content warnings:

Spoiler

mention of severing a finger, experimentation on sentient creatures, (believed) major char death(s)

"Myles is the smarty-pants, but I [Beckett] am the smarty-fists."
"I do apologize for my brother's egregious mangling of the language, but he is, in essence, correct. I think, and he does."

★ 3.5 stars ★

With the caveat that I am significantly older than the market audience, I found this is a quick, fun read and an enjoyable return to the world of Fowl and fairy (friends forever).

You don't need to have read the Artemis series to keep up, but I appreciated the references to Artemis's schemes and it definitely did help to have that base familiarity with the worldbuilding and a preliminary fondness for the twins. Also, I imagine that

Spoiler

all the mentions of Artemis, who never physically appears in this book,

might get a bit tiring if you don't care.

Beckett Fowl is a sweetheart, mischievous and deceptively smart; he's got such a big heart and lots of creativity. Myles Fowl is neurotic and brilliant and ambitious ... and somehow even worse than his older brother ever was. Honestly I wish the narrative had focused even more on them than on Lord Teddy Whatever; they're the titular characters after all, and I would've loved to see so much more of Fowl Argot, their relationship with each other and with the rest of their family (especially, of course, their infamous brother), how they're coping with their first save-the-world adventure.

(An aside: It is so weird to realize that Artemis is a young adult now, in his twenties. But in any case I find it difficult to believe that

Spoiler

eleven-year-old Myles is actually running rings around my favorite ex-criminal mastermind, even if Colfer is trying to set up the "Look out world, now there's two Fowls on the loose, and they have even more potential than their brother"

. Also, just to put it out into the universe, I would absolutely read about Artemis's adventures

Spoiler

in space/on Mars

.)

Lazuli is basically the second coming of Holly,

Spoiler

sans control over her magic

— her character is less exciting or revolutionary, but she's likable enough.

Spoiler

Whistle Blower the toy troll

is absolutely fascinating, and I hope he'll stick around through the series. I was delighted by the cameo appearance by

Spoiler

Holly Short herself, now a Commodore

.

By all metrics, though, the unsung hero here (to borrow Foaly's words) is absolutely

Spoiler

NANNI: Nano Artificial Neural Network Intelligence (system), designed by Artemis with help from Myles, voiced by Holly, with a personality reminiscent of Tony Stark's JARVIS

; I look forward to seeing how she continues to grow and snark and quite probably save everyone's bacon.

I am a bit concerned about the fact that, with

Spoiler

the (Eurasian) Butlers barely present: Domovoi only mentioned in passing and Juliet completely absent from the narrative

, the only people of color are villains:

Spoiler

the murderous Hispanic nun who randomly switches out Spanish for English (often cognates, and the grammar of her poor English feels more contrived than natural), and a Japanese tech supplier who sells primarily to criminals

... though the main antagonist is an English duke.

And the writing style is a bit more intrusive than I remember, with the narrator often pausing to editorialize about an upcoming plot development or backtrack to explain the mechanics of a plan or wander off on a tangent. Overall it's still funny — good to know my own sense of humor hasn't changed much since elementary school, I guess — though if I wanted to spend so much time in the head of a vainglorious power-chasing rich dude, I'd reread [b:The Eternity Code|227865|The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl #3)|Eoin Colfer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327945417l/227865._SY75_.jpg|1333018] instead.

-----------
CONVERSION: 9.2 / 15 = 3.5 stars

Prose: 6 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 7 / 10
Emotional Impact: 6 / 10
Development / Flow: 5 / 10
Setting: 7 / 10

Originality / Trope Execution: 3 / 5
Rereadability: 3 / 5
----------------------
[pre-review]

Between this and [b:The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages|44077476|The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #4)|Trenton Lee Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552326165l/44077476._SX50_.jpg|68539523], apparently 2019 is The Year My Childhood is Resurrected. And that's definitely okay by me.