Author: Eoin Colfer
The Eternity Code is the third book in the Artemis Fowl novel series by Eoin Colfer and was first published in 2003. The book follows Artemis Fowl the Second in another exciting adventure as he and his servants, Butler and Juliet, team-up with their elves ally, Captain Holly Short, and the dwarf thief, Mulch Diggums, to take back fairy technology in the form of a cube that had been stolen by an IT billionaire, Jon Spiro. This review would contain minor spoilers, so for those who have yet to read the novel, you've been warned. Now, let's start!
In this book, readers once again were thrown into yet another adventure with Artemis Fowl. The story starts when a business deal with a cunning American industrialist, Jon Spiro, went wrong, and the C Cube, a mini supercomputer created by Artemis Fowl from stolen fairy technology, was stolen from him. As the C Cube could reveal the underground population of fairies to the dangerous man, Artemis Fowl would have to get some help from his fairy allies to get the C Cube back from the manipulative hands of Jon Spiro. To do so, he would need the help of Holly, Mulch, Foaly and Juliet. Although Butler was not able to help him getting back the C Cube due to an unfortunate event, he would still lend his help to Artemis in the final part of the plan, which unbeknownst to the fairy folk, would involve them.
The plot is very entertaining with great suspense and humour. In fact, compared to the earlier two books in the series, I feel the plot for this book is a little bit more serious. Of course the event in the second book is serious too, with Artemis trying to help his father escape from the Arctic, but I felt the way the story was told in the second book was a little laid back. With this third book though, the tone of the story was sometimes a bit darker, which is understandable since the book did involved the death of one of the main character of the series. The parts with Artemis and his father also bring a lot of seriousness to the story, with Artemis judging his actions and behaviour after his conversations with his father. Then again, Artemis Fowl books always have great humour in it, so even with all the serious tone and event that happened in the book, it is still filled with jokes and good laugh especially with its quirky characters.
Another good thing about the plot is the emphasis on family values, which is mainly told through Artemis's monologues, that he second guesses his actions and thinking through the impact his actions would have on his parents and their expectation of him. You can see his character grow, profoundly so in this third book than the previous two books in the series, and how his value in life has changed now that he has both of his parents by his side. Artemis Fowl has starting to become a better person than he was before through his adventure with the fairy people, and that is something I personally think is a good value this character has that can inspire young readers that read this book.
Speaking of character, this book introduced a new villain, a businessman named Jon Spiro, who is an interesting character despite being a normal human being in a book series that had gave us numerous great fantasy beings before. Jon Spiro made a good villain, with his attitude and demeanour. He sometimes remind you of a typical villain you watch on movies before but that what makes him memorable and even funny. There are also some other good and funny new characters like Arno Blunt, Jon Spiro's bodyguard, and Loafers McGuire, the man who was sent to kill Artemis. But characters that made major impact, or course, would be the regular characters. Artemis Fowl, Holly Short and Mulch Diggums took center stage in this book. Butler get to seat back on most of the second part of the book and was replaced by his sister, Juliet, while Foaly and Commander Root didn't make much appearance in this book. All the regular characters (including Foaly and Root) are marvellous and entertaining, as they were before. It's refreshing to see Juliet in action replacing his brother, and interaction between Artemis and Holly is even interesting than ever before. All these characters bring strength to the plot and make for a good story-telling.
To summarize it all, Artemis Fowl and The Eternity Code is a good book to read, and the usual colourful characters together with the good character development for Artemis Fowl make this entry even stronger than the previous two books in the series. If you are a fan of the series before, then this third novel is a must in your collection.
Image from Amazon.
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