After disappearing for three years, Artemis Fowl has returned to a life different from the one he left. Now he’s a big brother, and spends his days teaching his twin siblings the important things in life, such as how to properly summon a waiter at a French restaurant. But when Artemis Fowl’s mother contracts a life-threatening illness, his world is turned upside down. The only hope for a cure lies in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. Unfortunately, the animal is extinct due to a heartless bargain Artemis himself made as a younger boy. 

Though the odds are stacked against him, Artemis is not willing to give up. With the help of his fairy friends, the young genius travels back in time to save the lemur and bring it back to the present. But to do so, Artemis will have to defeat a maniacal poacher, who has set his sights on new prey: Holly Short. 

The rules of time travel are far from simple, but to save his mother, Artemis will have to break them all.and outsmart his most cunning adversary yet: Artemis Fowl, age ten.

I’m going to say this just as simply as I can. I love Artemis Fowl.

There. Now you know. These books are just the type of book that makes me happy. Even better is getting a phone call from Sir Megabyte at the soon-to-be-closed bookstore telling me he found not one, but two for super-duper bargain prices.

He brought them into my house and I greedily snatched them up, knowing they would be my next two books to read.

That is how much I love Artemis Fowl.

This book had everything I love about Artemis Fowl and then some. In the latest adventure, he must travel through time to go up against his younger, diabolical self in order to save her life. Nothing says crazy than fighting your younger self. Nothing makes you really do some self-reflection than going toe-to-toe with the you of yester-year.

Of course, when you throw in time travel, you add in all sorts of extra insanity. Which I was happy that Colfer played up. I saw several of the twists coming a mile away, but in this case I was excited because it meant that Colfer really put some thought into his time travel escapade he sent Artemis and Holly on, unlike what most writers.  (I’ll admit, I loved this aspect of “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, too.”

The paradox was there, showing the exact issues with time travel. Exploring paradoxes can be fun. (But not in that awful last “Star Trek” movie sort of way where even the paradox formed does not explain the idiotic major continuity errors such as birthdays. Then it’s just painful and makes me crazy.)

Of course the ending left you groaning as you say to yourself, “Oh dear. That’s SO not good.”  And immediately going, “Where’s the next book?”

Thankfully, sitting right beside me. Sometimes it really pays off to be behind in reading.