THE SOLARIUM

Ten words: Wow, Opal really doesn’t do anything in this one, huh?

Or More: This one was enjoyable, and Artemis’s character arc and shifting dynamic with Holly is really fun to see, but it doesn’t quite hit the highs of the first book. It turns out two mid antagonists don’t make half the villain Artemis was. Boring is par for the course for Briar Cudgeon, but you’d expect more from Opal. Go girl, give us nothing.

The first book is so distinct that there’s really nothing else like it, even in the series. Meanwhile, The Arctic Incident has a more in common with the sequels to come–Opal Koboi as a main antagonist, a larger-scale adventure, Artemis, Holly, and co. working as a team rather than against each other, etc. I would argue that all of these elements are done better in later sequels.

Opal is very bland here, aside from the daddy issues Eoin Colfer REALLY wants us to know that she has (so much so that there are two different chapters in two different books called “Daddy’s Girl” in reference to Opal.) She gets overshadowed by Briar Cudgeon, of all people.

Remember him? Probably not. He was boring in the first book and he’s boring in this one, but at least he does a little more than smirk evilly while lounging on a hoverchair. Opal is so much fun in the later books, it’s honestly surprising to look back and see what a non-entity she is in her first appearance.

The story here has Artemis and frenemies jetsetting around and under the world, but rather than making the book feel expansive and exciting, we end up trapped with a lot of tedious back and forth. They do some stuff in Haven, then they go to Russia to rescue Artemis’s father, but–oh, wait!–they have to go back to Haven to deal with Opal, and then go back to Russia again to rescue Artemis’s father for realsies this time.

Compare this to The Lost Colony, where every location change heightens the tension. There’s the eerie first encounter in Barcelona, the emerging war of wits between Artemis and Minerva in Italy, the siege of Chateau Paradizo in France, the hostage negotiation in Taipei 101, and literal hell breaking loose in Limbo when an army of demons attacks while time collapses.

Honestly, though, the plot is almost almost beside the point as the appeal of this book, and arguably any Artemis Fowl book, lies with the strength of its core characters. Artemis and Holly reluctantly coming to respect one another is great, and it lays the foundation for their friendship moving forward. We had to have this book to get to ones like The Lost Colony, or even the next entry, The Eternity Code, where the characters are firm friends. The snark is fun here, but it’s even more enjoyable when it’s backed with genuine fondness, like it is in later installments.

Now might be a good time to mention that, when I first read the series, I didn’t know it was a series. I saw The Lost Colony on its own, and since all the other Artemis Fowl books at my school library were checked out at the time, I assumed it was a standalone book. I say all this because I assume The Arctic Incident would likely impress me more as a sequel if I had read the series in order.

I might have been harsh on it during this review, but it really is a solid entry in the series and a fun taste of what’s to come. I just happened to know what was coming, and that made me impatient to get straight to the good stuff, and I feel the same on rereads to this day.