Customer Reviews

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I must begin this review by telling you that this book is completely different than any other book in the series. Like, really. Artemis even discusses how the adventure was different in the Epilogue. Not that it doesn't fit in; the seat-of-the-pants adventure and delicious humour is still there. But something about it is just......different. Maybe it's the villain who is driven more by romance than anything else. Maybe it's the fact that the heroes are, the majority of the time, two steps behind said villain rather than two steps ahead. I think the second one is it. It seems like the heroes have a helpless demeanor about them most of the time. But somehow, this adds to the story rather than detracting from it. The perilous state of Artemis's mind adds an emotional level to this story that none of the other's seem to have. I thoroughly enjoyed the jaunts into Artemis's brain; the alter-ego Orion is also a delight to read about. There is something slightly darker about this book, too, which I think is a good thing. Like I said, it is a tad-more emotionally driven than the rest. I find this fascinating. Also, I was thrilled by the fact that most of the plot was a blatant set-up for a future Artemis/Holly relationship (SPOILERS: The elf having a human wife, Orion claiming that Artemis also has unspoken feelings for Holly, Holly claiming Trouble isn't her boyfriend. Is anyone else PUMPED!?). I love the way Artemis is slowly becoming a better and better person, specifically the fact that he is prepared to give all her has to the environment. I would also like to point out that The Time Paradox is NOT random as so many seem to think. It sets up a lot of plot elements in this one, mostly involving Artemis's further growth. And I have always found Artemis's growth to be my favorite part of the series, which is why I loved this installment so much.
I'm also going to inform you that I was a tad confused for the first half of the book. I felt like I was supposed to be familiar with Turnball Root, and I kept thinking "WHERE HAVE I HEARD THIS NAME BEFORE?!?!" I then remembered a story from The Artemis Fowl Files, about Holly's induction into Recon. This explains a ton of Root's bakstory, and really made the story click for me. PLEASE READ THE ARTEMIS FOWL FILES BEFORE READING THIS! It makes everything make so much more sense! The ending is strangely heart-wrenching and satisfying, despite the fact that it obviously leaves a huge cliffhanger for the 8th book. I love how you can just FEEL everything coming to a close, and I'm sure the next book will be the last (Also because Colfer has stated there will only be one more book). Although I'm certainly sad that my adventures with Artemis will be over, every story needs an end. And you can feel the build up in this novel. Anyway, I really liked this book. It certainly wasn't my absolute favorite in the series, but it has so much emotion and charm that I loved it anyway. Definitely a great addition to this series!

Loyal readers of the series will notice almost immediately that Artemis Fowl is not operating at 100% for Book 7. Artemis suffers from compulsions, fear of the number 4, increasing paranoia and loss of touch with reality. Worst of all, when Artemis' ingenuity is most needed (as an old foe of the fairyfolk returns to power), Artemis' smooth-talking romantic hero alter-ego Orion surfaces and takes over as the dominant personality. Is everything lost for the fairy people?

By now, Eoin Colfer has his formula down pat, we have the expected non-stop action & adventure, laugh out loud humor (although some jokes were a bit stale) and inventive fairy-made gadgets that would delight any techno-geek out there.

Old favorites (the dwarf Mulch Diggins is still the scene-stealer) and the usual suspects return for this adventure, but even though Orion Fowl is a total riot and totally delightful in his own right, 'The Atlantis Complex' really suffered from the lack of Artemis Fowl himself. It's just not the same without the ole' Artemis around. It's funny if you think about it, Artemis is so awkward, stilted and unemotional, but this book proves that HE is the heart and soul of everyone around him. With Artemis trapped in his mind, the heroes are suddenly helpless and bumbling, always playing catch-up but not quite to the villain. I did enjoy the mind-trip of being able to spy inside Artemis' brain so that's a plus.

Another weakness for this book is that the plot is not as complex as usual; I've always enjoyed the unpredictable double-cross/triple-cross elements & the mind-twisting tricks that Eoin Colfer adds to the books, but maybe he's run out of steam this time around.

Eoin Colfer has said that there's only one book left to look forward to in the series, and as a longtime fan, I do hope that the final book will be worthy of the brilliance of the first book. Book 7 doesn't quite live up to my high standards, but it was still an enjoyable read.

p.s. To all those tickled by an Artemis/Holly romance, am I the only one going -ewww? Artemis is a 15-year-old child, while Holly is an adult elf (yes, she looks like a child, but still -ewww)

There is little I can add that hasn't been discussed by the other reviewers, but I think it is important to note that this addition to an otherwise imaginative, inventive, complex, and wittily charming series of books suffers a notable lack of quality when compared to its predecessors. While the plot and characterization fails to meet the standard set by the previous books, most notable to myself was a distinct difference in the quality of the writing itself. When compared to the first two books of the series, one can't help but feel if Colfer wrote this in his spare time then published it while his editor was on vacation, or found a ghostwriter to produce the books while he focuses on other projects. (I nearly stopped reading entirely when Colfer constructed a simile paraphrased thus: "as fast as a really fast thing." I'd give you the quote and page number if I were willing to read the book again to find it! This is a far cry from the opening of the first novel in which Artemis is graphically and pointedly described "as white as a vampire and almost as testy in the light of day.")

As if this weren't bad enough, the plot, character interaction, and villain is formulaic and predictable. Perhaps Colfer wanted to focus more on the bigger conflict within this novel, which takes place within Artemis' own mind as he struggles for dominance over his long-repressed hopelessly romantic inner identity. While this sounds like an intriguing psychological exploration of the boy-genius-slash-criminal-mastermind, ultimately, we are robbed of the titular character that makes the novels so enjoyable - Artemis Fowl - as he is replaced by an amusing though tiresome alter ego.

Oddly enough, though several old villains are dredged up from the footnotes of the Fowl series (and we are treated to the reappearance of the fan-favorite demon warlock No. 1), Minerva - the striking female counterpart to Artemis introduced in book 5 - fails once again to garner so much as even a brief mention.

The jokes are forced and the character interaction is stale and more recycled than Haven's air. To my annoyance, multiple pages of text throughout the story are dedicated to summarizing events that occured in previous books. The ending, though wrapping up the current crisis (which begins and is resolved within just a few hours, lacking the scope and depth of many of the previous adventures), ends with a cliffhanger and many loose strings still dangling.

I chose to rate this book 2 out of 5 stars only because it did provide a few hours mindless entertainment and gives me hope that another novel will be released soon - and I can only hope that it is one that ends the story of Artemis Fowl as well as it had begun. Otherwise, this book is as stale as a really stale thing. I know Colfer can do better!

Spoilers thar be!

I don't know why Artemis Fowl 7 is so below-par and underwhelming. Perhaps Eoin Colfer was under obligation to finish to a deadline before developing any fully-formed ideas or something. Nothing in this book really satisfied me, I'm sorry to say.

Artemis is in Iceland preparing for a demonstration of a new Earth-saving eco-device when a deep space probe falls out of the sky on top of him and his friends. This results in a slow-boiling mental illness coming to a pop and Artemis' personality being succeed by "Orion". With much of their resources depleted or lost, Orion and his usual team of Butler, Juliet, Holly, Foaly and Mulch must find out the whos and whys of the devastating crash.

Colfer's first and foremost failure here is the fact that he just doesn't have enough story to sustain an epic adventure, even (and especially, I should say) one told as quickly as this. The plot is delivered in several, fast-moving, large chunks with very little time for significant development or even a single decent twist. It's all very straight-forward and as with all fast-paced novels/movies coherence is sacrificed for speed. I was frequently lost and confused as to what was going on. I'll also pin some of this blame on the fact that Colfer simply did not describe many scenes very well. On top of this the book ends with nearly all plot threads completely open-ended and multiple unanswered questions.

The globe-trotting nature of the previous books is absent. The story only superficially takes us to Iceland, Cancun and Venice. Most of it takes place inside a submersible pod with very, very little opportunity for epic or exciting scenes.

I hear that Artemis Fowl 8 will be the last one. Colfer seriously needs to get his act together and go out with a bang, not a whimper. He totally phoned this one in. The long woven threads of Minerva, Opal Koboi, Artemis's love for Holly, and his determination to heal the planet need to ALL be explored and closed in book 8.

The only reason this book exists is because you need 7 to get to 8. And for that reason ALONE fans should read it, but we've come to expect a LOT more than this from Eoin Colfer.

I have read all the Artemis Fowl books. I've always enjoyed reading this series. However, I found this latest installment, "The Atlantis Complex" to be sub par. The characters aren't as entertaining and the plot is sub par. At the end of the story the reader is left thinking "Is that it? Really?" because nothing spectacular or truly inventive happens like it does in the novels leading up to this one.

Artemis just isn't as interesting when he's not an evil genius. By making Artemis such a weak character in this title I believe the author has damaged the image he's spent so much time creating. I hope in future titles that the author will return Artemis to his original self.

I'd like to point out that while I am criticizing this novel the others are quite good and I believe the series has great promise of overcoming this stumbling block.

I didn't hate the Atlantis Complex, but I didn't love it, either. I can't even say with all honestly that I liked it. Instead, I feel rather ambivalent towards it. It's not a bad book by any means, unless you compare it to the previous books in the Artemis Fowl series. The main reason I read Artemis Fowl is for Artemis himself: he's a wonderful character and I enjoy reading about his exploits. Unfortunately, this book's plot revolves around Artemis not acting like himself, and the person he does act like is a whiny and annoying snot.

Also, most of the previous books in the series are fairly self-contained, however, this one is very clearly the first half of a book and will not be concluded until the next volume. Hopefully Colfer will kick the next one up a notch.

Eoin Colfer wrote some entertaining books about Benny and Omar before the Artemis Fowl series. They were original and fun to read. The first Artemis book was not only entertaining; it was laugh out loud funny, original and a wonderful creation. Unfortunately, the series has pretty much gone downhill from there (although #3, "The Opal Deception" was pretty good). This one has forced laughs, a silly story line and thorougly lacks charm. Colfer's last two efforts, this book and his REALLY awful imitation of Douglas Adams, convince me I won't be reading anything by him any time soon. Too bad, but this is what happens when you run out of original ideas and write on autopilot.

To be quite honest, this series should have ended around book five-back when Artemis was clever, quick-witted, and slightly dark, with a streak of vulnerability that made his character so intriguing. In Atlantis Complex Colfer pulls out all the stops expected of a Saturday-morning cartoon: far-fetched implausible disease makes the main character have multiple personality disorder! And the other personality is lovesick for the female character! What's up for the next book? Will Artemis and Holly switch bodies? Will dogs start to talk? For anyone who has loved this series (and I assure you, I have loved it very deeply for almost it's entire run) this is a great and disappointing departure from the books we knew and loved.

I thought that perhaps one reason the book seemed so bad was because when I read the first one, I was 12, and now I'm 20. However, I went back and read the first book and it was STILL entertaining, and the plot was ingenious and clever. Artemis was kickass and amazing, as opposed to whatever he is now. So I don't think it's because I'm older and my perception has changed. I just think Colfer's writing has become drastically horrible for some inexplicable reason. The real Artemis will have to live on in our memories.

Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series is one of the most delightful series young adult series; the author has consistently improved upon the last novel with the next, usually a hard task to meet. While "Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex" is definitely an enjoyable read with a unique story in keeping with the others, it just doesn't live up to the others, and the reason why is sort of hard to put a finger on. Fans of the series will certainly enjoy the diverse plots and the return of old friends and enemies.

In this seventh entry in the series, Artemis Fowl has turned his attention to saving the planet from global warming. However, he has also developed an illness called the Atlantis Complex, normally a fairy disease, that leads to obsessive-compulsive behavior and split personalities. When a meeting between Artemis, Holly Short, Foaly and two others is interrupted by a rogue spaceship intent on killing them off, it is a time when Artemis's mind could be best employed to figure out who's behind the attacks. Too bad Artemis's alter ego, Orion, appears and makes life interesting, to say the least. Holly and Foaly, along with Butler, Juliet, and Mulch Diggums are on their own to try to discover the mastermind behind a jail break in Atlantis. It must be their arch-enemy Opal Koboi, right? Or could it be an even deadlier enemy from Holly Short's past?

Like all of the novels in the series "The Atlantis Complex" is fast-paced and funny. The scenes featuring Orion and his delusions are funny and the wrestling scene with Butler and Juliet is top notch. Yet because there are so many storylines, the action seems to drag at times. The ending seems a bit rushed and not at all complete - I kept expecting there to be more. And perhaps there will be with an eighth installment. I just hope this slight detour in the series isn't a sign of things to come.

I'm really surprised by the good reviews the Atlantis Complex is getting. I'm really sorry to say this, but for me this book and the previous one, the Time Paradox, are trash. I *loved* the first four Artemis Fowls; the fifth, the Lost Colony, was a little less good but still perfectly enjoyable.

I was shocked by the sudden crash: were did Eoin Colfer go? These last two books are completely different from the first ones, in both style, originality, and plot. It doesn't feel like the same person wrote them at all. Reading them was a drag, I had to force myself to reach the end. The plot is utterly predictable: do you seriously want me to believe that Foaly the technical genius would never have thought to put nano-wafers in snow to make them fall naturally? That the brilliant criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl is suddenly guilt-ridden, with no more than a brief mention of his mother to explain it? The Atlantis Complex was clearly just an excuse to write this book, and a poorly developed one at that, and Orion is clearly just a space-filler to keep Artemis Fowl out of the story, because if not there wouldn't have been one. The antagonist, Turnball Root, murders his fellow prisoners during his escape and injures dozens by breaking the Atlantis barrier, yet Artemis Fowl 'cannot see him as a villain' because he did it in the name of love. Mulch Diggums is now a background character who only utters the occasional lame joke; gone is the skillful juggling between the characters that gave them life in our imaginations. The entire book is flat and stale, writing just for the sake of writing (and selling books) and no longer for the sake of telling a real story.

I had already been disappointed by the Time Paradox, and was expecting to be disappointed by the Atlantis Complex though as a fan of the Artemis Fowl series I still hoped. Unfortunately, my expectations were met, and I most likely won't be buying the next book, if there is one. I am really sorry to have to give this book such a negative review, and really sorry the book deserves it.