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Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian


Aanchir

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Most of this post shamelessly copypasted from a post of mine on another site, with minor adjustments

 

I just happened to stroll to a downtown bookstore during my lunch break on Monday, and found the newest Artemis Fowl book (Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian). I was quite surprised as I hadn't realized it was out yet, but apparently it came out last week.

 

Having read it, I think it was a phenomenal capstone to the series, and am glad Eoin Colfer didn't take the "final book in the series" thing lightly. Rest assured that its ending isn't the kind that implies the adventures have completely come to an end, though, and I would be perfectly happy if Eoin Colfer ever decided to write more Artemis Fowl stories, perhaps not as proper installments in the series but rather as "side-stories" like those in The Artemis Fowl Files.

 

Spoiler time for those who have read the book:

 

 

As always, Mulch Diggums ranged from grotesquely disgusting to hilariously disgusting. I wonder how a movie adaptation of the series would ever handle him, as a lot of his gags would be much more distasteful visually than in writing, and there wouldn't be Eoin Colfer's humorous, euphemistic narrative to add humor other than the more juvenile potty humor inherent to those scenes.

 

I greatly appreciate the detail this book gives Foaly and Caballine's relationship. It really helps flesh both of them out as characters. Foaly got a lot of great scenes in this book, actually.

 

Opal was treated well, I think. It was very surprising how the story began, with the younger Opal a pawn of the older one. I had always expected things to work the other way around, since with her enhanced magic the younger Opal seemed like much more of a threat. What with the obvious pattern to her appearances as a villain (Every. Other. Book.) and the brief plot synopsis we learned in advance, I was worried another Opal Koboi story might feel repetitive and dull. But then again, I should have known better as I thought the same thing when I read the plot summary for The Time Paradox, since we had just had a time-travel adventure of sorts in the previous book, and that one turned out splendidly.

 

My biggest disappointment was the lack of much Arty/Holly romance, since I have succumbed to the temptation of shipping those two ever since I first began reading the books in more detail and picking up on the obvious ship tease starting with the UK edition of the second book (the American edition left out the shippiest passage there). There were still some passages that referred to Artemis's attraction to her, but the ending of the story didn't really imply that either was ready to think of the other as anything but a very good friend.

 

Overall, a really good book. I hope I will not be alone among Artemis Fowl fans in thinking this was a great end to the series.

 

 

And now the BIG spoilers. As in, the revealing-details-about-the-end-of-the-book, don't-read-this-just-because-you're-curious-what-it's-about spoilers:

 

 

All in all, when Opal did in fact die, it was easy to understand Artemis's reaction-- no sympathy, just a bit of sadness at the waste of life.

 

Artemis's death and subsequent resurrection were well-handled, IMO. Ending a series on that note could easily fall into the trap of copying other series that have followed that pattern, such as Harry Potter. But this book did it in a way that I think fits perfectly with Artemis's scheming nature. The callback to the first book at the very end felt a little tacky, but being able to emphasize with the characters' joy at Artemis's return kept me from having any bad feelings at that moment.

 

 

I've started writing a review for my local newspaper, where I work part-time getting their database up-to-date. I've never really been in touch with the Artemis Fowl fan community, and can't find much discussion of this book on fansites, so I can't tell if other people feel the same as I do about this final part of the series. And there's been woefully little fanart on that one fanart site I use since this book came out, so there's very little to get me my shipping fix after reading it. I might have to draw some myself to make up for that (although, you shouldn't count on it being especially good fanart compared to some of the more talented artists out there).

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Wasn't that supposed to come out the beginning of August? I've legitimately been waiting for it =P. Amazon, you lying cheats!

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