I am a big fan of the entire Harry Potter – LOTR – Septimus Heap – Eragon type of books. I have read through a lot of books in this genre, and several of these series are over. To this extent, I had actually been waiting a lot for this book to come out along with the sixth book in the Septimus Heap series.
I am not going to spoil the story for those of you who might be interested in reading the book. instead some broad premise about the book might be in order. The story is a typical Artemis Fowl plot with a villain planning to cause havoc in the Haven. And it is up to the boy genius Artemis Fowl and his entourage of the ‘Butlers’, Mulch ‘Tombstone’ Diggums, Captain Holly Short and Centaur Foaly to thwart these plans, capture the bad guys and save a magical warlock along the way. Except, Artemis is not all himself. If, anything, he is more than himself. HE is double himself, what with a hopeless romantic split personality of Orion (Get it? Orion and Artemis…. Subtle…). And he has an obsession with numbers, especially fours and fives. Hence, we are treated to a general dosage of OCD and split personality gyaan. A lot of it. Interestingly, the personalities interchange the ‘Driver’s Seat’, an expression used in the book as well, at the behest and command of, of all things, an electric shock.I must confess that after the 'Time Paradox’, I was a little bit skeptical about the book as the Time Paradox was not at all what I had expected from Colfer. There were so many lose ends in the book and the technical glitches etc. But I am must say that ‘Atlantis Complex’ proved my apprehension to be baseless. True, that the book did not quiet reached the epitome of the first book and we don’t get to witness the brilliance of Artemis’ thinking as much as we had wanted. But Orion proved to be a comic relief in the story with phrases like “Oh fair maiden” and “Oh goodly beast” and ever preparing to fight a dragon, look for his birthmark which he may or may not have; of course somewhere involving a bivouac on the way. The climax was slightly anti-climatic and could have been done wonders had a little bit more thinking put in it. But the Squid phase was interesting and Mulch Diggums has always been my favorite.
The story proceeds along nicely and as well as the story in the rest of the books.
From my side, it is a must read for the fans. Rating of 3.5/5.
PS: A sample first chapter of the book can be found at: http://www.artemisfowl.co.uk/downloads/atlantiscomplex_chapter1.pdf
I'm thinking of starting the Artemis Fowl series (because my brother is, and I can easily read the books when he gets them from the library), so, I found this of interest. But some stuff:
ReplyDelete1) I would not put Harry Potter (good), LOTR (not bad) and Eragon (ugh!) in the same category. :(
2) If you do like reading fantasy, have you tried - His Dark Materials Trilogy (Philip Pullman - Golden Compass - must read) and the Bartimaeus Trilogy (Jonathan Stroud - one of my favourites, ever!)
3) What is your opinion on the entire Artemis Fowl series? (Not just this book?)
@Sakhi:
ReplyDelete1) I hope you mean on the basis of book and not movies because movies do not do justice to book. LOTR as not bad... u kidding me man? I absolutely loved LOTR.. atleast at par to HP... true Eragon series are in a different variation but i liked them nonetheless
2) I have read phillip pullman, Jonathan stroud, Septimus heap, chronicles of narnia, wheels of time and so on... You must try Septimus Heap series, good ones
3) I liked the Artemis series a lot primarily because the protagonist, for a change, is devilish person and not even adoloscent yet... The story flows smoothly and carries enough depth to make you want to read them... 'Time Paradox' was a big disappointment to me though, that was one odd piece in an otherwise perfectly good series...
PS: feels nice to talk to someone at length about the books :D. And you do have an amazing set of book reviews on ur blog but do try to add avriations to it... preferably more of fiction and even more preferably review new books and not old or classics... more interesting for readers :D
1) No definitely not the movies. Okay, agreed, LOTR was definitely on par to HP (quite different, and parts of it don't appeal to me, but still quite good) but I really don't think Eragon should come in the list. Personally I found it poorly written and amateurish. Still, lets agree to disagree. :)
ReplyDelete2) That's really cool. :) I shall definitely try to read the Septimus Heap series - what did you think of the Narnia books, by the way?
And thank you for visiting my blog. I thought the same, that I should review more books that people might have actually read. As it happens I review books as I read them, so that means a slightly shift in my reading habits.
@Sakhi: I liked Narnia series moderately only so-so, partly because unlike most of fantasy literature, it did not have that much of a scope of imagination (which of course is an integral part of the success of any fantasy fiction lit). Instead, it pretty much narrated more of a story, interesting though it was, after a bit it kind of got boring.
ReplyDeleteHi Aashish, sorry it took me so long to reply.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like Narnia after Peter and Susan went from it (and really the way Susan kept getting treated later was awful) and once Edmund and Lucy went too (and there were a spew of irritating other people introduced) the story just went downhill very fast.
second that!!!
ReplyDelete