Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox
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.