Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox – A Book Review

Plotline: Spoiler-Free

Artemis is home after being missing for three years in the previous book. He’s altered his parent’s memory using the magic he stole so they won’t ask where he was. Suddenly his mother falls ill and is on the brink of death. In a mad scramble to save her, Artemis uses every drop of the magic he stole. When that fails to work, he calls for help from his fairy friends. 

When Holly shows up, she and Foaly diagnose Angeline with a rare magical disease. The only known cure comes from the brain fluid of an extinct lemur. The extinction of the lemur is the result of Artemis’ efforts to fund an Arctic expedition to find his father four years previously. 

Wrestling with guilt, Artemis devises a plan to go back in time to get the lemur and bring it back into the present to save his mother’s life. He lies to Holly to convince her to help him. With that, Holly, and Artemis travel back in time. 

In the past Holly and Artemis have many obstacles to overcome. Artemis finds himself in direct competition with his ten-year-old self and Butler. In this battle, the younger Artemis demonstrates his ruthlessness and gets the lemur before the older Artemis and Holly. 

As the younger Artemis is meeting with the leader of the extinctionists, to whom he’s selling the lemur, the elder Artemis and Holly steal the lemur. The problem is that the younger Artemis captures Holly and decides to sell her to the extinctionists instead of the lemur. 

The extinctionists are responsible for killing many animals that they deem useless to humanity. A terrible organization, they plan on executing Holly at their convention unless the older Artemis can save her.  

In the process of saving Holly, the older Artemis is taken captive by Opal Koboi who was working in conjunction with the extinctionist to gain access to rare animals. This time, she was hoping to gain access to the lemur because the lemur contains properties in its brain fluid that would allow her to grow her magic to unimaginable levels. 

Artemis escapes Opal’s clutches but she follows him and Holly into the future, she drops out of the time stream and takes control of Angeline Fowl a few days before Artemis and Holly even go back in time. This is the time paradox. If Artemis had never gone back, Then Opal would never have been able to emulate the symptoms of the rare disease that caused Artemis to go back in the first place. 

My Thoughts on Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

A Fun dynamic in this book is Artemis getting to see who he was when he was younger. He realizes how annoying he was and not to mention ruthless. He even must let the younger Artemis get to the lemur first because he knows that his younger self would be willing to kill the lemur rather than lose.

It’s also interesting because the book gives insight into the genesis of the Artemis’ good side. His younger self feels about selling the Lemur and then selling Holly. He feels so bad that he and Butler help save her.

(Spoiler Alert)

I feel like this book was very interesting to me as an adult because the underlying love story of Artemis and Holly kind of begins. Before this book, I never thought that they liked each other in that way but when they go back in time Holly has a hard time controlling her emotions. This leads to her kissing Artemis. 

When you think about it, this could be weird because Artemis is only 14 years old, and Holly is a Fairy in her 80s. I prefer not to think about it being creepy because Holly is very young for fairies. She is close to Artemis’ age when the fairy lifespan is considered.

After Holly kisses Artemis, the guilt that he has been feeling from lying to her becomes unbearable. He tells her the truth and she does not take it well. Even though she comes to realize that Artemis did what was necessary to save his mother, she is still very upset. 

Posted By: glfbooks.com · In: Book Reviews, Fantasy