is very similar to Artemis; another juvenile genius, Minerva Paradizo. But, Minerva is similar to Artemis’ older self, who wants to exploit the fairies for her personal gains and Artemis has got to stop her, and it is not going to be easy. 

The Lost Colony’s plot was excellent; with the highlight being the intellectual confrontations between Artemis and Minerva, both trying to outwit each other. The demon world, their attributes and attitudes were brought out well by the author. The elements of Artemis Fowl novels were ever present, with the degree of sarcasm only increasing in this package. This could have been the best novel in the book; hands down, had it not been for the extremely boring, last quarter of the novel which happens in the demon world. Yes, Artemis’ intellect was put to good use, but in many cases, Colfer was simply pulling a rabbit out of his hat, to make the situation favourable to Artemis.

It is a pity that I can’t rate this book as high as any of the previous novels, notwithstanding the fact that I enjoyed three quarters of this book more than any other Artemis Fowl novels (including The Time Paradox and The Atlantis Complex), the last quarter was boring, dull and childish. I’d award this book a rating of six on a scale of ten.

Rating: 6/10

Have a nice day,

Andy