Published Information
| Author: | Eoin Colfer |
| Series: | Artemis Fowl #5 |
| Published: | September 2006 |
| Genre: | Fantasy |
| Pages: | 400 |
Plot Summary
In Artemis' study of the fairies, he learns a bit about an eighth lost race of fairies (first seven I think are pixie, elf, dwarf, troll, goblin, gnome, and centaur). The legend is that when fairies decided to hide below ground to be safe from humans, demons, the eighth race, decided to move their entire race into Limbo until such time as they were strong enough to return and retake the above ground area.
In his studies, he begins to see that the spell wrought by the demon warlocks to move their colony to Limbo is slowly desolving and that if something isn't done soon, the demons will all reappear if our time, once again causing rippling affects across the human/fairy relation (meaning there will be one). Artemis resolves to do something about it and tries to talk with a demon that is scheduled to reappear. All appears to go wel until Artemis realizes another human has discovered that demons are real and it trying to capture a demon for her own goals. This person is Minerva, a ten year old female genius, similar to Artemis.
As the story unfolds, Artemis and Minerva go head to head with capturing the demon, with Artemis succeeding. But as he does so, one of Minerva's henchmen, who is very unstable, decides to take matters into his hands to capture the demon for his own reasons. Once again, Artemis to the rescue, but this time to save the girl and the demon colony that is slowly disolving.
Comments
First off, while demons are very prevelent in the book, they are not what we often thing of when we hear of demons. Rather than being fiends of hell, they are simply another form of fairy that are aggressive in their normal state, at least as adults.
One of my favorite things about the book is discussion about this new race. They have been gone for 10,000 years as far as humans are aware and have changed over time. Specifically, their animosity towards humans has grown, and the normal leaders, warlocks which are much more intellectual rather than aggressive, no longer exist. We know all about elves, dwarfs, etc, but to learn of a new race altogether was fun.
One of the best themes of the book is the idea that different is not bad. Different is just different. This is discussed from the point of Artemis and Minerva being unique humans, as well as N01 not being a normal demon. And yet it is through their very uniqiness or differences that they are able to bring about change.
One pet peeve. At one point, their is no way out for the main characters and you wonder what will happen. Specifically, they need five magic beings, and they only have five. All of the sudden a magic demon appears (now granted, he was mentioned once, but he was presumed dead) that allows them to fit their need. I really don't like it when problems are solved by something that could not have been foreseen. The greatest thrill in a book for me is figuring out, or at least thinking about, solutions to the problems the characters are facing. When clues are dropped in such a way that when the solution is presented (whether I figured the clues out or not) and I realize I could have figured out the solution, I am fulfilled. When the solution is presented, though, and there was no way for me to figure it out, deux ex machina, it bugs me. Mr Colfer doesn't do it very often so I continue to enjoy the books.
No comments:
Post a Comment