2007-09-02 "Your little schemes have a tendency to get people hurt"

First of all let me say that this book saved me from a painfully long wait at the dealership where I took my wife's minivan for service. I expected this to take about an hour or so, and that is what I was told when I got there. I should know by now not to trust these estimates, since I ended up being there for three hours. It was the perfect amount of time to finish this book though, which I had started that morning at home. Colfer helped me feel as if the three hours were only one, and that is really something to applaud!

Artemis' father is recovering in a hospital in Helsinki, from his shipwreck in the Arctic and further kidnapping by the Russian mafia. More important, he is a changed man, that has stopped considering gold to be the ultimate goal and wants to focus on his family instead. This means that Artemis will have to lead a normal life, go back to school and forget about criminal activities. But there is still time for one more run around the block, and Artemis goes for broke. He has created, with the help of fairy technology, an impressive artifact he named the C Cube. This cube can perform an extensive list of unbelievable tasks, such as track satellite activity and crack security systems. And that is just the beginning.

Artemis' plan is fairly simple, he set up a meeting with the powerful Spiro and he will offer to keep the cube of the market in exchange for a vast amount of gold. This will allow Spiro to make a killing in the stock market and sell his company at a much higher rate than he could if a competitor had the cube. However, in an uncommon turn of events, Artemis is fooled, Spiro steals the prized possession and his bodyguard injures Butler with a fatal wound. Now Artemis will need, once more, the help of the fairies, in order to perform a miracle, or he will end up losing his bodyguard and best friend.

That is not the only complication, since the cube can among its many wonders detect fairy technology. Thus, all the sensors in the underground world went off when Artemis demonstrated the cube to Spiro. Foaly, the centaur that is master and commander of the fairy technology, has decided on a lockdown. With the help of Captain Short, he is trying to figure out how to prevent the humans from discovering the People. The situations with Butler and the cube will once again throw together the characters that readers of this series cherish: Artemis, Foaly, Holly Short, and even the dwarf Mulch Diggums. We will also get to see an almost unexplored side of Juliet Butler.

Colfer has done it again, with a fast-paced and enthralling book that can be read in one sitting. There is the usual humor to go along with the captivating story and keep it fresh. But also, the author introduces another element in this book, Artemis' diary. This is an important tool to allow the reader to peek into the psyche of the criminal genius, and understand that behind the Machiavellian mind there is a boy that seeks his father approval. I do not think I can wait long before reading the next book in this series, I hope the quality remains at this level.