Book Review: "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Grover is on quest looking for Pan but Percy has dreams he's trapped. And the tree that guards camp Half Blood has been poisoned. So he and Annabeth sneak off to rescue Grover and get the golden fleece to heal the tree. But to do so, they have to get through the sea of monsters.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Percy has another dimension to his character that is revealed through a new relationship he forges with Tyson.

Annabeth has hatred towards cyclops bordering on bigoted. She thinks Tyson is gross and cannot be trusted. She is still rather emotional and irrational. At times, she acts more like a daughter of Ares, like when she competes in a race.

Tyson is a bigger boy that Percy befriends, not knowing what he is. Tyson isn't smart, but he is strong and sweet. He was by far the most likable character in the story.

Clarisse is a daughter of Ares. Like her father, she gets angry easily and hates Percy. Kind of two dimensional. I noticed it when Percy saved her life (in the beginning) and she gets mad at him. A real person would be stunned at having to be saved by someone they disliked. But Clarisse just has a temper tantrum. She later causes her own ship to sink.

Tantalus is a new camp leader, since Chiron is sacked. He is basically Dionysus. Except he cannot eat anything.

PERCY AND TYSON-SPOILERS

Percy eventually discovers he has a half brother. This was actually an interesting aspect of the the story, because Percy is initially embarrassed about it. Then he realizes how cruel he is being and has to learn to change his behavior. I liked this relationship because it brought out the worst in Percy, only to later bring out the best in him.

PERCY AND CLARISSE

Like I mentioned, Clarisse is kind of two dimensional. But there was one scene where Percy spies on her getting yelled at by her father. It showed she wasn't as tough as we initially thought. I wanted there to be a scene with her and Percy afterwards where he showed compassion and perhaps they developed a relationship. Or at least respect. That didn't happen.

But there was another chance, as Percy shows wisdom and kindness when he allows Clarisse to gain the glory of a quest that was originally hers anyway. But afterwards, Clarisse doesn't seem to change her opinion of him. I felt this was unrealistic. And in reality, her opinion along with her attitude would have drastically changed. I felt it was a missed opportunity.

ALWAYS A VICTIM

The book tries too hard to make Percy and Annabeth out as victims. It's enough that other kids are taunting Percy about Tyson. But after some killer birds attack during a race, they manage to get them to leave and then are punished for...disrupting the race. It's just annoying how overboard Riordan always goes.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY...?

Percy is going to sneak away from camp and he gets a lesson in morality from Hermes. He tells Percy a story and when Percy wants to know what the moral is Hermes just shrugs him off. He basically says there is no morality. Only what you can get away with.

I am not joking. I think this was supposed to be amusing, but I just found it annoying. Percy is supposed to strive to be a hero, he at least should have pushed back.

LUKE'S CASE

When Annabeth and Percy confront Luke, he tries to make an argument for his side. Saying that he is honoring a girl who died and became the tree that protects camp. Also, he tells Percy that he is being used and that there is prophecy about him and something terrible happens to him on his sixteenth birthday. He challenges the idea that Poseidon cares for Percy at all. I thought it was an interesting seed of doubt to plant.

EVIL FRANCHISE STORES

Annabeth explains to Percy that chain stores are evil, and pop up out of nowhere. She says they are magically linked to a monster.

No, really. So when Percy cuts the head off of a hyrdra, he creates another evil donut shop. Annabeth makes sure to point this out while Percy fights for his life. Because it's very important and not stupid at all.

DUMB AGAIN

Percy and Annabeth wash up on an island, where a weird spa exists. It makes no sense, that it exists in the middle of nowhere and that the woman offers them free services. So of course, they walk right into a trap. Once again, the main characters must be idiots in order to have danger occur in the story.

LET ME SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU

Annabeth does something dumb, risking her life so she can gain knowledge. After she almost gets killed, she admits hubris is her fatal flaw. Riordan steps in to spell it out. You know, just in case you were too dumb to figure it out. So Percy gets thinking about what his is. It's obviously trying to set up for the future. But the reader should be able to read and figure it out for themselves.

DUMB LUKE

Percy wants everyone to know who really poisoned the tree. Which makes sense, so Chiron can come back to camp. But Luke comes across as stupid. Percy throws a coin near him, and makes an Iris call to the camp. He goads Luke into repeating that he poisoned the tree.

But for some reason, Luke never notices the iris message open behind him. He and Percy have a long chat but he never sees it out of the corner of his eye. It's quite obvious the whole time and horribly cheesy. Something came out of it, as Percy learns that Luke would have gave them the fleece once he was done with it. But like I said, it was just cheesy and made Luke out to be an idiot.

AN AWKWARD PUZZLE

Percy recalls a scene from the last book, when he saw the fates cut a string. He says it wasn't anyone dying then, but it had to do with a death in the future because of his prophecy. It just feels like it was pulled out of thin air.

I don't feel like that scene meant anything more than hinting at the reality of the gods, the fates, ect. It's possible it was planned, but it feels so clunky. Like an obvious afterthought and Riordan was just looking at his first book and trying to connect it to the prophecy.

CLIMAX

In the end Percy, Clarisse and Annabeth work together to save Grover and get away from the cyclops on the island. I liked seeing a different side of Percy, as he shows kindness to Clarisse that surprised even her.

CONCLUSION

A definite improvement but still bogged down by two dimensional characters like Clarisse and Annabeth. Not to mention the main characters are still doing really dumb things. Percy proves himself more likable thanks to Tyson and Clarisse (even if the opportunity for her and Percy to develop a relationship was missed). But the main enemy, Luke, felt rather cartoonish and stupid. I give “The Sea of Monsters” two and half stars.

Book Review: "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

After Percy Jackson witnesses his teacher turn into a monster, his whole life changes. Suddenly he is on the run and ends up at Camp Half Blood, where demi god kids stay. Then he finds himself on a quest to find a missing lightning bolt that he is blamed for stealing. Along the way, he hopes to prevent a war. And maybe meet his father.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Percy is a boy who has essentially had bad things happen to him his whole life. When he finds out that he is a demi god he is just glad to fit in somewhere.

Grover the satyr has been friends with Percy for the past year. He isn't exactly brave but still volunteers to go with Percy on his quest.

Annabeth, the daughter of Athena is athletic and smart. She has some anger issues.

Chiron is a teacher and a mentor figure to Percy.

Luke is the camp counselor of the Hermes cabin. He is the basic cool kid, with blonde hair and a scar on his face.

THE VICTIM COMPLEX

Percy is instantly set up as a victim. He is constantly causing chaos without meaning to, which mean every year for the past six years he has been sent to a new boarding school (I don't know how they afford it, as his mom works at a candy store). He isn't any good at schoolwork. His stepfather is lazy, stupid and abusive. He has never met his real father.

All of that is fine. But Percy isn't set up as a victim who perseveres and hopes things will get better. He is constantly whining. And that bothered me. I couldn't find a real reason to like him. Being a victim wasn't enough. I wish I had seen him do an act of kindness, or at least tried to suck it up.

CAMP HALF BLOOD

Percy learns that most demi gods don't make it to adulthood. They attract monsters and die. Only at Camp Half Blood are they safe. And yet only Annabeth is a year rounder. It didn't make sense that it would be a camp (as in, only in the summer). Why wouldn't the kids stay there all year round? Why not start a small community there? It could be dangerous, but it could also be safer.

A GREAT MOM?

It's eventually revealed that Pecy's mom married Gabe because he stinks. Smells human, or something. Besides the fact that this excuse is stupid, the logic of Percy's mom is a different matter altogether.

She tells Percy that he is not “normal” and that's why he has to go to boarding school (How did he not dive deeper into that puzzle after all these years?).

But why did she think sending him to boarding school would help things when that meant he was away from Gabe most of the year? (It's mentioned that Percy still smells like him, even after being away from him a week.) But if that were so, his mom didn't have to merry Gabe at all. Just date him. Or visit him. And how did she know about the aura thing anyway?

She obviously knew about Camp Half blood and knew about how demi gods usually die. So why on earth did she keep him away? Nothing makes sense.

FAULTY LOGIC

For some reason, Riordan takes it upon himself to explain to the reader just why it's logical that Greek mythology is real. Perhaps if one has a really good imagination, this could have added something to the story. But it's laughably bad.

Percy is told since there are statues of characters from Greek mythology in America, the gods are real. No really. They have moved to America and they go to wherever the power is.

By this point in the story Percy has witnessed magical beings, so there is no reason why he needs some scientific explanation. He has seen it with his own eyes. This serves no purpose. If Percy had been presented with no actual evidence, then this would make sense. He would be skeptical and need to be convinced.

This just takes the reader out of the story. Also, the reasons to why Percy is obviously a demi god are rather bad as well. He is dyslexic because he is hard wired to read Greek. (Ah, yes, the gods can only read Greek.) ADHD means you're a demi god because you are super alert and see everything. It has nothing to do with young boys being oversubscribed drugs (by demons, according to Riordan).

SMART OR ATHLETIC?

I had a hard time liking Annabeth at first. Maybe because I was confused at who she was supposed to be. She is a daughter of Athena, but instead of being logical and wise, she is rather arrogant and quick to lose her temper. Sometimes she felt more like a daughter of Ares.

I thought the portrayal of her as smart came off as unnatural. She randomly starts talking in equations and it feels like another character. Instead of being quiet, maybe a bookish type, she just likes architecture, so that makes her smart. Or something.

Also she dislikes Percy for the illogical reason that Athena and Poseidon are rivals. I thought she was supposed to be smart. The tension between her and Percy felt manufactured.

THE CURSE OF CYNICISM

I have never revered characters of mythology, but I wanted to respect the gods and goddesses. But the impression I got was that most were evil, selfish or reckless. Some were even stupid. The gods in Riordan's story are not only unworthy of worship, they are unworthy of respect.

In a way, they seem like tyrannical bureaucrats who don't care about the consequences of their actions (birthing children that usually die before adulthood). It's interesting to see where Riordan plans to go with this.

DEATH OF A LOVED ONE-SPOILERS

Before getting to camp, Percy watches his mom get attacked, turn gold and vanish. It's a strange death, but he never tells anyone at camp about it. For some reason. He only ever talks to Grover. It's later implied that he is scheming, but in reality, he should have blurt out in a panic that he just watched his mother die. Describing how it happened, and basically freaking out and grieving. Or at least demand to know what happened to her.

If not, at least Chiron or someone would have found it odd that there was no body. But no one cares to look, or ask about the dead woman. It didn't make any sense.

THE ARCADE OF DOOM-SPOILERS

There is a hotel and arcade that the kids are welcomed to with open arms. They don't have to pay and there is no explanation. So of course, the kids go up to see their room and play some games. I was surprised how stupid the kids were. This bothered me. Was this the only way they faced any problems, if they were gullible and naive? Which was odd, because none of them were presented that way.

THE GOD OF MATTRESSES

There is a scene where the kids meet a god who owns a waterbed store. And he traps people and tortures them. Why? Is it because he wants to stop their quest? No. There is no motivation. He is just evil or something. But since Riordan explains the backstory about how this particular god stretched out people and tortured them in mythology...then it's okay.

A TWIST

There are hints that the group has been betrayed. And even after we find out by who, we get another surprise when we find out a second person involved. Unfortunately, this characters was only a side character who I barely got to know. So I didn't feel shocked. After all, I had barely gotten to know that person.

It would have been better if one of the character who went on the quest with him had betrayed him. It would have impacted not just Percy, but the reader as well.

CLIMAX

Percy realizes he is being used and goes to confront his enemy. Since his enemy is all about fighting, Annabeth basically tells him just to be smart. Since his enemy is dumb. He does this, but his enemy ends up sparing him instead of killing him. So I guess the point was to show that Percy could fight. Even though nothing was really at stake. Not that nothing came out of it. When Percy confronts him he gets a hint that there are more enemies to be fought.

A MURDER-SPOILERS

There is a footnote near the end of the book that mentions that Percy's mom turns his stepfather into a statue with the head of medusa. She basically murders him. It is implied that he has been physically abusive, so that makes it okay.

The fact that it was made into a light matter, as if it didn't matter rather bothered me. It didn't matter that Gabe was a horrible human being. It was still murder.

The fact that there was no consequences just made it unbelievable. Didn't anyone else find out about it? Percy's mom should have stood up to him and divorced him. That would have shown character.

CONCLUSION

The idea about a boy finding out he is a demigod isn't bad. Unfortunately, the kids are dumb at times, and so are the gods for that matter, when they are not being evil.

I was rather indifferent to the characters, even though Annabeth, Percy and Grover are all presented as victims. But the faulty logic used hurt my brain at times.

The story itself wasn't dull, it was just full of holes. I give “Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief” two stars.

Book Review: "The Seven Tales of Trinket" by Shelley Moore Thomas

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

After her mother dies, Trinket sets off to become a bard and collect stories. Her friend Thomas comes along and together they inquire about Trinket's father. He went missing long ago, but Trinket still believes his is alive.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Trinket is the young girl who dreams of being a bard like her father. She lives for stories but can be rather naive and sometimes even careless in her pursuit of a good story.

Thomas is Trinket's childhood friend. He loves animals and his job has been to take care of pigs. He can be rather comical but sometimes clashes with Trinket.

Feather is a teenage gypsy girl. She can see the future but confides in Trinket about how she uses her abilities.

PATTERN

The story has seven separate stories, like the title says. Each story has a few chapters and ends with a song. They are all tied together by Trinket's desire to find her father and to find stories and they are all based on Irish folklore.

In each story, she usually gains something for her journey. For example, she gets a harp which she uses to tell stories through music. Some objects become important later on, like the coin she gets from the faerie queen. So every tale feels important.

TRINKET

Trinket is pushed by her desires for stories as well as a desire to find out if her father is alive. She also deals with different issues in each story, like if she is brave enough to tell stories, or if she pushes people away in her life.

I found these attempts at depth interesting, but sometimes unfulfilling. When the banshee in tale three tells Trinket she pushes everyone away in her life, I couldn't take it seriously. She and Thomas had one fight so he left. This isn't some pattern of behavior on Trinket's part. Yes, she is a bit stubborn, but nothing so destructive as the banshee paints it. I would have felt different if a long history was presented before this.

Not to say that Trinket is a shallowly depicted character. She ponders many issues, like if she really wants to find her father (since he abandoned her). Some attempts at at character depth worked, but others didn't.

MANY CHARACTERS

With each new tale, new characters are added. But not everyone had a profound effect on Trinket, or were very distinct. Catriona is just a crazy mom, Orla is a girl who likes to dance, and the Banshee is just a lonely ghost. The only characters who had any depth were Feather and the Burned Man.

Seeing each tale as it's own story, I could be more critical of that. But as each tale is really just apart of one, perhaps it's not such a big deal that many side characters feel generic. After all, many are barely in the book.

TRINKET & THOMAS

Trinket can be rather naive, and sometimes impulsive. Thomas was a good contrast because he challenged her on many fronts. They were friends, but he wasn't afraid to point out when Trinket was going to do something dangerous. And I often found myself smiling when Thomas gave a sarcastic comment. He added levity to otherwise serious circumstances.

PACING

The pacing is slower because the story simply isn't an action story. But I never felt bored. There was always mystery to solve or a story to be found. And there were moments of action in the book at times.

CLIMAX-VAGUE SPOILERS

A child is attacked, and after the true attacker is revealed, Trinket goes off in search of her father. It could be described as an aftermath, but it was much more important than the earlier action packed scenes.

TWO ENDINGS

Oddly enough, there are two endings to choose from. One where Trinket forgives her father and another where she doesn't. I didn't really find the need of that and feel like it was done out of novelty. A Trinket would wouldn't forgive would not be a character I cared for.

CONCLUSION

Trinket and Thomas are both likable characters, who contrast each other nicely. Although the story is quite serious at times, there are comical moments because of Thomas. The mythological characters presented are interesting and sometimes charming while there are also some hints of horror displayed. In the end it's a simple and sweet story. I give “The Seven tales of Trinket” three and a half stars.

Book Review: Artemis Fowl Series Overview

SUMMARY

The Artemis Fowl series has both strength and weaknesses. I know it looks like it has far more weaknesses than strengths, but I just write more about the aspects I dislike. Perhaps because I had such high hopes and really loved the character of Artemis Fowl. This is full of spoilers throughout.

STRENGTHS:

LIKABLE CHARACTERS

One of the strongest points for the series are the likable characters that are distinct and often humorous. Artemis Fowl is still one of my favorite characters. He is smart but often lacking common sense. Sarcastic but also awkward in a charming way. He has a desire to be loved by his parents and have a normal relationship with them.

Holly was likable when she wasn't preaching or her victimhood wasn't being touted. She was a good contrast to Artemis as she is physical and action orientated. And unlike Butler, she doesn't have a hard time disagreeing with Artemis.

RELATIONSHIPS

There are interesting relationships. Mostly between Holly and Artemis. Holly learns to respect Artemis as well as he her. And they eventually become friends and Holly even evolves into a mentor figure.

I liked the relationship between Root and Holly as well. I thought upon introducing Root he was going to be portrayed as a sexist (since Colfer paints the LEP as sexist) but he is much more experienced than Holly and very much like a father figure.

GOOD HUMOR

I found many characters amusing, such as Foaly and Mulch. Even Artemis and Butler on occasion. I loved the scene in “The Arctic Incident” where Artemis is talking to his shrink and pretends to be confiding in him, only to end up mocking him in the end.

Or the story that Butler gives to the police about sun bathing and falling off the roof, but managing to grab a mattress before he went over.

ORIGINAL WORLD

I liked the Original and detailed world, specifically the technology that was presented. Magic is very much like science in the series. It was this aspect that made the world feel real. The only thing missing was a more detailed history of fairy kind, including their sins.

PACING

Well paced plots thanks to switches in perspective. There was always at least Holly and Artemis' perspectives going on. And when they were together, we always had others, like Mulch.

PLOT TWISTS

Some unique twists and well placed foreshadowing. There were often moments where Colfer hinted that something was up, but wouldn't reveal anything. This definitely kept me interested. Often times the climax was clever and not revealed until the last minute.

ORIGINALITY

Original idea, to have the main character originally be the villain in the story. Artemis was always the bad guy, but he was sympathetic. This was what kept me rooting for him even through his many moral failures. There was a promise by Colfer that Artemis could be something more, something amazing. But being neglected by his parents he had rotted away on the inside.

WEAKNESSES:

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Characters don't ever really develop. Colfer's attempt at making Artemis become more moral is cold and impersonal. Instead of saving the planet from it's fluctuating climate, he should have just made Artemis learn to be more kind. But Artemis is simply never presented with the chance.

Holly stays stagnate as well. She is still blaming mankind for every problem, and never seeing past the end of her nose. All of this, well halfway though the series. It was tolerable at first (because I expected her to change) but her constant self righteous lectures to Arty get old pretty fast.

Juliet reveals her feelings of inferiority but then never addresses it again. It isn't just left open ended. It is as if it never happened.

Artemis' mother never develops when she learns the truth about Artemis. This should be an earth shattering truth, but it doesn't change anything.

FAMILY TIES

Artemis' never feels as close to his family as he is supposed to be. We see him become emotional about them, but don't really get any scenes with any meaningful interactions. This is understandable, as they are initially presented as a mentally ill mother and missing father.

After his father was rescued at the end of “The Arctic Incident” we finally start to see a relationship develop in “The Eternity Code”. An unsure one, where Artemis isn't sure about the change in his father, if it's sincere, and how it will affect him. But it seemed promising. Colfer devoted a good portion of the book to it, causing me to believe this was important to him.

Unfortunately, what I expected to be an ongoing development vanished after that. The parents become a foot note, having little impact on Artemis. They are a nuisance at the best of times. At the worst, they are non existent.

A FRIEND FOR ARTY

We stay with the same main characters and don't really add new ones. Or if we do, they are not all that important in later books (I am thinking of N°1). Artemis never gets a peer, someone to keep him tethered to the human world and keep him grounded. Someone to show him how normal people think. It was such a crucial aspect that needed to be developed, I thought perhaps even Colfer recognized this. But when he invented Minerva, a twin to Artemis, I realized he didn't see the need at all.

BAD VILLAINS

quite likable. But I never hated his villains, only found them annoying. The only reason they didn't bother me was often because they were not even revealed until the book is halfway through..

POLITICS

Colfer's politics can make for self righteous lectures on how evil humans are. Usually he does this through Holly, and her character suffers because of it. But this starts to effect the actual story in “The Atlantis Paradox” and rears its ugly head in the ending of “The Last Guardian”.

BAD HUMOR

Some of the humor is really bad. Often times, we get adults that are cartoonishly stupid (like in a childrens' cartoon). Most of the time, that's the only sin Colfer is guilty of. Although he can come off mean spirited sometimes, as in the case of making fun of someone he perceives as pathetic (see Billy Kong). Colfer just tends to go overboard, not realizing when a comic element takes away any levity previously attained. This is a series where people can die.

CONSISTENCY

Lacking consistency. In the last two books, Arty keeps getting demonized as though he has never done anything moral in his life. If that were so, why do they keep going to him for help?

Also, Runes are mentioned in “The Atlantis Paradox” as the villain uses them on Holly to control her. But it's never explained why Arty has never learned about them or why he has never been told in all of the other books.

Holly even puts a Rune on Arty to protect him in “the Last Guardian”. Why did she never do this before? Artemis has always been helpless when it comes to his physical abilities.

Early one it's mentioned that the pressure underground would Kill any human, but in later books, Arty and Butler both get to go to Haven.

After Butler is injured in “The Eternity Code” we are told he will never be Arty's body guard again. And then we forget that, and in every book afterwards...he is still Arty's body guard.

JULIUS ROOT-SPOILERS

There was never a replacement for Julius Root. The woman who replaces him is barely in one book, then she is unceremoniously killed off in “The Atlantis Complex”. Trouble Kelp is in the book some, but never with any real authority.

CONCLUSION

Colfer created an original world with distinct and likable characters. Not to mention good paced stories and some unique plot twists. And although the series starts great, it never fills its potential. The reason I enjoyed the first four books so much was because I still thought Arty would develop, as well as Holly. But they never do. If anything, the same lessons get learned over and over. By the fifth book, I was still hanging on.

By the time the “The Time Paradox” came around and Arty still didn't trust Holly, I was fed up. We had already dealt with the trust issue in “The Eternity Code” with the cutting off of the hand.

I still love the character of Artemis Fowl for what he could have been. He had so much potential. I give the Artemis Fowl Series “three stars”.

Book Review: "Artemis Fowl The Last Guardian" by Eoin Colfer

SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY

Opal Koboi is back, and planning to take over all of mankind. She sets her sights on Fowl Manor and it's up to Artemis and Holly to rush to the rescue. But she has a whole army of undead Berserkers on her side.

FOWL MANOR-VAGUE SPOILERS

The idea to return where the story started has a poetic feeling to it. But I didn't think Colfer needed to carry it as far as he did. The idea that Arty's ancestors all wanted to catch faeries but he didn't know because they were mind wiped is casually dropped into the story by the therapist. My first thought was, so there is nothing special about Artemis? He is just following his genes?

And the idea that something magical happened long ago on that property, so something had to happen there again felt lazy. Colfer could have easily written a different reason to return there. Like it was where Arty's family lived, so if someone wanted to hurt him, they would go there.

WHERE'S MOM & DAD?

When the story goes back to the Fowl estate, Arty's parents are gone. It's this aspect of the series I have always had a problem with. After the flashbacks in "The Eternity Code" that Arty has, there is basically no interaction with them. We are told of how much he loves them in many of the books, but we have to take his word for it.

I thought at least his mother should have been there. So much could have been done with her character, as after "The Time Paradox", she learned all about Artemis' secrets. But all we get is a phone call in “The Atlantis Complex” and nothing in this book.

POSSESSION-SPOILERS

Juliet and the twins are all possessed by Berserkers, that Opal commands. The idea was interesting, that Arty and Butler would have to fight and not harm their loved ones. But I think the main thing was for it to be comical to see a four year old talking like an old man. Arty was rather clever in goading the berserker on, but it needn't have possessed the twins.

I think the idea of an enemy showing up and taking them hostage would have been more effective. It would have been better if his parents had been home. Having to face head on with the fact that he had lied to his parents and now had to save them and explain things would have been a great ending.

A SPIRITUAL ASPECT

Everything in this series thus far had to do with technology, or fairy magic, which is handled as if it were a science. There is no religion presented, not by the People or by Artemis. So when we suddenly learn about an Earth mother named Danu, an afterlife, and souls, I felt kind thrown for a loop. Like I had read a series by an atheist who suddenly revealed he was actually into a New Age religion.

Also, I felt it didn't have the affect it should have had. Arty just found out there is an afterlife and people have souls. Instead of making him humble, he is still the same old cocky boy who knows everything. I don't think this truth should ever have been presented to him. He already thinks he knows everything. Let there be something that is still a mystery. And that's if we present religion as an element of the story at all. And judging by the whole series, he probably shouldn't have.

TIME TRAVEL AGAIN-SPOILERS

There is an explanation about there being two opals that I found convoluted. I think Colfer was trying to be original but I was left feeling confused.

If the younger Opal dies, how could there be an older Opal?

How come her death affects everything she made, but not the older her?

I would have been happier if he had stuck to conventional ideas about time travel. Instead Opal becomes a super-being for some reason. It seemed like a lot of hard work to make her stronger, when he could have easily come up with something more simple and less confusing.

SIDE STORY

There is a side story about Foaly and his wife. Turns our she is put in danger. We get a flashback of how they met, but I had little interest in it. Perhaps if she had ever been crucial to the plot in the past books, but she wasn't. It was just mentioned that Foaly had a girlfriend, and later that he married. I think it was just a last ditch attempt to flesh out Foaly's character.

PEACE LOVING PEOPLE

It's mentioned in the story that there is a huge lobby in Haven that wants to go to war with the humans. But through al of the series we have been told how evil humans are, and that The People are peace loving. It's basically mentioned in every book. But Holly never thought to mention that half the population (she says there will be a civil war, indicating this is not a small minority, but a good chunk of the population) wants to kill or oppress humans and take back earth.

AFTERMATH-SPOILERS

After one Opal is left, the younger's absence creates an effect upon all of the technology she created. Not just in Haven, but apparently her tech has secretly been flooded into human tech. So basically all of her stuff stops working. And apparently that means everything stops working. So we get an Armageddon. I found this confusing as well. How did most of tech become all of tech?

ARTEMIS' LAST CHANCE

Artemis has had to endure six months of therapy due to his Atlantis complex. Although I found that the last book a waste of time, we do get a good scene out of it. Artemis shows kindness to his therapist. After noting the pain in his leg, he sketches out a leg brace. It was a sweet scene. Clearly Artemis wasn't used to sharing his feelings or being kind.

Basically, my dream came true. Artemis was nice to someone! And later, he shows kindness to Holly about Opal's clone. It feels like some character development. Unfortunately, it's far too late. I feel like this scene should have happened in book three or four.

Later Colfer takes it to extremes to show us how Artemis has changed, by making him make the ultimate sacrifice. But it doesn't feel natural, because it is so out of the blue and not the natural progression of someone learning to be moral.

CLIMAX

The climax has a twist that I found clever. It is set up that Arty has a plan, but we don't know about it until the last second. It was a good aspect of the book. Also, Colfer plants a seed with Nopal in the beginning that finally pays off.

Unfortunately, it was marred by the death of a side character that was barely in the book (so I had little attachment) but one that was completely innocent. It felt unnecessary. After all, Arty is rescued by magical elements so why couldn't this person have been saved as well?

After the villain is vanquished, Arty thinks it's sad, because no one has won. He won. Earth won. Peace won. His reaction made no sense.

LOOSE ENDS-SPOILERS

Arty had a plan and it involved his DNA being left on Holly. But she doesn't realize until six months later. This made no sense. Has Holly not bathed for six months? I don't know why we needed the time jump anyway.

Did Colfer just want to show us how the planet had a green revolution? Even though all tech is eventually restored and there is no explanation why things just didn't go back to normal. He points out wind and solar are used more than oil. But not why. Have they suddenly become more effective?

If water is the new gold, wouldn't that mean that all of the planet is a third world country and water is hard to get? How does that fit in with tech being restored?

Also, Opal says she revealed the fairy world to mankind. Arty even thinks he can be the new ambassador for them. And then at the end of the book, apparently everyone is convinced it was a mass delusion. Seriously. I felt like Colfer was all over the place when he should have just been focusing on Artemis.

CONCLUSION

Although there is good pacing and some good writing, mainly the plot twist in the climax, the story is marred by inconsistent and confusing ideas. From the strange ideas about time travel that make little sense to the weirdly inserted plot component about Armageddon and a green utopia. Not to mention mankind learning about the People and then pretending it never happened. And the lack of character growth and the demonization of Artemis cannot be undone. I give “The Last Guardian” two and half stars.