'Artemis Fowl - The Eternity Code'
by Eoin Colfer
First read: 22-25 Oct 03, Publisher: Puffin Books
ISBN: 0-670-91459-2, British edition, Paperback

'Artemis Fowl - The Eternity Code', written by Eoin Colfer, is the third book in the series 'Artemis Fowl'. It is about a twelve-year-old intelligent criminal mastermind, who has constructed a piece of hardware called C Cube, but was stolen, or rather taken away, by Jon Spiro, the owner of Fission Chips, a technology based company.
The C Cube is not just any ordinary piece of hardware, but a device that can literally do anything for you, like play DVDs, receive emails, hack other computers, and even scan your chest for any problems. In fact, it can also detect Lower Elements technology, which is emitted from the fairies living underneath the ground surface, in a place called Atlantis. Their technology is at least fifty years ahead of human beings, and when used by evil doers might have devastating results, which is the reason why Artemis has to get it back: to prevent Spiro from learning the existence of fairies. Luckily, the C Cube is encrypted with the Eternity Code, a code that is almost indecipherable. Therefore, this leaves time for Artemis and the fairies to get the Cube back.
The book starts with the meeting between Jon and Artemis in a restaurant, which quickly became a fight. Artemis's bodyguard Butler was shot, and as Atlantis became a world of chaos when the alert of being detected, Artemis quickly put Butler into a cryogenic unit, and found Holly, a fairy police. Butler was healed, but became much older. Therefore, Butler's sister Juliet became Artemis's bodyguard, and Artemis, Juliet and Holly set out to get the Cube back.
This book is quite fast-paced, which is a good thing. It has also brilliant jokes and witty conversations, for example the reply given by Artemis to the poor waitress. Pex and Chips, which are two of the most entertaining characters, had dumb (yet funny) conversations, and it suits them really well. There is also exciting scenes, like when Juliet and the others try to sneak into the Spiro Needle, which is the headquarters of Jon Spiro's industry.
Finally, the C Cube is retrieved, and Artemis and his bodyguard have to be brainwashed in order to prevent something like that happening again. However, Artemis left himself a couple of clues that might make him remember the fairy people, and a new book in the series. The epilogue reveals one of the clues, which is a contact lens camera. However, even Artemis himself did not intend to have this clue, so he was just interested, but nothing else.
Overall, this book is excellent, and I really enjoyed it very much. The vocabulary is not hard, and therefore I would recommend it to younger students.