The Last Guardian (Artemis Fowl #8)

Yet another adventure presented to readers by Eoin Colfer is the final sequal to the Artemis Fowl series. At the beginning Artemis is completely over his Atlantis Complex (of which is the previous novel) and is primed to begin his next adventure. It seems as though we are almost thrown into the new story, sort of an “out with the old in with the new” feel because in the first chapter we discover he is over his fear of the number four, learn about a new theory that suggests why all Fowls have a tendency to research the paranormal, that Opal is back with a vengeance and is crazy as ever, and another theory about time travel and the problem with Opal’s influence on the world. Essentially an Armageddon is suggested, a sort of world where everything that Opal has had any small part in, will become deadly to both the People and humans. “Chaos reigned, and the survivalists eagerly unwrapped the kidskin from their crossbows. Phase one of Opals plan was complete.” (Eoin Colfer, The Last Guardian)
Readers have been greatly disappointed with the Artemis series and where it was heading with the last book The Atlantis Complex wherein our hero Artemis Fowl is diagnosed with a magical mental illness and has to overcome the problems it creates. For example, he has an irrational fear of the number four, delusions, and is paranoid about everything. But this entire book was almost completely blotted out in the first chapter of The Last Guardian. We soon find that he is 100% over it in record time, and jumps straight into an old and easily recognizable Artemis that we all came to love in the first three books of the series. It was like Colfer wanted to forget the last book as much as his readers did, and it is barely referenced at all after the first chapter. Suddenly, Holly, Artemis and Butler are called to Foaly for some very pressing news regarding Opal. They come to the LEPrecon conference room where on the giant screen in the front there is an image of young Opal being held hostage by two unknown dwarves, with human guns being held to her head. They want the present day Opal to be set free in exchange for the life of the young Opal. At first this exchange makes no sense, who wouldn’t want the world class criminal to be executed? She had committed so many atrocities it seemed ideal for her to just be dead and gone. We learn that there is a theory amongst the People that if one was to kill another in the past, the now deceased would cause explosions of anything they had influenced in their life time. This all happens in the blink of the eye as an opening for the book.
Eoin Colfer, the author of the well known Artemis Fowl series and The Supernaturalist, was born May 14, 1965, and raised in Wexford, Ireland. In 2001, he published the first of the Artemis Fowl series, and became world known. There were even commercials for it! In January 2008, Colfer published a book titles Airman. The majority of Colfer’s books, including Artemis Fowl and Airman, have all gotten the New York Times best-seller list at least once.The Guardian website has an article written by Nick Virk states “I was hesitant that, being older, the series wouldn’t have the same magical grasp on me. But I realized I had nothing to worry about.” As a devout Artemis Fowl reader, I would recommend this book to any and all ages. Children fall in love with the first three books, while older audiences stick around for the more complicated story plots and humor. “I never understand. That’s why we pay you and your dork posse.’ Foaly objected again, ‘They are not dorks!’ Trouble found space for yet another holster, ‘Really? That guy that brings a Beanie Baby to work every day. And your nephew, Mayne, speaks fluent Unicorn.’ ‘They’re not all dorks,’ said Foaly, correcting himself.” (Eoin Colfer, The Last Guardian) As the character develops so does the story and information you learn as the reader, for many scientific theories are used and explained rather well (regardless of the Atlantis Complex, which was almost like a place holder for later, better ideas). According to Colfer, this is the last book in the series (which was originally intended to be a trilogy) and hopefully the ending is as good as we, as readers, want it to be. “Nobody’s death is impending. –Well technically everyone’s death is impending.” (Eoin Colfer, The Last Guardian) There have been both hatred for the ending and love for the ending, this exactly dictates what is a good conclusion to the story of Holly, Artemis, Butler, Foaly, Mulch, and many more loved characters.