Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

That Irish criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl is in good form for his latest adventure. Deciding not to be totally evil any more means that he also largely drops his habit of the permanently sarcastic rejoinder, which was running the risk of serious tedium in previous adventures. This time he and the heroic Captain Holly Short are united in a battle for survival against Opal Koboi, the quite appallingly evil pixie with plans to destroy the whole of the underground fairy kingdom. Battle is joined in a series of state of the art high tech manoeuvres, each one plausibly described by an author now so assured that he could surely even make a physics textbook sound exciting. With less overt violence than before and plenty of witty repartee, this is an excellent read.