Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
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<< Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception | (last in series)
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| European Edition cover of Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony | |
| Author | Eoin Colfer |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Stefan van Bolderick |
| Cover Artist | Melvyn Grant |
| Country | United Kingdom and United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Artemis Fowl |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Hyperion |
| Released | September 7 in England, September 12 in North America |
| Media Type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 385 |
| ISBN | 0-7868-4956-8 |
| Preceded by | Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception |
| Followed by | Title Unknown |
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony is the fifth book in the Artemis Fowl Series. The book, originally expected to be published in the UK on September 7 2006, was shipped to British stores early. On September 12 of the same the year, The Lost Colony became available in the US, and will be released soon to other countries. According to an interview with author Eoin Colfer there will be one additional Artemis Fowl book in the series after this one.
Contents |
[edit] The Plot
Ten thousand years ago, humans and fairies fought the great battle of Taillte 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.
The book begins in Barcelona, Spain, with Artemis and Butler waiting for the arrival of a 'guest'. It is revealed that Artemis has travelled to three different locations before this. He expresses interest in the taxi driver, Maria, and a girl at a nearby restaurant. They are just about to leave, and the elusive 'guest' has not appeared. Suddenly, the guest, (a demon) does appear, however, he appears several feet to the left of where he is supposed to. If not for the fairy device that Butler is wearing, the demon would have been caught on camera. The demon is only there for a few seconds, but Artemis is grabbed, and starts to make a journey through spacetime. He is pulled back by Butler, who is wearing a silver charm, which has the additional power of anchoring someone to a dimension.
Meanwhile, in the Lower Elements, Holly Short and Mulch Diggums are going after fish smuggler Doodah Day. After catching him, then being forced to release him at the last second by Wing Commander Vinyaya, they are brought to a secret organization called Section 8, where they are greeted by Foaly the centaur. He explains that Section 8 is dedicated to making sure that no demons are captured by human eyes, as that would probably result in the discovering of Fairies by humans (or Mud Men, as the fairies call them). After Holly joins the squad, Holly is sent out to contact Artemis about how he was able to predict where the demon would arrive.
The plot then shifts to the demon island of Hybras, where an imp called Number One or No1 is bullied because he cannot 'warp', or change from an imp to a full-fledged demon. He explains that demon culture has not evolved much over the years, and that the demon pride is ruled by Leon Abbot, a demon who ventured into the human world and returned alive. When he came out, he bore two objects, a copy of Lady Heatherington Smythe's Hedgerow and a medieval crossbow. After stirring up a bloodlust, and Number One turning a wooden skewer into stone, (a warlock trait. Demon warlocks are by far the most powerful, but it is told that in the process of the island being sent Limbo, they are all dead, and no other known demon has magic.) Abbot uses some oratory powers that are suspiciously like the mesmer. This magical voice inside Number One's head tells him to go to the volcano, and take off his silver, thus making himself susceptible to time travel.
Meanwhile, Butler and Artemis are at the Massimo Bellini Opera House in southern Sicily, where Artemis has calculated the next demon will appear. Holly Short appears next to them, and just before Number One appears, Butler notices the same girl who was in the restaurant. He concludes that she must know about demons, and sends Holly to intervene, but Number One appears and is shot with a dart rifle, anchoring him to our dimension. The mysterious crew then drive off, but not before Artemis applauds their efforts, and recognizes the girl as the head of the outfit. She quickly identifies him as Artemis Fowl and boards a train that eventually leads to Nice. Holly follows them.
While Holly is eavesdropping, a man in the girl's crew reveals some information. One, her name is Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. Two, that Minerva lives in Nice. Three, that she seemed to be in charge. This allows Foaly to identify them. Artemis and Butler learn that Minerva's last name is Paradizo, her father, Gaspard, is a cosmetic surgeon, Minerva won a national spelling bee when she was four, and she has high school degrees in quantum mechanics, psychology, and chemistry. Three people--a Latin man, a Frenchman, and a Taiwanese are traveling with her. The Frenchman is obviously Minerva's father. The Latin man is Juan Soto, Minerva's security chief. The Taiwanese man is Billy Kong, commissioned for security.
Born Jonah Lee in Malibu in the early seventies to Annie Lee, Billy Kong had one older brother, Eric. Annie worked two jobs to support her family, so Eric had to babysit eight-year old Jonah. But, like most sixteen-year olds, babysitting really gets in the way of their social life. However, if Eric left him alone, Jonah would leave as soon as Eric left. So Eric came back one night after a gang fight and told Jonah that he was fighting demons that could peel off their faces and eat "under-tens" at night. Normally Jonah would be skeptical, but with blood and horror on the TV tonight and footsteps coming up the driveway, Jonah believed every word he said. One night, a gang killed Eric Lee in a fight over a girl. "But Jonah knew different. He knew the demons had done it. They had peeled off their faces and killed his brother." When Eric was killed, Annie Lee moved Jonah to Taiwan in Xinchu, south of Taipei. Jonah Lee moved to Taipei and became a petty thief. He killed an accomplice with a kitchen knife once in a fight. Then he moved to Paris and changed his name.
The plot shifts back to Holly. She reveals that Mulch cannot get through the three-feet thick rock walls surrounding the Paradizo complex, so she must get Doodah Day to drive. She sends out Mulch to go look for him.
Mulch is walking around Haven's market district, looking for Doodah Day the fish smuggler. After finding an illegal restaurant where Doodah is eating, he is persuaded to help in the operation, on condition of total amnesty.
During the operation, Mulch and Doodah try to distract Beau Paradizo, Minerva's five-year old brother, by offering him a piece of chocolate and telling him that they are the "chocolate fairies." When Beau starts getting violent and screaming for Pierre, a bodyguard, Mulch sedated him with saliva, then wiped the saliva off before it dried. Doodah then drove in and wrapped a special fiber-optic around a security camera wire, allowing Foaly to send images to the Paradizo's security cameras and tripping all of their alarms. Foaly sent holograms of the Commandement des Opérations Spéciales, helicopters, missiles, and a tank to the Paradizo chateau. Holly, in all of the frenzy, becomes unconscious by gas and is taken inside the chateau.
Meanwhile, Minerva interrogates Number One. Number One demonstrates more warlock qualities--such as the gift of tongues. Number one reveals that the book Lady Heatherington Smythe's Hedgerow is revered as scripture, and that Leon Abbot brought it to the demons on Hybras. Abbot had actually asked for the book when he arrived at Chateau Paradizo. In exchange for the time tunnel calculations, Abbot received a few books to read and some old weapons from Minerva. He then asked to be called Leon Abbot, after General Leon Abbot in the book. Number 1 learns of how much human culture had advanced since crossbows. He also learns that the time tunnel is unraveling, and soon demons nowhere will be safe.
Holly is in a holding cell with Billy Kong. She is tied to a chair. After conversing with Holly, asking her if she remembered his brother and what happened to him, Kong tells her to peel off her face, and Holly tells her that she would comply but she could not because her hands were tied. Using a trick she learned from Wing Commander Vinyáyá, Holly melts the restraining bands on her hands and gets free, but conceals the fact. Kong comes to peel off her face for her, and she mesmerizes him when they make eye contact. She tells him to talk, and Kong sits down, unable to resist the mesmer. Holly pretends to peel off her face but actually shields--vibrating so quickly that they cannot be seen with the naked eye--and says, "Not only can I peel off my face, I can do my entire body." Then she knocks Kong unconscious.
Artemis is planning to rescue Number One. He distracts Minerva from her demon with a phone call. Holly gets enough time to grab Number 1 and get out. On the way, she steals research papers from Minerva's wall safe. Artemis, meanwhile, tells Foaly to erase everything on the Paradizo computers and crash all the sites any of the computers in the building had gone to in case they had fairy-related files stored there. In the process, he crashed even sites such as Google and Yahoo.
Minerva gets extremely angry, but is persuaded by Gaspard to stop the project. Kong is outraged, and demands another demon. When Minerva refuses to comply, Kong knocks both her father and Juan Soto out. Before doing that, to show his employer that he is in control, Kong requests two shots into his radio, meaning his four teammates had incapacitated the over 20 other guards that Soto had hired. Two shots are heard over the estate. To show that he means business, he plans to hurt Soto, and threatens to kill Minerva and her father if Minerva can't find another demon. Artemis does not like murder, so he calls Kong. Realizing that Kong will just pick up on certain words in a conversation, Artemis plants the idea in Kong's head by saying, "I'll be wearing a burgundy tie. Pay attention. There are a hundred and one ways this could go wrong. If it does, the police could tie one of us up for a long time." Or what Kong's brain said: Taipei 101, Taiwan.
The Taipei 101 is in an earthquake-prone region. To prevent earthquakes, a large, silver damper is in the center of the building so that when an earthquake hits, the damper moves instead of the building. At the Taipei 101, Minerva is released in return for Number One. Kong plans to strap a bomb to Number One's back and send him back to Hybras by plucking out a silver bullet that he was shot with. However, Number One shows that Artemis has already plucked it out, drops it on the floor, and disappears. With such a large mass of silver in the way (the damper), Number One is stopped halfway on the journey to Hybras and reappears next to the damper, where Holly picks him up.
The reason that Artemis picked the Taipei 101 for the rendezvous site was because an art exhibition there showed several statues in a circle having similar markings on their heads to Number One's. Artemis suspects that Number One may be a warlock, meaning that he has the gargoyle's touch, the ability to turn living things to stone and back again. Number One tries to turn one of the statues back to life, and realizes that it is Qwan, the elder warlock. Number One turns Qwan back to life, but all of the other statues are dead and remain as statues.
Meanwhile, a firefight starts between Kong's gang and Butler and Holly. Kong appears unconscious, but when Minerva starts to insult him, he grabs her leg. Butler knocks Kong unconscious and he releases Minerva. Kong's gang reveal a bomb, set to an eight minute timer. Holly, Artemis, and Number One fly out to Taipei to dispose of the bomb. Holly wings dropped and descended, but Artemis rips off Number One's silver bracelet, allowing the time tunnel to swallow them up.
In our dimension, the police arrive. Butler claims that he was Franklin Arnott, and Minerva was his daughter, Eloise. Butler says that Kong was a murder suspect. He also says that the boy with him, Arty, was his son.
In the time tunnel, Artemis discusses with Qwan about the time tunnel. Artemis reasons that normally, an energy source is required, but with the energy source--a volcano--built in already, they would need fewer people than normal. They need five. They only have three, and Number One is completely new to magic. During this time, in the time tunnel, Artemis steals some magic in the tunnel by hugging some blue sparks.
On the island of Hybras, Hadley Shrivelington Basset, a new addition to the Council of Elders, argues with Abbot. He asks Abbot why the demons read human books and use human weapons. Abbot says that they will learn how the humans think and how the humans fight. Basset then argues that they do not give each other rabbit names or live in foxholes to hunt rabbits and foxes. Abbot now reveals that they are not going back to the future. He says that everything was just something for the demons to concentrate on. Abbot then mesmerizes Basset to his will. Abbot then crowns himself king for life of Hybras.
A soldier rushes to the council and notifies Abbot that four beings arrived on the volcano. Abbot leads an army up to the volcano to fight the beings. The beings are Artemis, Holly, Number One, and Qwan. Qwan reveals that Abbot's demon name was N'Zall, which means "little horn" in the demon tongue. Abbot is accused of mesmerizing the Council of Elders and Number One. When he says that demons cannot have magic, Artemis claims that N'zall stole it from Qwan's former apprentice, Qweffor, and to prove his point, Artemis does a something very special indeed. He points his index finger (which is actually his middle one that swapped places with his index one) at the sky, and a blue spark popped out of it. "I know magic can be stolen, because I stole some myself," he replies. With this development, if they count Abbot, that makes five magical beings--enough to reverse the time spell.
Number One uses his newfound magic to distract the demons. Meanwhile, the time tunnel spell is unraveling, and soon no-one anywhere with silver or no silver will be safe. According to Artemis's calculations, they must count to two hundred ninety-nine and then use the bomb's energy to go home. At the climax of the story, Holly tries to fire a burst at Abbot, who is approaching her, from her Neutrino (Artemis Fowl), but the time spell whips it into the past, and Abbot manages to stab her. In a few seconds, Abbot kills Number One and Qwan, as well. Artemis then, using his calculations, fires a laser from Holly's Neutrino. The blast exited the barrel , was whipped one minute into the past, hitting the Abbot of one minute ago just as he was about to stab Holly. The past Abbot was thrown against the crater wall, unconscious but alive. The present-time Abbot winked out of existence. Holly, Number 1, and Qwan were still alive, unaffected by Abbot.
Holly and Artemis drag an unconscious Abbot to the crater, joining hands with Qwan and No.1 to form a magical circle. They use his magic to harness the energy of the bomb to reverse the time spell. While this is happening, a new voice appears. Qwan recognizes it as Qweffor's. Qweffor was living inside Abbot for a while, until now.
When they land back in the 21st century, Number One asks Qweffor if he needs a handkerchief, as Qweffor is coughing and sneezing. When Qweffor calls Number One a runt, and Number One realizes that Qweffor's body had once again been taken over by Abbot. Abbot attempts to take Number One hostage, but Number One uses the "mesmer" on Abbot. To get rid of Abbot's consciousness, Number One expands Qweffor's consciousness 'till it filled the whole brain. Qweffor would suffer from twitches and sudden loss of bowel control, which would come to be known as Abbot's Revenge. Abbot's consciousness was installed in a guinea pig.
Unfortunately, Artemis was three years off when he reversed the time spell. His parents now have twins, and Ark Sool has been fired. Mulch and Doodah Day have started a PI firm.
[edit] Blurb
- "I've waited a long time for young criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl to meet his match. Finally, it's happened.
- A second juvenile genius has discovered that fairies do exist, and she is determined to capture one for scientific study. And not just any fairy. The newcomer intends to trap a demon - the most human-hating species unknown to man.
- But there are more than two players in this deadly game. Holly Short has been enlisted by Section 8, a covert division of the Lower Elements Police, to find out just what her old accomplice Artemis is up to. And there is also a mysterious assassin, Billy Kong, who will stop at nothing to get his revenge.
- Only an ancient time spell separates the demons from mankind - and Artemis must prevent it from unravelling. If he fails, the bloodthirsty tribe will relaunch their quest to wipe every human from the planet. Because that's what demons live to do.
- There can only be one winner - and this time it might not be Artemis Fowl.
- Take nothing for granted.
- Your time-travelling correspondent,
Eoin Colfer"
[edit] The Code
Like every other Artemis Fowl book, The Lost Colony has hidden codes written in Gnommish or Centaurian.
The code along the bottom, when translated, reads:
The demon scrolls tell of a warlock that will come to save our people, but I wouldn't rely too much on the scrolls. They also say that rabbits are the supreme beings and that the best cure for a sore throat is a poultice of dung and old socks. Hence trust the scrolls at your peril. There are however a few basic tips for survival in a demon tribe that might be helpful if you were a human, say, and had never actually met a demon before. Which is unlikely to say the least. If you were human you wouldn't be able to read this in the first place. So. Demon survival tips. First, never stab a demon with his own sword. This is the ultimate insult and will result in a vendetta that could go on for generations. It is fine to stab a demon with your sword - he will congratulate you for managing that, but only poor warriors lose their swords and then get stabbed with them. If the opportunity arises, give it a miss. Second, demons have a pretty comprehensive system of sign language in which buttock slapping features heavily. It is very important not to slap the wrong buttock. Never slap someone else's buttock unless they stab you with your own sword - that is considered very bad manners. And learn the difference between the left-buttock slap and a right-buttock slap. If a passerby aims his buttocks at you and slaps the left one it means that there is a full moon due that evening and he hopes you will join him for the traditional hunt. If he slaps the right buttock it simply means that you remind him of his right buttock. You can see where problems could arise. Finally, never sneeze into your fist. Always allow the sneeze to run free into the air. Medical demons assure us that the sneeze comprises millions of tiny flying demons that zoom around the earth until they can find a human to land on. When they alight on their host humans they hack into their scalps with tiny axes causing terrible headaches which makes the humans easy to defeat in battle. Therefore, when a demon sneezes immediately slap your right buttock in the direction of the sneeze so that the tiny demons can pass on the message to the human they land on.
[edit] Sources
- Official Artemis Fowl UK-site
- Artemis Fowl Confidential
- Artemis Fowl and The Lost Colony page, at Artemis Fowl Fangathering.
