Artemis Fowl The Eternity Code (#3)

Another fast paced adventure!

I enjoyed this installment and particularly liked Artemis' character development. I also enjoyed the point made in this novel that we are who we are because of what we experience and what we remember. Kinda falls back on the "What Alice Forgot" line of thinking. Artemis underestimates himself and his opponent. This gets him in a VERY sticky situation and he calls on the People for help. In return for one last epic help-he agrees to be mind wiped at the end of it all.

He does warn them that he is worried he will physiologically revert back to who he was before he had all the experiences with the People. Well, "worried" is a loose term meaning that Artemis wants THEM to worry about it enough to not rob him of the memories he has grown to really like-and potentially profit from.

But it does bring to light the fact that we are VERY complex beings. And no one factor can truly dominate how and why we make the choices we do. It's a mixture of personality, knowledge, mistakes, successes, failures, being wronged, being supported, being rewarded, moral values-and our level of understanding and/or commitment to those moral values, levels of personal endurance and probably a whole lot more!

My nearly 10 year old and I had a good conversation about the enemy in this book, Jon Spiro, and what the ramifications of owning/controlling TV and media. Spiro states that if he had the wealth and technology he wanted, he could most importantly control TV and the world. So we talked about how the dissemination of information is vital to being able to have an informed and educated opinion. We talked about countries who give VERY one sided information to their citizens (i.e. N. Korea, China, Middle East, etc.) and how they have certain opinions simply for lack of being able to have access to another side of the story. And how that happens even on a smaller scale in America, based on the political leanings of those in control of the network channels. It was a great side discussion that I hope starts bringing awareness to my daughter about the importance of seeking out ALL the information-and trying to find objective information when possible-before coming to a conclusion of how you feel about a certain situation or issue.