Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer

This is the fifth in the Artemis Fowl series. I was set on to Artemis Fowl when the first book came out by the same person who sent me The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I am very grateful to her. :) They are more aimed at children than perhaps the Harry Potter books but are lots of fun. They can be frustrating at times as the start of the book tends to do a lot of recapping of the previous book. However, it is long enough since I read AF and the Opal Deception that I didn't really notice the recapping so much, it was obviously useful.
I was very slightly disappointed with the book though. Not a big disappointment by any means, just the kind of disappointment that comes when your favourite characters aren't in the story enough. For those that have read the books, Foaly and Mulch just aren't in this enough (particularly Foaly).
I'm also concerned that Artemis is going a bit too soft. (He used to be really quite nasty - criminal mastermind genius boy - but has been getting nicer over time. Which is all well and good but now he needs some really nasty opponents and he didn't quite get one in this book.)
Still, these are relatively small complaints. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it (particularly as I had been struggling for a while before that with a book I was not enjoying so much - I will attempt to finish it one day - and it was nice to just read something so fun) and will of course read any further installments.