Book Review: The Lost Colony

The Lost Colony (Artemis Fowl #5)

Eoin Colfer

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Publication: May 2007

Format: Paperback, 400 pages

Website: Artemis Fowl

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository

I guess what I really like with Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, is that we get to see Artemis growing up with each book (and adventure). Artemis Fowl is back in The Lost Colony along with some new characters, including Minerva Paradizo, a twelve year old French child genius, Doodah Day, a smuggler, No. 1, an imp, a demon called Leon Abbot, and a warlock, Qwan.

Thousands years ago, the fairies decided to move underground and keep themselves hidden from humans. But the eighth family of fairy, the demons refuse to move. So they choose to take their island of Hybras into another dimension until they are ready to wage war with human. Except that something went wrong, causing the island of Hybras to end up in Limbo. Now the time spell is fading and demons are sucked into the present space and time.

Artemis, who is bored with his new, normal life, hacked into Foaly’s computer (because Foaly hacked into his first) and found out about the demons. He stake out the sites where demons are expected to appear and later found out that someone, a twelve year old, Minerva Paradizo, is after the demon too and successfully kidnapped the demon. Once again, Artemis Fowl teamed up with Captain Holly Short (while dealing with his puberty) to save the demon before the time spell disappear and the demon returns to earth.

The Lost Colony was a really fun and exciting read. It was full with action and suspense (especially since Butler wasn’t on Artemis side). Out of the other Artemis Fowl series, I find this once a lot funnier than the others. It was fun to see Artemis dealing with his puberty (he found himself attracted to pretty girls). I was a bit surprised with the ending though. Damn cliffhanger!

Book Cover’s Description

Ten thousand years ago, humans and fairies fought a great battle for the magical island of Ireland. When it became clear to the fairy families that they could never win, they decided to move their civilization underground and keep themselves hidden from the humans. All the fairy families agreed on this, except the eighth family, the demons. The demons planned to lift their small island out of time until they had regrouped and were ready to wage war on the humans once more. However, the time spell went wrong, and the island of Hybras was catapulted into Limbo, where it has remained for ten thousand years. Now the tainted time spell is deteriorating and demons are being sucked back into the present space and time. The fairy council is concerned about this and is monitoring any materializations. But when the spells deterioration accelerates, the materializations become unpredictable. Even the fairy scientists cannot figure out where the next demon will pop up. But someone can. Artemis Fowl, teenage criminal mastermind, has solved temporal equations that no normal human should be intelligent enough to understand. So when a confused and frightened demon pops up in a Sicilian theater, Artemis Fowl is there to meet him. Unfortunately, he is not the only one. A second, mysterious party has also solved the temporal equations, and has managed to abduct the demon before Artemis can secure him. Once again, Artemis will have to pair up with his old comrade, Captain Holly Short, to track down the missing demon and rescue him, before the time spell dissolves completely and the lost demon colony returns violently to Earth