Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian

[sawyl]

Time to wrap up the posts on Artemis Fowl with Artemis Fowl and the Last Guardian, the eighth book in the series that sees our intrepid antihero and his friends facing down a magical armageddon left over from the last war between the humans and the fairies.

The action begins with a twisty bit of plotting that closes off a loose end form The Time Paradox and explains how Opal Koboi, the pixie super-genius and antagonist in more than a few of the previous novels, escapes prison to become more powerful than ever. Bent on revenge against everyone who has ever wronged her, Opal travels to Ireland where she unleashes a group of undead fairy beserkers who promptly set about possessing the locals; locals who Myles and Beckett, Artemis twin younger brothers born during the events of The Lost Colony, and Juliet Butler, the sister of his loyal bodyguard.

But opening the Beserker Gate is only the first step in Opal's plan: she's actually far more interested in opening the Gate's second lock, a move that promises to trigger a piece of magic that will wipe humanity off the face of the earth once and for all. Arrayed against the pixie are the usual suspects: Holly Short, Artemis, Butler, Foaly the centaur — Opal's great rival of long standing — and the reliably disreputable and flatulent Mulch Diggums. The resolution, when it comes, is suitably ingenious while the final ending, in a particularly nice touch, has Holly reciting the opening words of the Artemis Fowl, finally revealing the identity of the book's narrator...

The Last Guardian wraps the series up in an entertaining way and I particularly like the ingenious way Colfer makes use of some of the dangling threads from both The Opal Deception and The Time Paradox to push the storyline through to its conclusion. There are couple of nice moments for Foaly the centaur, playing the action hero at last, which also serve to finally introduce us to his wife. Myles and Beckett are a fun pair who, despite being twins, are nothing like alike: Myles is very much a chip off the old Fowl block, as hyper-intelligent and precocious as Artemis; while Beckett is robust and physical, more interested in destroying things and messing around in the mud.

Despite being well outside the target audience, I've found the Artemis Fowl books extremely enjoyable. I very much like the characters and the way the work as ensemble, playing off each other, helping and hindering and exasperating each other in equal measure, and growing into better people over the course of the series. The blend of magic and science works well — although the science is pure weapons-grade baloney-ium — the world-building is really very effectively done while the amount of detailed thought giving to Mulch's dwarven superpowers — many of which are powered by his alimentary canal and its astonishing gift for flatulence — is sure to play extremely well with kids of all ages.