Teno Q.'s Reviews > The Wish List

Eoin Colfer's style can be detected from a mile away.

Whatever it is that he writes, Colfer's work will always have the markings of someone who writes bluntly humorous, technological, and sarcastic sci-fi fantasies - in other words, Artemis Fowl. He can't seem to adapt to different genres or story types.

The problem is, his style only seems to be effective when he's writing Artemis. In a book that is supposed to examine morality, and life and death, it just feels ridiculous at times. The gateway to heaven has been monitored by a computer ever since an computer engineer made it up there. Really? Where exactly did Colfer get his mythology about heaven from?
Second point of doubt: entry to heaven or hell depends on the colour of your ghost after death. Red means you're completely evil, so you go to hell. Blue means heaven. Purple is in between, but if the purple becomes 1% more red than blue, than off to hell you go. Since when do heaven and hell have such carefully laid out, logical rules concerning everything? This is not a scientific documentary, and it is not a math problem. And this type of novel won't work if you view it that way.
When anyone in the cast, any character at all, says something, what comes out is always snarky and sarcastic. Everyone speaks in the same way. Everyone. There are two possible reasons for this: One, the author has been watching/living in bad sitcom(s) his whole life, and doesn't know real people speak; or he needs to brush up on his dialogue writing skills.

This book has an interesting premise, with a lot of creativity, but it would have worked better with a different author. I'm not sure if I would recommend it - I'm a bit split in the middle, like Meg; I enjoyed it, but only when I wasn't cringing.