Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code is a children’s fantasy novel written by the Irish author Eoin Colfer.  It was published in 2003 by Viking press.  The book was titled Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code for American audiences.  The original European edition has a secret message encrypted written by the Eternity Code.  It states “Think fairy, think again” and draws parallels to the original novel, Artemis Fowl.  The hardcover edition has a different cipher hidden underneath the book jacket.  It can be decoded within the contents of the story’s pages.

A reprint of the story displays the Eternity Code in Gnommish.  It is the fairy language used throughout the series.  Gnommish is a letter-substitution cipher where each symbol represents a letter in the English language.  There is a line of Gnommish that runs along the bottom of every book.

In 2004 Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.  It was well received by the critics.  Entertainment Weekly and Publishers Weekly gave the book noticeable, strong praise.  The adventure picks up after the storyline of Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident and continues to follow the intense life of the boy genius Artemis Fowl II.

Young Fowl creates a supercomputer called the C Cube.  The savant used stolen technology from the Lower Elements Police helmet he confiscated with Butler in a previous novel to complete it.  The processing technology is the greatest in human history and highly desirable.  Artemis heads to London to meet a Chicago businessman named Jon Spiro to pitch his creation and turn a profit

His plan is to keep the C Cube off the market in exchange for gold.  The negotiations begin and Fowl starts the demonstration.  An alarm system is triggered in the underground fairy world and the process fails.  The illegal components are rendered useless.  Spiro betrays the deal and steals the technology.  Butler is shot in the chaos by Arno Blunt, one of Jon’s associates.

Time passes and Artemis is livid.  The loss is dangerous and his only option is to seek the help of the fairies.  He needs them to turn on the locator inside the C Cube to find Spiro.  Jon arrives back in Chicago and attempts to unlock the stolen goods.  His team is flummoxed and unsure how to proceed.  They discover that they need an access code known as the Eternity Code.  Spiro deduces that the boy has it and deploys a Chicago mob family to kidnap him…Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code.

The mob begins their mission and the fairy Holly Short is dispatched by Commander Root.  She finds Artemis II.  Fowl describes the cube and asks for help with tracking it and persuades her to heal Butler.  The humans and fairies rest their qualms and unite to defeat their common enemy Spiro.  Butler recovers, but the procedure ages him fifteen years.  The good guys move to Fowl Manor to create a strategy.

Butler’s younger sister Juliet arrives at the manor looking for a place to stay.  She is distraught after failing her final exam at the famous bodyguard school Madame Ko’s Academy.  Juliet intercepts the mob and subdues them before they begin their attack.  The dwarf Mulch Diggums is one of the captured.  Root is updated and gives the gang forty-eight hours before a full retrieval team is dispatched. Fowl proposes a plan to retrieve the cube from Chicago.  Holly, Juliet and Mulch will all play integral roles.  Root agrees under the condition that their minds are wiped after the mission is accomplished.

Butler is left in Ireland to ensure their memories are preserved.  Fowl contacts Spiro and offers an olive branch.  He tells Jon that he has a plan to steal technology from one of his rival’s headquarters.  The villain likes the proposition and plans to capture Artemis after the heist is completed.

Spiro is double crossed and arrested after the Chicago police are notified of the break-in.  The fairies wipe Artemis from the camera footage and Jon is sent to prison.  Everyone else returns to Ireland.  Arno Blunt evades capture and follows the party to assassinate the young savant.  Butler cuts him off and gets his revenge.  Blunt confesses to his crimes. 

Root wipes everyone’s memories.  Holly uses a spell to confirm the procedure worked.  Artemis is a step ahead and gives the humans special contact lens to deflect the process.  He plays stupid and reveals the location of his hidden files of the fairy world to the LEP.  The fairies accept the conclusion and the final plan plays out.  Artemis modifies the date of the search warrant of Mulch’s cave and cleanses his earlier record.  He gives the dwarf a golden medallion before the mind wipe that contains all of his true memories.  Diggums goes to prison with the secret computer disc and smiles. Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code ends.