To save his mother, Artemis travels back eight years and must outwit the most dangerous opponent he has ever faced: himself
Artemis versus Artemis
Artemis Fowl's mother has fallen gravely ill with a rare magical disease, and the only known cure came from a species of lemur that is now extinct. Worse, Artemis knows exactly why: eight years earlier, as a ten-year-old criminal mastermind, he sold the last of these animals to a group of collectors. The only way to save his mother is to go back in time and take the lemur from his younger self.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about nine to fourteen who have followed the series and enjoy clever time-travel puzzles, heists and humour.
What you will get
A clever, funny time-travel adventure in which Artemis must outwit his own younger self, with an unusually personal and moving reason to win.
The Time Paradox Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Children’s Books · Time travel · Endangered animals · Criminal mastermind
Length
480 pages · ≈ 14 h
More about this book
Holly Short takes him through time to the year he sold the lemur, and the result is one of the most entertaining setups in the series. The younger Artemis is just as clever and much less pleasant, and the older one is embarrassed to see what he used to be. Meanwhile a much younger Butler, a much younger Opal Koboi and a gang of ruthless animal collectors complicate things further.
The heists, chases and double-crosses are as inventive as ever, and the time-travel rules lead to some satisfying twists. The emotional stakes are higher than usual, since Artemis is fighting for his mother, and the book takes its theme of animal extinction seriously without lecturing. Holly and Artemis's friendship deepens, with a brief romantic moment that both quickly prefer to forget. It is fun and also quietly touching.
Many fans rank it among the best in the series. It works best after The Lost Colony and is followed by The Atlantis Complex. Seeing the ten-year-old Artemis through his older self's eyes also shows how far the character has come since the first book. About 480 pages in the Disney-Hyperion paperback.
The Lost Colony
The Opal Deception
Artemis Fowl
The Time Machine
The Arctic Incident
The House of Hades
The Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark
Among the Hidden
The Merchant of Death
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Gregor the Overlander
The Eternity Code