As a fan of the three-act structure that trilogies can provide, I’ve found
over the years that the fourth book in a series generally determines what the
style of future books will be. Plenty of series have strong plotlines and
character arcs that span multiple volumes, but some series settle into a
tried-and-true formula that works for them. For The Opal Deception, the
fourth book in the Artemis Fowl series, it’s the latter. Granted, the
series is meant for grade-school readers, so it’s not entirely surprising
that the series has become formulaic.
There was an amount of status quo (and returning to it) that had to happen
after the events in The Eternity Code, which is where The Opal Deception came
in. It honestly feels a little like a half-step backward for the series, or
at least a realignment to get the characters all back together to continue on
future adventures. By now, these adventures all seem to have the same
checklist of events that need to happen. Artemis needs to be clever and
smart. Mulch needs to be gross and flatulent. Holly needs to come in and save
the day in her magical way.
About the only thing that was different from previous books in the Artemis
Fowl universe was the titular villain: Opal Kobol. Of course, this antagonist
gave more of a Bond villain vibe than any of the previous ones. This makes me
think the series will be progressing with this kind of James Bond formula,
which contained singular villains, fancy spy technology, and almost
ridiculous action sequences. In fact, I’d almost peg the Artemis Fowl
series as a teenage version of James Bond with a heavy dollop of fantasy
thrown in to keep kids entertained.
A formulaic stabilization of the Artemis Fowl series, I give The Opal
Deception 3.5 stars out of 5.