Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

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Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
First edition cover
First edition cover
Author Eoin Colfer
Country Ireland
Language English
Series Artemis Fowl series
Genre(s) Children's, Fantasy novel
Publisher Viking Press
Publication date 27 April 2003
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 352 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0670913529 (first edition, hardback) 0141321318 (third edition, paperback)
Preceded by Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
Followed by Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (now Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code) is the third book in Irish children's fiction author Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.

[edit] Plot

Artemis Fowl II, a 13 year old criminal mastermind , has only a few weeks before he goes to a boarding school, but that still doesn't stop him from carrying out one last dirty plan, and, after this, he's going straight. He has constructed a supercomputer, the C Cube, from stolen fairy technology, which makes all other human technology obsolete by 55 years.[1] Though the technology he harnessed is outdated below ground, the cube he creates is still better than any human supercomputer to date.

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 cryogenics and fairy healing magic, courtesy of Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon squad.

US cover for the Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
US cover for the Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

Unfortunately, the healing does not work as planned. It leaves Butler alive, though 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 company, Fission Chips, in the Spiro Needle. They begin their mission once Artemis is captured and placed inside the company.

Spiro is quite a challenging opponent; challenging even for Artemis Fowl. He has state of the art security on everything: though the C Cube's vault is the best in the world. But he's still no match for the fairies, and Artemis manages to get into the vault where the Cube is held. Artemis lets Foaly take control of the C Cube and tricks Spiro into going to the offices of his rivals Phonetix in order to sabotage their work projects, but Artemis gets Spiro arrested by a SWAT team.

Julius Root grows concerned that Artemis is becoming too much of a liability to the People. Prior to the mission, Artemis and his staff agree to submit to mind-wipes. His memory is wiped of everything fairy-related, but he has a plan to return. After planting false trails, he gives Mulch Diggums a coin with a hole in the center. In reality it turns out to be a disc of 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 recognizable 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 hardcover edition, the code for Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl The Eternity Code Puffin is printed on the spine underneath the dustjacket allowing the reader to decipher the code inside the book, which is a message from Artemis asking the reader to help him regain his memories by spreading the message that Artemis Fowl must find Mulch Diggums[2]

In the reprint of the book, the Eternity Code is changed to Gnommish.

The cover of the U.S. edition has a secret message written in the blue squares which reads: "the boy is in trouble"

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dunnewind, Stephanie (May 17, 2003). 'Artemis' author dishes about Fowl, fairies and future projects. The Seattle Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-05-11.
  2. ^ Colfer, Eoin (2003). Artemis Fowl and the Enternity Code. Puffin. ISBN 0670913529.