The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer
Publication Date: November 5, 2019
Summary from GoodReads:
Criminal genius runs in the family…
Myles and Beckett are eleven-year-old twins, but the two boys are wildly different. Beckett is blonde, messy and sulks whenever he has to wear clothes. Myles is fanatically neat, he has an IQ of 170, and he wears a fresh suit every day like his older brother, Artemis Fowl.
Perhaps you have heard of the Fowl family and their adventures?
This Fowl adventure is filled with the most unusual of individuals: an immortal duke, a miniature troll, a nunterrogator and a Police Specialist that’s 42% elf. And of course, the Fowl twins – one a certified genius with a criminal leaning, and the other possessing an unusual talent that has not been fully explored… yet!
Here begins the second documented cycle of Fowl Adventures.
ARC provided by Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley for an honest review.
I was so thrilled when I saw that there was going to be a new series set in the Artemis Fowl world. This is one of my favorite middle grade books that I am always recommending to my students. I was a little worried that it would be hard to read this series without having read the first one, but I don’t think that will be the case. It would certainly help if you were already familiar with the world but not a necessity. This book stands on its own merit and the world is explained enough that kids won’t feel lost picking up the story here.
The twins are such a delightful pair and they really do compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think I liked Beckett a bit more than Myles. He is the fun loving and carefree twin and always up for getting into trouble. Myles is Artemis 2.0 which was fun. But even though he reminds me a lot of Artemis he really is his own self too. These two twins are a force to contend with (their poor parents) as the villains in the story are soon to find out.
Lazuli Heitz is a member of the Lower Elements Police (LEP) and is a pixel, a pixie-elf hybrid with some other unknown DNA mixed in as well. She doesn’t have any magic that she knows of, but she manages with all of the tech the LEP has to offer. She doesn’t know what to make of the Fowl Twins, but she know that the LEP has always trusted the Fowls, so she tries hard to help them out.
I have to mention NANNI, the Nano Artificial Neural Network Intelligence, an AI developed by Artemis to watch over the twins and hopefully keep them out of trouble. NANNI was often the comic relief in the story, but she was also able to get the twins out of some pretty tough spots.
The plot was pretty fast paced and lots of fun. The twins actions to get themselves out of trouble were always amazing and often quite funny. Some of the ways that the used to trick the villains were pretty clever. Some of the humor may be lost on the kids, but adults will appreciate it. Although Myles does remind me of Artemis in the ways that he can manipulate and deceive those around him, but he really does come to shine in his own way in the story. There are cameos of characters from the first series, which made the story for me that much better.
A much needed addition to this wonderful world. I can’t wait to see what the twins get up to next.
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