Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception

[sawyl]

The fourth novel in Eoin Colfer's series, Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception, draws on events of the very end of the third book when, despite extremely careful planning and countermeasures, Artemis Fowl and his bodyguard Butler have their memories of the Lower Elements — all manner of fairies, dwarves, centaurs and fantastical creatures — magically excised from their memories.

Deprived of the steading influence of his friends, Artemis Fowl has reverted to his larcenous ways and come up with an audacious plan to steal a famous painting. Meanwhile, far below the Earth's surface, pixie mastermind Opal Koboi has managed to slip out of the secure clinic where she has been in a coma since the events of The Arctic Incident. Determined to revenge herself against her enemies — Captain Holly Short, Commander Julius Root, Foley the Centaur and, yes, Artemis Fowl — Koboi sets cunning traps for all of them.

Fleeing to the surface, Holly helps Artemis escape Opal's machinations only to discover that the pixie has beguiled a human scientists into launching a seismic probe that threatens to expose the fairy city of Haven to the entire human world. Racing against time Holly calls on the assistance of criminal dwarf Mulch Diggums, who also happens to hold the keys to Artemis' and Butler's missing memories. Using Mulch's token to recover his memories, Artemis suddenly realises that not only does he have friends, but that he has already lost one of them to Opal's desire to settle the score.

The Opal Deception is solid middle book which shows just how far Artemis has come from the days when he was a lone super-villain. The two parallel crimes that open the book — Artemis' theft and Opal's escape — are extremely enjoyable and in the best traditions of Hollywood. Opal Koboi is an enjoyable dangerous and unstable adversary whose revenge comes at a terrible cost to one of the central characters — a cost which Colfer, to his credit, doesn't shirk or invalidate with a casual bit of magic.