Review: The Eternity Code

The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: This 13 year old evil genius (as he'd like to believe himself to be) gets more than what he bargained for taking on a sleazy capitalist businessman and might ruin it all. 

This is the third installment of the Artemis Fowl series and not sure whether it grows on the reader or the writing gets better with each book. The premise though is very light - bad evil guy outsmarts Artemis , can he payback and get things back to status quo or have the fairies at the risk of discovery and hence elimination by us crazy mud people. Holly, Mulch and Artemis bandied together again because of the circumstances, Mulch is now getting a bigger and bigger role as the story progresses. 

The book has a weird mix of naivety and ahaa moments bundled up when things just happen but overall continues to be a fast paced good read without distractions that can slow down the script. 

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Review: The Arctic Incident

The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: 13 year old wiz kid / master villain turns over  good leaf to join forces with the fairies to fight a common enemy in the second book of the series. 

Continuing on the series, Artemis joins forces with fairies to fight a common enemy in a tit for tat partnership. The bigger story this time around is for Captain Holly and Root as they take on a revolution from outside the system turning friends with all those they fought historically to take on a bigger enemy. There is probably more action in this book versus the previous one but also a lot more trust being built amongst the frenemies. As a children's book, I think the progression from black and white to lighter shades of grey has been nicely done. As an adult, this continues to be a nostalgic quick read of simpler times and also a detox if you been grilling your brain with Dark and other mindboggling series. 

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Review: Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: 12 year old evil mastermind / genius who takes on the fairies to get his hand on some gold. 

 I missed the Atlantean shuttle as a tween so decided to catch up on the series. As an adult, it is nostalgic of Richie Rich with evil gene but still a child like innocence of black and white with Artemis preferring black. I can imagine in the target audience, this would have been a great read with science fiction, techology and fantasy mixed up with a crime thriller. Eoin keeps a reasonable simple story arc whilst introducing complicated characters and their tropes sprinkling a lot of magic atleast in this first instace. You have this super rich kid who loves crime. Two factors - his missing dad was one and he wants to regain the family income through his illegitimate plans. This edition includes using his sidekick - conveniently named Butler incase you had doubts where he stands in the hierarchy and his sister helping master Artemis with his ideas as they take on the Lower Elements Police Reconciliation team or LEPRecons and tries to beat them at their own magic. Foaly the centaur is a smart alec with his inventions and wise talk and makes for good banter. Captain Holly - the only female fairy officer in the ranks ( you imagine her to be Nimrat Kaur of the Test Case fame) tries to kick some green dust up in a patriarchal society. Whilst no wonder it was a hit amongst tweens, its a breezy read for an adult who wants to be part nostalgic , part relaxed for a weekend read.

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Review: The Sentence is Death

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hooter: A whodunnit murder mystery of a divorce lawyer.

Upfront, quintessentially British, Anthony Horowitz casts himself in this murder mystery as Hawthorne (ex police detective) biographer tagging along as he solves mysteries. He brings up his work on iTv's Poirot and Foyles war - both of which I loved! The challenge with reviewing murder mysteries is you can't say much especially if you did enjoy it. A good takeaway was similar to solving crimes and writing novels, Hawthorne talks of defining a shape. I'd say this one is a knot. I imagined it to be based in the 70s till they mention game of thrones three tv series becoming popular. He tries a couple gotchas for the reader which is a very different writing style so was unique for me. Also a very crisp writing style without meandering into too many dead ends to confuse the reader.

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