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3rdragonSo I just finished reading Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex.
I am underwhelmed.
I saw this book at the library about two months ago, and went, Oh hey, a new Artemis Fowl book. Wait, wasn't the one with the lemurs the end of the series? I guess not. It did seem a bit like it was jumping the shark, though . . . (Really, where do you go after fighting your younger self through time travel?) Possibly part of the reason that I've been putting off reading it was that as long as it was just a potential Artemis Fowl book, I could hope that it would be as good as the first ones, even though I suspected that it wasn't going to be.
And, well, my dubious attitude is now justified.
One of the major elements of the plot is that Artemis Fowl is going crazy. And I'm sorry, but I don't like crazy!Artemis nearly as well as I like sane Artemis. And alternate-personality Artemis is just annoying. (Okay, regular Artemis is probably annoying, too, but he's annoying in a way that amuses me.) And I still miss the character that was killed off a book or two ago.
I think my main objection, though, is that there are a number of things that this particular set of characters is good at, and I like watching them get put in seemingly hopeless situations and then manage to save the day by the skin of their teeth by seriously drawing on the depths of their awesomeness. And for the most part, they were put in situations where they couldn't do the things that they're really good at -- and if they're just flailing around like normal people, they could be anyone. The dialogue was also definitely not up to par, too. There were in-character reasons for that, but I missed the witty banter.
To sum up? I started this book yesterday morning (or maybe even Tuesday morning) and only just got around to finishing it. It's not completely without redeeming features, but definitely not what I was hoping for. If you read it, get it out of the library, and don't set your expectations too high.
I am underwhelmed.
I saw this book at the library about two months ago, and went, Oh hey, a new Artemis Fowl book. Wait, wasn't the one with the lemurs the end of the series? I guess not. It did seem a bit like it was jumping the shark, though . . . (Really, where do you go after fighting your younger self through time travel?) Possibly part of the reason that I've been putting off reading it was that as long as it was just a potential Artemis Fowl book, I could hope that it would be as good as the first ones, even though I suspected that it wasn't going to be.
And, well, my dubious attitude is now justified.
One of the major elements of the plot is that Artemis Fowl is going crazy. And I'm sorry, but I don't like crazy!Artemis nearly as well as I like sane Artemis. And alternate-personality Artemis is just annoying. (Okay, regular Artemis is probably annoying, too, but he's annoying in a way that amuses me.) And I still miss the character that was killed off a book or two ago.
I think my main objection, though, is that there are a number of things that this particular set of characters is good at, and I like watching them get put in seemingly hopeless situations and then manage to save the day by the skin of their teeth by seriously drawing on the depths of their awesomeness. And for the most part, they were put in situations where they couldn't do the things that they're really good at -- and if they're just flailing around like normal people, they could be anyone. The dialogue was also definitely not up to par, too. There were in-character reasons for that, but I missed the witty banter.
To sum up? I started this book yesterday morning (or maybe even Tuesday morning) and only just got around to finishing it. It's not completely without redeeming features, but definitely not what I was hoping for. If you read it, get it out of the library, and don't set your expectations too high.
