Forewarning: I am a little cheesed, so you'll have to forgive any brutal comments. I tried to be biased but, well, you'll see.
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I had a lot of issues with this story, mostly characterization and some time-line things.
1) Artemis' age. Artemis was fifteen in The Time Paradox. Angeline, towards the end, even makes the コメント “Why are あなた still fifteen?” He was also fifteen in The ロスト Colony. I'm going on assumption here, but I'm pretty sure The Atlantis Complex takes place after the events in TTP. So, if that's the case, how does Artemis' meeting take place on his fifteenth birthday?
2) What happened to 根覆い, マルチ being accepted back into the fairy culture? Wasn't he pardoned for all his crimes in The Opal Deception? He's done nothing but help the People since then, so why was he an outlaw again in TAC?
3) Butler. Okay, I understand that Butler left Artemis because he thought Juliet was in trouble. I get that. I thought the whole set up (before I knew it was a set up) about her being in danger was fishy, but, hey. Juliet hasn't been in the 本 for a while, who knows what kind of trouble she's gotten herself into. My problem lies in the fact that Butler was concerned about Artemis, he knew the boy was off . . . and he leaves without telling anyone? He's got Foaly's number (probably Holly's too, but it's not stated) and he knew Foaly was going to be at this meeting. You're telling me the man who died for Artemis wouldn't tell someone that he wasn't right?
Then there's him being “trapped” but those guys. Butler defeated a freakin' full grown troll and you're telling me that he and Juliet couldn't have gotten past twenty mesmerized humans? Really?
The last issue is Bulter's line “Foaly. Your security sucks.” I've read the AF series front to back, several times over. Never has Butler spoken like that. I don't mean the outlandishly rude コメント (ironic considering Butler was just defeated によって zombies), but he's never spoken with that dialect.
4) The robots. Okay, I wasn't happy that there were robots to begin with, so my mind wasn't too open. The entire conflict (besides Artemis' OCD) was the robots were hijacked and used for evil purposes. Um, the only evil things the robots did were melt some snow and trap Holly, Foaly, Artemis, Butler and 根覆い, マルチ in some goo. The prob destroyed the ship and killed the LEP officers, the prob tried (and almost did) destroy Atlantis. And yet, throughout the book, everyone kept talking about how worried they were about the robots. What?
5) Becket eating a hamster. I think that kind of goes without saying. I know it was added in as humor and it was supposed to emphasis how gone Artemis was because he reacted to strongly, but I'd be pretty upset too if my little brother ate my hamster. I think putting a padlock on my door to stop my brother from noming on my pets is the appropriate response.
6) This one I'm conflicted on. I know Artemis' OCD was affecting his memories, but the scene at the beginning with Artemis Sr angered me. Mostly because I'm not sure if that was added to explain why Artemis had become such a schemer, または to 表示する that he wasn't okay, but throughout all six books, Colfer shoved down our throats about how Timmy had been such a cold, distant (figuratively and literally) figure in Artemis' life. Now, all of a sudden, he was ホーム every night, read his son bedtime stories and kissed him goodnight?
7) Foaly. Now, I 愛 Foaly. I have ever since he first appeared as the paranoid centaur wearing a tin foil hat (<3) who tried to outsmart evil Artemis. But the whole “Fab. I (heart) demonstrations” took him off my 一覧 of お気に入り characters. Well that and the whole, “They weren't designed that way, they weren't designed that way, they weren't designed that way” throughout the whole series. I mean, really? How many times have his inventions been twisted and used against him? I know he's not a field agent, but come one, he's not an idiot.
8) Holly. Ohmy, Colfer what have あなた done to my tough, rough and tumble, field smart ヒイラギ, ホリー Short? Now she gets upset because Artemis didn't notice her hair? She grew out her hair? She gets an attitude with Vinyaya and Foaly and wants to “cradle Artemis' face in her hands?” She's supposed to speak like a soldier, または a normal person, not some freaky クロス between genius, soldier, snotty teenager, and normal.
9) The 妖精 not caring about the planet. Um, call me crazy, but if humans destroy the planet with global warming and the 妖精 don't know how to fix it, wouldn't they be happy Artemis found a way to stop global warming (which, ironically, they never got around to doing)? Wouldn't they realize that they can't take back the planet (which is now their ultimate goal. World domination all around!) once is destroyed?
10) The plot was not nearly as neat as Colfer usually leaves it. Yes, this isn't the last book, but there were so many things left unexplained and undone (like, ya know, saving the planet). It was confusing and took me a few reads to get a semblance of clue as to what was going on. Stop 読書 Twilight, Colfer and get your arse back into gear. Bring back my genius!
11) Angeline Fowl caring もっと見る about forcing her son into jeans than caring that he was unconscious and going crazy. Oh, and there was that little matter of manipulating your son and guilting him into wearing 発言しました jeans. This was how I interpreted the two conversations going:
Artemis: [recently conscious, strapped in a ハーネス and having just lied about a countless number of things] Mother I don't want to wear jeans.
Angeline: [not even bother to call her son out on the seven lies she knew he just told her before she brought up the jeans] あなた WILL WEAR THEM! I BOUGHT THEM AND IT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY AND AFTER EVERYTHING あなた PUT ME THROUGH I DESERVE TO MAKE あなた MISERABLE SO I CAN BE HAPPY! AND CALL ME 'MUM' DAMN YOU!
Artemis: [resignedly] Yes, Mum.
LATER
Butler: [in a fearful way] Mrs. Fowl, Artemis is sick. No, あなた can't talk to him, he's sedated.
Angeline: Oh, alright. As long as he's ホーム for 晩餐, 夕食 and he wears his jeans.
12) Everyone but the reader seemed unsurprised that Root had an older brother who married a human and had been in jail もっと見る times than Mulch. Artemis, Juliet and Butler, who didn't even really know Root, seemed unsurprised about this news.
13) Bad guys being used over. And over. And over. And over. Lets see: Opal was used at least three times, and now Sool is back. Really? あなた couldn't have just left it with big brother Root, あなた had to go through and reuse another bad guy? Oh, and the whole, “Something-goes-wrong-for-the-fairy-people-and-we're-going-to-blame-Artemis-because,-despite-everything-he's-done-for-us (stopping us from being crushed によって magma, stopping Opal seventeen hundred times from destroying the entire planet, stopping a goblin rebellion, and saving the demons),-he's-within-a-five-hundred-mile-radius-and-because,-one-time,-he-kinda-kidnapped-a-fairy” is getting old. I know Trouble only 発言しました it to give ヒイラギ, ホリー the backhanded go ahead, but none of the other 妖精 though it suspicious.
I will give credit were credit is due, Colfer still has a streak of the old brilliance. Trouble was just as shmexy as ever, and he did manage a smidgen of Holly/Trouble. Vinyaya was the same bitch, and the villain was not,Opal Kobi. Juliet was in it, for almost the entire book and N1 was as cute as ever. Orion was as annoying as he was supposed to be, there was no Holly/Artemis, and Artemis actually feels remorse about the things he's done. Granted, I don't think allowing a giant squid to try and eat あなた is a way to atone for those things, but I guess it's the thought that counts.
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I had a lot of issues with this story, mostly characterization and some time-line things.
1) Artemis' age. Artemis was fifteen in The Time Paradox. Angeline, towards the end, even makes the コメント “Why are あなた still fifteen?” He was also fifteen in The ロスト Colony. I'm going on assumption here, but I'm pretty sure The Atlantis Complex takes place after the events in TTP. So, if that's the case, how does Artemis' meeting take place on his fifteenth birthday?
2) What happened to 根覆い, マルチ being accepted back into the fairy culture? Wasn't he pardoned for all his crimes in The Opal Deception? He's done nothing but help the People since then, so why was he an outlaw again in TAC?
3) Butler. Okay, I understand that Butler left Artemis because he thought Juliet was in trouble. I get that. I thought the whole set up (before I knew it was a set up) about her being in danger was fishy, but, hey. Juliet hasn't been in the 本 for a while, who knows what kind of trouble she's gotten herself into. My problem lies in the fact that Butler was concerned about Artemis, he knew the boy was off . . . and he leaves without telling anyone? He's got Foaly's number (probably Holly's too, but it's not stated) and he knew Foaly was going to be at this meeting. You're telling me the man who died for Artemis wouldn't tell someone that he wasn't right?
Then there's him being “trapped” but those guys. Butler defeated a freakin' full grown troll and you're telling me that he and Juliet couldn't have gotten past twenty mesmerized humans? Really?
The last issue is Bulter's line “Foaly. Your security sucks.” I've read the AF series front to back, several times over. Never has Butler spoken like that. I don't mean the outlandishly rude コメント (ironic considering Butler was just defeated によって zombies), but he's never spoken with that dialect.
4) The robots. Okay, I wasn't happy that there were robots to begin with, so my mind wasn't too open. The entire conflict (besides Artemis' OCD) was the robots were hijacked and used for evil purposes. Um, the only evil things the robots did were melt some snow and trap Holly, Foaly, Artemis, Butler and 根覆い, マルチ in some goo. The prob destroyed the ship and killed the LEP officers, the prob tried (and almost did) destroy Atlantis. And yet, throughout the book, everyone kept talking about how worried they were about the robots. What?
5) Becket eating a hamster. I think that kind of goes without saying. I know it was added in as humor and it was supposed to emphasis how gone Artemis was because he reacted to strongly, but I'd be pretty upset too if my little brother ate my hamster. I think putting a padlock on my door to stop my brother from noming on my pets is the appropriate response.
6) This one I'm conflicted on. I know Artemis' OCD was affecting his memories, but the scene at the beginning with Artemis Sr angered me. Mostly because I'm not sure if that was added to explain why Artemis had become such a schemer, または to 表示する that he wasn't okay, but throughout all six books, Colfer shoved down our throats about how Timmy had been such a cold, distant (figuratively and literally) figure in Artemis' life. Now, all of a sudden, he was ホーム every night, read his son bedtime stories and kissed him goodnight?
7) Foaly. Now, I 愛 Foaly. I have ever since he first appeared as the paranoid centaur wearing a tin foil hat (<3) who tried to outsmart evil Artemis. But the whole “Fab. I (heart) demonstrations” took him off my 一覧 of お気に入り characters. Well that and the whole, “They weren't designed that way, they weren't designed that way, they weren't designed that way” throughout the whole series. I mean, really? How many times have his inventions been twisted and used against him? I know he's not a field agent, but come one, he's not an idiot.
8) Holly. Ohmy, Colfer what have あなた done to my tough, rough and tumble, field smart ヒイラギ, ホリー Short? Now she gets upset because Artemis didn't notice her hair? She grew out her hair? She gets an attitude with Vinyaya and Foaly and wants to “cradle Artemis' face in her hands?” She's supposed to speak like a soldier, または a normal person, not some freaky クロス between genius, soldier, snotty teenager, and normal.
9) The 妖精 not caring about the planet. Um, call me crazy, but if humans destroy the planet with global warming and the 妖精 don't know how to fix it, wouldn't they be happy Artemis found a way to stop global warming (which, ironically, they never got around to doing)? Wouldn't they realize that they can't take back the planet (which is now their ultimate goal. World domination all around!) once is destroyed?
10) The plot was not nearly as neat as Colfer usually leaves it. Yes, this isn't the last book, but there were so many things left unexplained and undone (like, ya know, saving the planet). It was confusing and took me a few reads to get a semblance of clue as to what was going on. Stop 読書 Twilight, Colfer and get your arse back into gear. Bring back my genius!
11) Angeline Fowl caring もっと見る about forcing her son into jeans than caring that he was unconscious and going crazy. Oh, and there was that little matter of manipulating your son and guilting him into wearing 発言しました jeans. This was how I interpreted the two conversations going:
Artemis: [recently conscious, strapped in a ハーネス and having just lied about a countless number of things] Mother I don't want to wear jeans.
Angeline: [not even bother to call her son out on the seven lies she knew he just told her before she brought up the jeans] あなた WILL WEAR THEM! I BOUGHT THEM AND IT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY AND AFTER EVERYTHING あなた PUT ME THROUGH I DESERVE TO MAKE あなた MISERABLE SO I CAN BE HAPPY! AND CALL ME 'MUM' DAMN YOU!
Artemis: [resignedly] Yes, Mum.
LATER
Butler: [in a fearful way] Mrs. Fowl, Artemis is sick. No, あなた can't talk to him, he's sedated.
Angeline: Oh, alright. As long as he's ホーム for 晩餐, 夕食 and he wears his jeans.
12) Everyone but the reader seemed unsurprised that Root had an older brother who married a human and had been in jail もっと見る times than Mulch. Artemis, Juliet and Butler, who didn't even really know Root, seemed unsurprised about this news.
13) Bad guys being used over. And over. And over. And over. Lets see: Opal was used at least three times, and now Sool is back. Really? あなた couldn't have just left it with big brother Root, あなた had to go through and reuse another bad guy? Oh, and the whole, “Something-goes-wrong-for-the-fairy-people-and-we're-going-to-blame-Artemis-because,-despite-everything-he's-done-for-us (stopping us from being crushed によって magma, stopping Opal seventeen hundred times from destroying the entire planet, stopping a goblin rebellion, and saving the demons),-he's-within-a-five-hundred-mile-radius-and-because,-one-time,-he-kinda-kidnapped-a-fairy” is getting old. I know Trouble only 発言しました it to give ヒイラギ, ホリー the backhanded go ahead, but none of the other 妖精 though it suspicious.
I will give credit were credit is due, Colfer still has a streak of the old brilliance. Trouble was just as shmexy as ever, and he did manage a smidgen of Holly/Trouble. Vinyaya was the same bitch, and the villain was not,Opal Kobi. Juliet was in it, for almost the entire book and N1 was as cute as ever. Orion was as annoying as he was supposed to be, there was no Holly/Artemis, and Artemis actually feels remorse about the things he's done. Granted, I don't think allowing a giant squid to try and eat あなた is a way to atone for those things, but I guess it's the thought that counts.