Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl, #6)

by Eoin Colfer

book data

3,079 ratings, 4.11 average rating, 510 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		39%
4		36%
3		18%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

July 15th 2008 by Hyperion

binding

Hardcover, 391 pages

characters

Artemis Fowl

isbn

1423108361 (isbn13: 9781423108368)

description

Artemis's mother has contracted a deadly disease -- and the only cure lies in the brain fluid of African lemurs. Unfortunately, Artemis himself was re...more

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02/08/08

Tamir rated it:

bookshelves: 2008-reads, childrens, fantasy, favorites

Read in July, 2008

I LOVED this book! Eoin Colfer writes such great fun to read stories! I loved the ending of this book and the whole idea of the book too with the whole time traveling and Artemis meeting his past self and being outsmarted by his younger self. After reading this book, I definitely want to reread the first one again.

Everyone must give Artemis Fowl a chance! It's a great series and one of my absolute favorites!

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09/11/08

Britta rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, fantasy, fiction

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Tara

Another stellar visit into the world of Artemis Fowl (teenage genius) and Holly Short (captian of the L.E.P.).

Back from the place where time doesn't exist (where he saved Number 1 - a warlock), three years has gone by but Artemis (and Holly) both find that they are the same as when they left on their last journey. Artemis has two new (twin) 2 year old brothers.

But, Angeline Fowl is sick. Deathly ill. And it's because of magic. She has been infected with a plague like ill...more

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12/11/08

Jacey rated it:

bookshelves: young-adult--my-secret-shame

Read in December, 2008

Book 6 in the artemis fowl series was thoroughly enjoyable. Now to be honest and fair, I listened to this while working and when I listen opposed to reading, my critical analysis kinds takes a back seat. A good reader can make up for a slightly incompetent writer without me really noticing. With that disclaimer, I'll say that I thought this book was quite good. The series is very original and well-thought out, especially considering the sea of young adult fantasy that is full of so much flot...more

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08/27/08

Derek rated it:

(review of isbn 0141383348)

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Derek by: friends
recommends it for: Artemis Fowl Fans

Artemis Fowl and the TIme Paradox is a interesting and original story about a teenage prodigy who is also a criminal mastermind. In the previous books he has discovered a race of mythical beasts and has had many confrontations but eventually has made peace with them. But now he must ask for a big favor, he needs to go back in time using demon magic. His mother has caught a fatal sickness that can only be cured by a brain fluid of a Silky fur lemur. The problem is that it went extinct four years ...more

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07/21/08

fbuser1034546039 rated it:

14 year old Artemis vs. 10 year old Artemis. It's super genius fun! It was a lot of fun to see just how far Artemis has evolved over the past 5 books. I almost found 10 year old Artemis a bit revolting. It should be interesting to see how his mom features in the next books now that she knows all of his secrets concerning the People. I wonder if he'll recruit his younger brothers for some of his future schemes.

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04/15/08

Loren is currently reading it

bookshelves: currently-reading

July can't come fast enough.

I do hope that Colfer breaks his rule of having a passage of time pass tween books as I really want to see his parents react to getting their little 'Arty' back.

Despite the annoying change in edition/covers I believe Colfer still has it in him to pull this one out his ass. I hear whispers of an implied seventh too.

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

1 comment

01/22/09

Josie rated it:

(review of isbn 014138333X)

bookshelves: never-again

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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03/10/09

Mary rated it:

bookshelves: children-s, sf-f

Read in March, 2009

Listened to on audiobook by Listening Library, narrated by Enn Reitel.
Very disappointed that Nathaniel Parker did not narrate this latest installment in the Artemis Fowl series. I had grown so used to his characterizations and really enjoyed them. It was a bit like having all the actors change in the middle of the season on your favorite TV show. Not that Enn did a bad job, it just wasn't the same.
This story seemed a bit draggy and convoluted. Artemis goes back in time to save a lemu...more

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11/28/08

Virginia rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy-sci-fi, libraryfinds, ya-fiction

Read in December, 2008

I've followed all of the Artemis Fowl books and have enjoyed their unique twist on making the faerie realm something boys can enjoy reading too (although, me not being a boy, I can't say that with 100% confidence, but I imagine the mixture of cool, James Bondian technology and a criminal mastermind boy genius as the protagonist would appeal to boys too).

This particular instance of the storyline shows Artemis really growing as a character, and I liked the contrast/comparison between ...more

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10/29/08

Andreea rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: everyone who read previous artemis fowl books

"Artemis Fowl" is my all time favorite series. The protagonist is an anti-hero named Artemis Fowl. When teased that he has a female name, he said that "Artemis" is the name of the Greek goddess of hunting, and sometimes there comes along a male with such an impressive ability of hunting his enemies that he earns the right to use the name. Artemis is an 15-year old Irish genius who discovers a species of intelligent "fairies" living underground. However, these fairie...more

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08/14/08

Shaya rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy, summer-2008

Read in August, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I didn't like this as much as other Artemis Fowl books I have read, but I liked the themes. I was ready for the series to end last book, or when Commander Root died.

One of the interesting themes I found was when the book showed Commander Root's real feelings about Holly. No, nothing shocking, he wasn't in love with her. But, he did think she did a great job and when he was hard on her it was because he felt he had to. I liked the exposition that the part of Root we normally saw was ...more

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08/02/08

Rita rated it:

bookshelves: kids, loved-, most-recent

Read in August, 2008

This is the sixth book in the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer. I started reading this series out loud to Alex the first week of second grade for him, which would have been back in ’02, right after we moved here. We had caught up with the Harry Potter books and people who liked that series recommended the Artemis Fowl books (at which time there were only two).

These books are very different than the Potter books, even though they attract the same audience. The...more This is the sixth book in the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin (pronounced Owen) Colfer. I started reading this series out loud to Alex the first week of second grade for him, which would have been back in ’02, right after we moved here. We had caught up with the Harry Potter books and people who liked that series recommended the Artemis Fowl books (at which time there were only two).

These books are very different than the Potter books, even though they attract the same audience. These are fantasy/sci fi books. Fairies and magic yes, but also a whole new realm of technology both human and non-human. The technology is as important as the magic. The melding of science and magic is huge. There is Foaly, the centaur who runs the surveillance for the LEPrecon (that would be the Lower Elements Police reconnaissance) who invents new gadgets and oversees them from his control booth. Captain Holly Short is the main character second only to Artemis himself in the series. She’s an elf and the first and only female captain on the LEP in fairy history. Butler (I have a big crush on Butler) is Artemis’s bodyguard. “Butlers” have been bodyguards to the Fowl family as far back as history goes, and were rumored to have coined the term “butler” for the services they provide. He’s human, but barely. He’s trained in many styles of martial arts and proficient with any weapon. Even Holly shudders when she’s had to fight against him. His ethics sometimes clash with Artemis’s, but his loyalty is to Artemis first. Artemis is an Irish criminal mastermind teenager. He invents, he writes, he dallies in medicine, art and music. He is a super-genius beyond measure (although many have tried). In the first book, he’s also possibly a sociopath.

Artemis is not a nice person when the series begins, which I thought a very interesting concept in a juvenile book. It’s up to the readers to bounce around these moral issues. He’s obviously likable to the reader, he’s our main character and he’s suave and brilliant and rich and all things that kids this age want to be. But, he’s spoiled and selfish and makes choices that hurt others often. Naturally, there is a tip in his moral balance that begins in the first book and continues, but we’re reminded now and again who Artemis was when we first met him.

In this particular book, Artemis needs to go back in time to save his mother. She’s contracted a fairy illness and the only cure is derived from a lemur that Artemis himself helped make extinct eight years prior. I’ve always had a hard time with time travel. The whole “Time Paradox” has baffled me. But, when approached head on as Colfer does, with centaurs and fairies and kindhearted demons, then how can something like time travel be unbelievable:

Artemis smiled mirthlessly. “Ah yes, the trusty time paradox . If I go back in time and kill my grandfather, then shall I cease to exist? I believe, as Gorben and Berndt did, that any repercussions are already being felt. We can only go change the future, not the past or present. If I go back, then I already have been back.

When he does go back, Artemis is pitted against his former self, the one who hasn’t yet learned any sort of ethics, the one who would allow the lemur to be killed. It makes for a heck of a story and gives us a little more insight into the mind of Artemis before we met him in the first book. Of course there are lots of twists and turns and surprises, making it the kind of book we expect from Mr. Colfer.

As a treat, go watch Eoin Colfer talk about the book himself on the Artemis Fowl website: http://www.artemisfowl.com/ Wait for the page to load, then click on The Time Paradox Video. He is quite a guy himself and a person I really admire.

(less)

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07/22/08

Moses rated it:

bookshelves: readandenjoyed

I read this quickly, as I have past volumes in the series, so my appraisal that the plot was muddled should be taken with a grain of salt; a further reading may prove I was wrong.

I really do enjoy this series. The characters, especially, are fully defined and work well together. Artemis, Butler, Holly, Mulch, Foaly, Root, have all taken a journey through the course of the series and become different people.

This new volume either underscores that or tears into pieces. Auth...more

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08/27/08

Jackie rated it:

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: people who love magic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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02/04/09

Ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 0739364685)

bookshelves: crime, drama, heard, irish, laugher, suspense, thinker, ya

Read in February, 2009

This book is pretty much classic Fowl. My biggest disappointment came with the first words of the book. This one is read by some guy other than who read the previous 5 books. It'd be like having someone other than Jim Dale reading HP and the Deathly Hallows. Once you've heard the same voice reading a series of stories you kinda get used to and expect certain characters to sound a specific way. I can't say I ever got used to the change. It's not that it was read poorly, it was performed qui...more

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11/13/08

R.j. rated it:

Read in November, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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09/04/08

Debbie rated it:

I LOVE these books. I put a hold on this at our small little library and it took forever to get it, but it was worth the wait. Because it involved time travel it had a complicated "which came first, the chicken or the egg" type of a plot, which I found fascinating and unpredictable. And it looks like it sets up for another book...hooray!

I actually wish I would have LISTENED to it though. The narrator they have for the book on tape version is INCREDIBLE. We have listene...more

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03/26/09

James rated it:

I LOVE the Artemis Fowl series and it causes me pain to say this, but I think Eoin Colfer needs to retire the character.

This time around Artemis Fowl, formerly an adolescent criminal genius, is a teen whose rebuilt family has helped him to become a good person. As our story begins we find that the actions of the younger, evil, Artemis have had repercussions that could mean the death of his mother. With this dilemma facing him Artemis launches into an ambitious plan to travel back in ti...more

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06/25/09

Lamarquise rated it:

In this sixth installment of the Artemis Fowl series, Artemis is slowly adjusting to the changes that came about in his family during the three years he lost on his last adventure and to a new role as big brother to toddler twin brothers. But his crimes come back to haunt him when his mother falls desperately ill with a fairy malady, one that can only be cured by the brain fluid of an extinct species Artemis himself had a hand in destroying. To save her, he will have to change the past and face ...more In this sixth installment of the Artemis Fowl series, Artemis is slowly adjusting to the changes that came about in his family during the three years he lost on his last adventure and to a new role as big brother to toddler twin brothers. But his crimes come back to haunt him when his mother falls desperately ill with a fairy malady, one that can only be cured by the brain fluid of an extinct species Artemis himself had a hand in destroying. To save her, he will have to change the past and face off against his most dangerous opponent to date--his younger self.

I listened to this as an audio book and was quite unsatisfied with the reading. The audio versions of the other Artemis Fowl novels were read by a wonderful actor and I couldn't get used to this new narrator, who was comparatively bland and whose voice for some of the characters was decidedly inferior, to my taste.

I also thought the plot of this book inferior to some of the others. Part of that is the time travel element, which I know from personal experience is devilishly hard to work with. There are number of niggling inconsistencies that bug me, which I can't go into without spoiling the plot. I kept on expecting an older Artemis, with fairy friends and far more compassion, experience, and fairy technology to easily defeat his younger self. He seemed to be having a strange crisis of confidence, and I was having a hard time figuring out where the cool, devious Artemis of the past had gone. Colfer poured it on a little thick with everything that conspired against Artemis here. And I was more than a little dubious of certain developments between Artemis and LEP officer Holly Short. (He is a teenage boy but...) I also would have liked it if Colfer had gone more into the theme of repentance and redemption, for Artemis's solution is to change the past when we humans don't get to. Finally, I was getting tired of Opal Koboi, who is mildly amusing in her language-Nazi way but increasingly difficult to take seriously as a believable, competent villain.

Having said all that, I did enjoy the book. In every novel, Artemis becomes more of a person, developing more of an emotional and spiritual life. Heavy responsibilities have fallen to him because of his unique knowledge and talents. Strange as it may seem, though, I don't want to see him lose that ability to make tough choices that are also the right ones merely because he cares more for people now.(less)

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03/25/09

gina rated it:

(review of isbn 0739364685)

Read in April, 2009

Sigh.

They've changed the reader to some guy. Some guy who makes Butler sound like a big talking monkey who is large and slow and gravely. Before Butler sounded refined, intelligent and lots of other wonderful things.. now everyone sounds- not so great. I'm adjusting to Artemis' new voice. But still, this fellow's accents are no where near as dead on and moving as Parkers. Anyone know why they switched readers?

Sigh.

I'm just not looking forward to hearing all ...more Sigh.

They've changed the reader to some guy. Some guy who makes Butler sound like a big talking monkey who is large and slow and gravely. Before Butler sounded refined, intelligent and lots of other wonderful things.. now everyone sounds- not so great. I'm adjusting to Artemis' new voice. But still, this fellow's accents are no where near as dead on and moving as Parkers. Anyone know why they switched readers?

Sigh.

I'm just not looking forward to hearing all of this. Oh please oh please don't let him butcher Holly's voice too! I Can't take it :(
(few days later) Holly may be the best voice on there. However- Mulch is downright intolerable to listen to. The story seems to drag because of the slow s...l...o....w lines from Mulch. I'm certain the new guy either A) didn't want to study how the other characters were read, or B) perhaps did listen to them but threw it all to the wind so he could read it how he wanted. He even changes pronunciations of names. In the beginning he says "Kol-bee". Later he slowly morphs (sometimes) into "Cole-boy" type pronunciation of Opal's name. Several people have compared the new reader to having a change of an entire cast in the middle of a show on TV that you watch regularly. Exactly. You listen and get used to certain voices and then they are no longer there. I'm adjusting but sometimes it is very hard to tell the characters apart. He seems to bleed one person's accent over into anothers without a good way to differentiate between the two people. I've had to rewind several times to try and figure out who was saying what! Really...

Overall though, at over half way through- the writing holds up well and I'm not disapointed with the story at all, just the bad choice in changing readers. I'm giving it five stars despite it's new reader's difficulties. The story is superb, but the reading certainly does take away something from the story (perhaps the listeners patience?). If I was raiting it on the overall experience I would give it 3 1/2 stars because of the reader and his shortcomings. If he reads the next installment of artemis fowl I think I will make a point to read the book.(less)

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quotes from this book

"Artemis: "Right, brothers. Onward. Imagine Yourself seated at a cafe in Montmartre." Myles: "In Paris" Artemis: "Yes, Paris. And try as you will, you cannot attract the waiter's attention. What do you do?" Beckett: "Umm...tell Butler to jump-jump-jump on his head?" Myles: "I agree with simple-toon." Artemis: "No! You simply raise one finger and say clearly 'ici, garcon.'" Beckett: "Itchy what?"" More quotes...