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A review by sylfaun
The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer
2.0
"[Artemis] was so confident in the superiority of his own intellect that he rarely developed a plan B. If plan A proved to be a dud, there was no fallback. " I almost stopped reading this book so many times, but crucially at this line. One of the reasons that makes Artemis so clever is that he sees every possible avenue and therefore has plenty of plans. It's even stated as such in an earlier book.
The Last Guardian was so disappointing. I feel like the series built up so much possibility that was completely abandoned or forgotten or random elements were brought in to this book that though they were crucial for this final installment, had never even been thought of within Canon. There were random rules being added to the magic system that broke rules established before.
We do have some stake put into this novel that is not present in earlier novels, but it's under cut by deus ex machina style saving graces that are completely unearned.
Trolls are established as mindless killing machines in the whole series but now?
The last negative thing I will say is: what was the point of the Atlantis Complex when you're going to abandon everything that it worked to try and do, and the only reference we have to Artemis's former condition is again as a joke.
This book works well as a YA novel in that it gives a final bout with all the important characters we have up to this point. And importantly we don't have random an unnecessary coupling up that YA tends to do to wraps things up. We have a lot of common tropes but that comes with the caveats that many readers would not recognize them as this is written for a younger audience, we do have well rounded characters that hell teach important lesson, and an interestingly complex plot that is told simply but without talking down to the reader too much.
I wonder if I had read these last books at the age when I read the first 5 books of the series, would I have reacted differently.
To sum up my feeling about the series, read the first 5 books and you'll be happy. The last three were disappointing in comparison.
The Last Guardian was so disappointing. I feel like the series built up so much possibility that was completely abandoned or forgotten or random elements were brought in to this book that though they were crucial for this final installment, had never even been thought of within Canon. There were random rules being added to the magic system that broke rules established before.
We do have some stake put into this novel that is not present in earlier novels, but it's under cut by deus ex machina style saving graces that are completely unearned.
Trolls are established as mindless killing machines in the whole series but now?
The last negative thing I will say is: what was the point of the Atlantis Complex when you're going to abandon everything that it worked to try and do, and the only reference we have to Artemis's former condition is again as a joke.
This book works well as a YA novel in that it gives a final bout with all the important characters we have up to this point. And importantly we don't have random an unnecessary coupling up that YA tends to do to wraps things up. We have a lot of common tropes but that comes with the caveats that many readers would not recognize them as this is written for a younger audience, we do have well rounded characters that hell teach important lesson, and an interestingly complex plot that is told simply but without talking down to the reader too much.
I wonder if I had read these last books at the age when I read the first 5 books of the series, would I have reacted differently.
To sum up my feeling about the series, read the first 5 books and you'll be happy. The last three were disappointing in comparison.