Friday Reads: Artemis Fowl - The Last Guardian by Eion Colfer

Normally, I wouldn't have reviewed this one - except in the light of it being the final book in a series...but I feel like I need to talk about the last Artemis Fowl book.

For those of you who aren't familiar - Artemis Fowl is a boy genius criminal mastermind who encounters the faerie underworld and tries to exploit it - eventually being changed by his experiences and becoming friends and allies with them.   The series is YA and is quite entertaining.

Of note in this is that Colfer was the write chosen to continue Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy".  The last Artemis book (The Atlantis Complex) was released close to when "And Another Thing" was unleashed.  The similarities in writing styles to Adams were not as pronounced as they are in The Last Guardian.  Much of the tongue in cheek humour that is littered throughout the Hitchhiker's series is highly in play in this final Artemis book.

While Colfer has always had a similar style of writing to Adams (let's face it - it was no real surprise that he was the one writing a Hitchhiker book), they styles also had their differences.  In this final book - the gap between them is considerably narrowed and. while still enjoyable to read, this book ends up having a much more mature feeling to it.  It doesn't feel like YA fiction.

Did I like how the series was wrapped up?  Well, I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I can say that it would be just like Artemis to get out of that mess in that manner.  In many ways, I preferred the simpler style of the earlier books to this more mature humour.  But I'll take it for what it was.  A great wrap to a fun series