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
