Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox is the sixth part of the Artemis Fowl saga.  It is titled Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox in the United States.  The novel was written by Eoin Colfer and published by Puffin Books in 2008.  The critical reception was positive.  The sales were phenomenal.  The book is over four hundred pages and the longest in the series.  The Time Paradox continues Fowl’s story after the conclusion of The Lost Colony.

The Ireland and United Kingdom versions of the novel have the traditional code inscribed on the bottom of each page.  It is written in the same Gnommish that is found in the first, fourth and fifth stories.  The translation is…

Artemis’s mother Angeline Fowl falls ill.  Her health deteriorates and her son tries to heal her with magic.  The state of affairs worsens.  Fowl contacts the imp N°1 and Holly Short for assistance.  They investigate and determine that Angeline is afflicted with the fairy disease Spelltropy.  The brain fluid from a silky sifaka lemur (Propithecus candidus) is the single cure.  Mother Fowl will perish without it.

The lemur is indigenous to Madagascar.  The animal is extinct.  Artemis is at fault.  He made a deal with Dr. Damon Kronski and the Extinctionists in the past.  The events led to the lemur’s demise.  Fowl asks N°1 to open up the time stream.  Foaly is against it.  Fowl is desperate and tells Holly that she was the one that infected his mother with Spelltrophy.  The story is a lie.  The elf believes her friend.  The centaur yields.

Time rewinds.  The duo is spit out of the time paradox eight years into the past.  They are in his study.  Artemis is aged and Holly is an adolescent.  Fowl recalls that Butler will slip the lemur into their present location and they will be able to leave.  Butler is a consumate professional and alters the past timeline by tranquilizing his future buddies.  The boy and the elf are locked in the trunk of the boy’s Bentley.

Mulch Diggums saves the captured.  Future Fowl follows past Fowl to an animal park to find the lemur.  He breaks into the wrong enclosure and is attacked by a gorilla.  Old Artemis almost dies.  Young Holly heals him and is relieved.  She gives him a kiss.  The two get the lemur.  Young Artemis augments the time paradox and holds them at gunpoint.  They lose the lemur.

Fowl admits he lied about the Spelltrophy.  Holly is livid.  He makes it up to her by connecting her with Commander Root, who is dead in the future.  She forgives him and they fly to Morocco to intercept the exchange with the Extinctionists.  Young Artemis plans to use the funds to finance an Artic expedition to search for his father.  The good guys arrive.  Holly is captured.  The Extinctionists plan to kill her in an execution pit filled with flamethrowers.

Future Fowl falls into the pit and finds that the fire is holographic.  Opal Koboi appears.  She has Dr. Damon Kronski under her control and is using him to collect rare species.  Koboi wants them for her research and to enhance her own magic.  Fowl wants to leave.  He does and reunites with Holly.  They return to the future.  Opal manages to slip into the time stream with them.  The time paradox.

Koboi takes over the matriarch’s body.  She reveals herself the moment before Artemis attempts to cure her.  The entire incident was caused by her own devices.  Opal laughs.  Artemis does too and explains that he is from the past.  Future Fowl tranquilizers her.  Butler subdues Holly and N°1 under Opal’s spell.  He has a heart attack fighting his orders to capture young Artemis.  Butler is saved with a defibrillator.  Opal absconds from the chaos.  She calculates that her enemies are weaker than she anticipated.  She returns.

Fowl boards a plane with the lemur and flies away from the scene.  Opal follows and smashes parts of the plane with her bare hands.  Her strength is astounding.  Artemis crashes into the coastline.  He breaks his collarbone and flees the wreckage.  The boy runs to the shore.  He climbs a rope bridge and crosses over some enormous boulders.  The villain pursues.  She retrieves the lemur, but it was decoy from the start.  Artemis counters by destroying her terrain.  The ruble serves as her tomb.

The Lower Elements Police search the wreckage.  Commander Trouble Kelp confirms that Opal is gone. N°1 wipes the younger Artemis’s minds and sends him to the past.  He has residual memories of fairies that propel the events of the first novel and add to the intricate time paradox.  All the events are circular and dependent on each other.  Everyone leaves.  Fowl turns to his mother and unveils the truth.  Koboi forgot to wipe her mind.  Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox ends.