Whew! Finally in the double digits for reviews!
Last CBR I reviewed the first of the Artemis Fowl books, and I loved it so much I went hunting for the rest of the series. All of our favorite characters are back! Holly, Root, everyone’s favorite pre-teen mastermind, and excitingly, Mulch Diggums, who is my personal squee character.
While this installment started out a little rocky, it finds its footing about a quarter of the way though and becomes the romping fun adventure we were all hoping for. In this book, Artemis has gotten some hits on where his presumed-dead father may have been kidnapped, and he and Butler are on a mission to see if Artemis Senior is still alive.
While Artemis Junior is pushing school psychologists into nervous breakdowns, there’s much amiss under the world when Capt. Holly Short gets attacked by goblins and finds out they have contraband weapons and human batteries. Assuming a certain Jr. Fowl is behind yet another attempt at involving himself with The People, Holly has Artemis and Butler detained at Faeries headquarters for questioning.
As Artemis’ innocence unfolds, the faeries realize they have a much bigger problem on their hands and the plot explodes on a high flying adventure to save the underworld and (possibly) rescue Artemis’ father.
I can’t tell you how many times I laughed out loud while reading this book. Thank God I was at home by myself and there was no one to judge my cackling. Like his first installment, Colfer doesn’t disappoint in his witty descriptions, tongue-in-cheek Faerie lore, and delightful plot outcomes. While I didn’t feel that Colfer hit the deep, resonating human emotions he plugged so beautifully in the first book, there’s enough of a character arc for Artemis to keep the reader interested.
Although I really felt like we didn’t need Artemis for this book so much. His plot felt a little like an afterthought, and the majority of the story centers around the faeries and their crisis, which honestly was far more interesting than Fowl’s plot anyway.
But this was still a fun read, and I’ve already requested book 3 from the library.