Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
<< Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident | Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception >>
"Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code" is the third book in Irish children's fiction author Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.
[edit] The plot
Artemis Fowl, criminal mastermind, is now stuck at a boarding school, but that still doesn't stop him from carrying out his plans, and after this, he's going straight. He's 13 years old. He has constructed a supercomputer, the C Cube, from stolen fairy technology, which makes all other human technology obsolete. Though the technology he harnessed is outdated in the fairy world, the cube he creates is still better than any human supercomputer by about five decades.
When Fowl meets Chicago businessman Jon Spiro to show him the Cube, things go horribly wrong. Spiro ambushes Fowl, steals the Cube, and kills Butler, his bodyguard. However, Fowl manages to revive him with the aid of cryonics and fairy healing magic, courtesy of Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon squad.
Unfortunately, the healing does not work as planned, leaving Butler alive, but fifteen years older, and unable to carry out his duties as a bodyguard. However, his sister, Juliet agrees to help Fowl recover the stolen computer. With the aid of the rest of the LEPrecon team, and kleptomaniac dwarf Mulch Diggums, they break into Spiro's top rival of a company, Fission Chips, and begin their mission.
Spiro is quite a challenging opponent, even for Artemis Fowl. He has almost insane security on everything: Fingerprint scanners, armed thugs, the Mafia – and that's just for starters. But he's still no match for the fairies, and soon Fowl has the Cube back, and is working on yet another scheme.
The fairies have realized by now that Fowl is too dangerous a foe, and fearing their safety, they made Artemis agree to a mind wipe in exchange for getting the cube back. His memory is wiped of everything fairy-related, but he has a plan to return. He gives Mulch Diggums a coin with a hole in it covered with gold leaf. However, it is actually disk with information to let Artemis revive his memories and knowledge of the existence of the People.
[edit] Secret Message
This message appears at the bottom of every page in the book, written by Eoin Colfer for the book "Artemis Fowl- The Eternity Code", including the dedication. The front cover has the code for "Think fairy, think again", the slogan for the original "Artemis Fowl". The message appears only in European editions of the book.
It is significantly longer and more challenging to decipher than the codes in the previous two books, using stacks of bars to represent letters rather than easily recognisable symbols of Gnommish or Centaurian. This is supposedly the "Eternity Code" with which the C Cube is encrypted.
The first step to solving the code is to use the letters in the dedication which are already translated:
To the Power family. In-laws and outlaws.
In the hardback edition, the code for Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl The Eternity Code Puffin is printed on the spine underneath the dustjacket.
The full message reads:
A message from Artemis Fowl. Encrypted.
My dear newfound ally,
If you have deciphered this code, then you are of sufficient intelligence to aid me in my mission. You may have heard of the Fowl family, and imagine this mission to be illegal or even dangerous. I promise you this is not the case all. I ask that you help me keep my memories where they belong. In my head. There are certain forces at work that wish to deprive me of memories that are rightfully mine. These forces would wipe certain facts from my brain that are extremely important, not to mention valuable. Who are these forces? They are known as The People. I know what you are thinking. This person Artemis Fowl has obviously lost his mind. Fairy people, he cannot honestly expect me to believe this nonsense. It is an understandable reaction. Two years ago I would have reacted exactly the same way, but a lot can change in two years. I have seen green-skinned sprites fly under their own power, I have seen dwarfs use their cavernous mouths to dig tunnels, I have witnessed the healing power of elves and touched the flank of a noble centaur. These creatures exist. Take my word for it. But as powerful as these creatures are, they fear one thing, humans. We are the only living creatures with the power to overthrow their underground society. Our nn magic. So the people have decided that it is too dangerous to have a human boy with fairy knowledge in his head. Soon, they will mind wipe me and this extraordinary information will disappear. There is one way to stop this happening. I have entrusted a computer disk to a reprobate of Mulch Diggums. The disk contains all my knowledge of the fairy folk. Of course the mind wipe will cause me to forget all about the dwarf and the disk. Diggums should bring the disk to me but common criminals are not to be trusted. I ask you to get a message to me. The message is simple. Six words only. Artemis Fowl must find Mulch Diggums. Wherever you see one of the faithful clutching this book, repeat those words. The message will spread like a virus across the world eventually reaching my ears. I will act upon it, putting all my resources into locating the mysterious Mister Diggums. Once I find him the disk will reactivate all my memories and the knowledge will be mine again. Do this for me and when I rule the world, then you will be rewarded. Remember, Artemis Fowl must find Mulch Diggums.
Your new friend,
Artemis Fowl II
In the reprint of the book, the Eternity Code is changed to Gnommish.
[edit] Trivia
- Although they didn't call it an eternity code, the Germans considered the Enigma code of World War II to be unbreakable. By the end of the war, Enigma had trillions of possible permutations.
- In the first book, it was said that Madam Ko's academy was in Israel, although this book says that the location changes within five years.
