It's been a blast re-reading this series for the first time since I was a teen. But while the first four books held up to my memory pretty well, the second half of the series was just not as good- until this book. This was actually my first read of The Last Guardian, because I was in college when it came out and I was delighted to see that it was a return to form and was an excellent ending to the series. It felt pared back from the last few books, but in a good way that really let us focus on the main characters and to see how far they've come since book one. Definitely 5 star ending and on the whole, Artemis Fowl is still one of my favorite series.