Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian

Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer

It was 2001 when the Artemis Fowl series first began and the original readers are now college graduates. Finally, the series is complete with eight books:

Artemis Fowl
The Arctic Incident
The Eternity Code
The Opal Deception
The Lost Colony (my favorite)
The Time Paradox
The Atlantis Complex (the only one I have actually reviewed until now)
The Last Guardian

I hope it continues to find readers as it continues be a notable addition to the Children’s book shelves. It is hard to believe that the series never appeared among the Rebecca Caudill Nominees. It is certainly one of my favorites.

The books are unusual in that they are definitely for boys. It is not that girls do not enjoy them – there are many of us to be sure. But the books are about fairies and pixies and dwarves and there is magic, but there is also amazing technology and weaponry. Don’t think bows and catapults. Think modern weaponry and DNA scans. Take a smidge of The Lord of the Rings, employ the time setting of Harry Potter, and add a healthy dose of Alex Rider and you might have something that looks similar to Artemis Fowl.

The series began with a twelve-year-old Artemis. He was a criminal mastermind with a monumental pocket book. He was self-centered and determined to outfox everyone. He managed to capture a fairy and hold her for ransom. He might have been after the fabled pot-o-gold at the end of the rainbow, but he uncovered more than he had bargained for.

The series ends with a seventeen-year-old Artemis. He is every bit the wealthy genius he has always been, but somewhere along the line, he has grown a heart. Once again, the world is being threatened by the evil,  megalomaniacal pixie, Opal Koboi. And enormous sacrifices need to be made to prevent her from opening a 10,000-year-old lock that will mean the end of humans and the rise of fairies. And they have exactly one evening.

The first three or four volumes are really the best, but most readers are hooked and continue to come back for more. Number seven was strange at best, but the finale mostly made up for it. Diehards will be eager to point out inconsistencies and even deus ex machina. I was mostly disappointed that Opal showed up this, the third, time. Putting the best up against the best sometimes requires a deus ex machine to have a favorable ending. Or at least a dwarf named Mulch who can eat anything and expel it out his derriere just as quickly.

I eagerly recommend this series to 5^th grade boys and up. Even as the tween becomes a teen, the language stays clean and the romance stays below minimal. If anything, the unrequited romance has irked many. Kisses on foreheads are not enough even if they are integral to the conclusion.

Without thinking so hard that my brain would hurt – time paradoxes can be that way – I thoroughly enjoyed the conclusion of the series. Seems to have brought it full circle.