Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox is the sixth, and supposedly final, book in Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series.

At the end of the previous book, The Lost Colony, Artemis returns to Ireland three years after he left, though no time passed for him. (I wasn’t a huge fan of The Lost Colony; it just wasn’t as good as the first four books.) This book picks up where it left off.

At the start of the story, Artemis’ mother contracts a strange super-illness that is apparently impervious to both modern medicine and magic. Holly and Foaly give a brief history of the disease, known as Spelltropy. The cure is derived from the brain fluid of an extinct variety of lemur; a lemur that Artemis had a hand in driving to extinction.

The only option is to employ time travel, with the help of the warlock No1, and get the last lemur before young Artemis does. Obviously the ten year old Artemis isn’t going to give up without a fight.

Artemis and Holly have numerous encounters with characters from the past books, but before any of them really met, as they had travelled back to before the events of the first book took place.

Things really start to get interesting when a certain villain from two of the previous books appears, and throws a wrench in the works, even following them home, back through time.

The book makes good use of the time travel concept and overall was pretty good. It’s not my favorite of the series (that would be either the third or the fourth book), but a nice comeback after the disappointing fifth book.