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The Internet Time Travel Database

Artemis Fowl, Book #6

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

by Eoin Colfer
When fourteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl realizes that the only cure for his mother’s case of Spelltropy lies in a species of lemur that Artemis made extinct eight years ago, there is only one solution: Grab your 80-year-old, elfin-police-captain-friend Holly Short and trick her into traveling back in time to stop your formerly evil, ten-year-old self from killing off the last of the all-cure lemurs.

Author Eoin Colfer does a masterful job presenting a single nonbranching, static timeline, complete with three consistent causal loops (further described in our tag notes for this story). But really, Eoin, you missed the shuttle on “the kiss”! With the help of N°1, Artemis can time travel, so if you're intent on his first romantic kiss coming from Holly Short, couldn’t N°1 have brought Holly’s actual fourteen-year-old self into the story? Might have even presented an opportunity for a fourth causal loop: Fourteen-year-old Holly kissees fourteen-year-old Artemis, but only because fifteen-year-old Artemis had already told thirteen-year-old Holly that they would enjoy it.

— Michael Main
Oh, bless my bum-flap. You’re time travelers.
DEBUT
The Time Paradox (Hyperion Books for Children, July 2008).
VARIANTS
4 English variants
TAGS(SPOILERS!)
Timeline Models Time Travel Methods Themes
  • Causal Loops: At least three consistent causal loops: (1) Mulch Diggins rescues Artemis and Holly before they send a message back to them, telling him to do so, (2) Opal comes forward in time to fake the Spelltropy in Artemis’s mother because Artemis went back in time to save his mother from that very disease, and (3) Artemis-10 develops an interest in fairies, which causes his older self to fall in with the faires, which allows Artemis-14 to bring a fairy back to Artemis-10, which causes 10’s interest in fairies.
  • Fix Your Own Past!: Save the Lemur! Save the World!
  • Nude Travel: Artemis leaned close to the demon’s cornet-shaped ear. “Why do we need to take our clothes off?”
  • Rescue after the Fact: Mulch Diggins
  • Self-Visitation
  • Unusual Aging: During travel to the past, Artemis’s body grows older while Holly’s grows younger.
Fictional Tags Groupings
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
  1. From Fowl Manor, near Dublin, circa 2008 ⋙ to Fowl Manor, near Dublin, circa 2000. Note: Artemis-14 and Holly.
  2. From an unknown time ⋙ to Fowl Manor, near Dublin, circa 2008. Note: Both Artemises, Holly, lemur, and Opal.
  3. From an unknown time ⋙ to Fowl Manor, near Dublin, circa 2000. Note: Artemis-10.
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
  • Release—Both the UK and the US first releases list only 2008 as the publication date on the copyright page. However, the <a href='http%3A%2F%2Fwww.isfdb.org%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftitle.cgi%3F872812'>ISFDB</a> documents the US release as being in July and the UK release as being in August. Several sites list an originally scheduled UK date of 10 June 2008, but we’re sticking with the US as the debut release.
  • Title—Not even the publishers can get the title straight. The 2008 UK hardback has the title <em>Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox</em> on the cover, the spine, and the title page. The 2008 US hardback has simply the large words Artemis Fowl followed by <em>The Time Paradox</em> in a smaller font. Because of the author’s European home base, and the originally scheduled earlier UK release date, we use <em>Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox</em> as the canonical handle, despite the earlier actual release of the US edition (which we list as <em>Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox</em>).
  • Cover—The US edition, which we count as the debut release, appeared with two covers. We avoided that duplicity by selecting the UK cover as the main image for the ITTDB listing.
  • Controversy—I found it disquieting that Holly, an 80-year-old Elf police captain, gives 14-year-old Artemis his first romantic kiss. In the story, this is not questioned or examined, partly because unpredictable effects of time travel have de-aged Holly’s body to perhaps 18 while Artemis has grown older to a similar age. But mentally, they are still their original ages, and even if Artemis doesn’t admit it to himself, he is still an inexperienced teen while Holly is still an adult in a position of authority and responsibility.