Suspense: 6
Humor: 6
Relatability: 8
Originality: 10
Overall: 8
Comments: Artemis Fowl the Second returns in a story that's bigger, better, and more intriguing than ever. But the twist? Artemis and Holly are on the same side, and the bad guys are amongst the faeries! When a diabolical plot is brought to fruition by a disillusioned LEPrecon officer and his brilliant but unstable pixie cohort; Holly, Commander Root, and Foaly are the only hope left for the People. Too bad they've all been branded as traitors by the disillusioned elf, who's set himself up as the hero of LEPrecon and blamed the goblin rebellion on them. Outsmarted in every direction, there's only one person for our faerie heroes to turn to. But Artemis Fowl does nothing for nothing, and his sights are set for something worth much more than money.
The Arctic Incident is a perfect sequel, and proves itself as such by being one of those rare books that actually outdoes its predecessor. In this author's opinion, The Arctic Incident is Eoin Colfer's crowning achievement in literature, and pushes everything in Artemis Fowl to new limits, without sounding absurd. While the plot is still a step up from the first book in terms of sophistication and depth, the action is also considerably higher than in the first as well, and the audience will actually see Artemis in action as more than behind a computer terminal knocking brains around. It is also a remarkably human tale, with a very basic but nonetheless effective set of core principles and values, demonstrating that even someone who has been portrayed as a villain in the past is many times very much a hero in his own right, and should not be judged simply because his moral code differs from yours.
The returning characters in The Arctic Incident are, like everything else in the story, taken to all new levels, with back stories in perfect balance between classic and original. One needn't worry about clichés in this book, as Colfer has managed to take such themes and recreate them in ways far more realistic. New characters are of mixed calibre, some being as equally deep as the returnees, while others existing primarily for the purpose of moving the plot along (which happens rather well without their help). All are expertly woven together though, and will not disappoint any reader who picks up this book.
