In this sequel to Artemis Fowl (2001), the intellectual brilliance and total lack of scruples of the eponymous hero have enabled him to use his father’s criminal empire to accumulate a vast fortune. Artemis utilizes this money to finance the search for his father, still missing two years after a disastrous and almost legitimate foray into Russia. Upon the receipt of an e-mailed picture, supposedly of his father, Artemis and his bodyguard, Butler, start the journey to Russia, only to be abducted by an old adversary Captain Holly Short, of the fairy police, LEPrecon. Holly and her commander erroneously suspect Artemis of masterminding a smuggling ring. The deal Artemis and Butler make with the LEPrecon officers (Artemis lends his brain to solve the smuggling puzzle; LEPrecon lends its advanced technology to the search for Fowl, Senior) leads to a series of major and minor disasters, which provide suspense and tension to this well-plotted story. Characterization is slight but amusing: Holly Short, first female captain in the LEPrecon is a feisty but warmhearted fairy, Foaly the centaur head of LEPrecon’s technology department is brilliant if irascible, and the dwarf, Mulch, is hilarious, full of himself and of dwarf gas—don’t ask. Filled with puns, word plays, and inventive new concepts about the fairy realm, this mix of fantasy and science fiction will delight fans and make converts of new readers. An exhilarating Celtic caper that stands very nicely indeed on its own merits. (Fiction. 11-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7868-0855-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
One-upping the painted illustrations in Graeme Base’s Discovery of Dragons (1996), these elaborately casual snapshots capture glimpses of 16 fairies observed in various leafy, far-flung locales. Adopting the persona of a scientist bent on completing a predecessor’s 19th-century field guide, Scalora provides (in a ridiculously tiny typeface) travel notes and background; the glossy full-color photographs—created using live models, wings constructed from a variety of materials, and computer manipulation—range from full-body views to fleeting hints of a face or form. Lushly hued (each of the fairies here is associated with a color), they evoke a shadowy, elusive realm hidden, usually, within our own; readers susceptible to the likes of Nancy Willard’s Alphabet of Angels (1994) or caught up in the recent revival of the Victorian-era fairy fad will be beguiled by the mystery and magic here. For everyone else, the book’s closing credits, with lists of stylists, models, equipment, and acknowledgments, provide a refreshing peek into the mechanics behind the photographs. (Picture book. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028234-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Conspiracies, intrigue, murder, deceit, apparitions, dusty secret passages, false identities, a clever investigator, and his loyal if credulous young servant: Avi’s new page-turner has it all. Not long after scholarly old Mangus is forced into renouncing magical powers he never claimed to possess, he is abruptly summoned to the nearby Castello Pergamontio; it seems that Princess Teresina, 10, claims to have seen a ghost. His servant and narrator, Fabrizio, soon discovers that the situation is far from cut-and-dried; the heir, Prince Lorenzo, is gone, perhaps murdered, and the princess is about to be secretly married to sinister Count Scarazoni—unless the superstitious King Claudio calls the wedding off. Mangus, who doesn—t believe in the supernatural, says the ghost is not real, but Fabrizio has no doubt after seeing a gesticulating, weirdly lit figure. Then Teresina’s tutor is found dead. Enmeshing his protagonist in webs of conflicting plots and alliances, Avi brings the suspenseful plot to a climactic boil in which Scarazoni is tricked into confessing that he killed both the tutor and the prince—or tried to, as Lorenzo has been around the whole time, disguised as a kitchen boy. Readers, especially fans of John Bellairs’s books, will be riveted from page one. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-36035-3
Page Count: 249
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
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