By Mary-Ann Russon • UrbanWire

Hot on the success of the Artemis Fowl adventures, Irish author Eoin Colfer is back with his latest offering to literature: The Supernaturalist.

The Supernaturalist is about 14-year-old protagonist Cosmo Hill, an orphan living at the "Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys" in Satellite City. Set sometime in the future, Satellite City (which is somewhere in the northern hemisphere) is a modern industrial metropolis built entirely out of grey steel.

Satellite City is a twisted depiction of life in the 21st century. Everything here is controlled by a gigantic satellite floating in meta-space (newly discovered outer space). So many accidents occur that now lawyers are an elite task force, designed to reach disasters before the media does, in order to save insurance companies from paying out large claims. Humans no longer drive vehicles - destination routes are programmed via a computer link from the satellite. Privacy is an alien concept with legal spybots flying across the city checking on people in their homes. The sky is a different colour every day depending on what chemical smog is over the city at the time, and acid rain can really kill.

If normal life is so bleak, you can imagine what a picnic Cosmo Hill and the other orphans in the Clarissa Frayne Institute are having. In order to profit from their young charges, Clarissa Frayne offers them up as lab rats to corporations who want to test consumer reactions to their new products and inventions, be it skin care products, processed food, drugs, TV programmes - anything and everything, regardless of how inhumane it might be. As the institute is run military-style, escape is nigh impossible, but every boy dreams of living outside the orphanage walls.

Then, one day, in a freak accident, Cosmo manages to escape. However, things go wrong and as he lies dying, Cosmo watches a strange blue parasite sucking away his life force. That is, until a gang of teenagers arrive and rescue him.

The gang call themselves "The Supernaturalists". Having dedicated their lives to killing the parasites, they take Cosmo in, accepting him into their unusual "family". Together, they embark on a thrilling action-packed adventure, which entangles them in a tightly woven web of politics, advanced technology and intrigue.

One of the hottest fantasy authors today, Eoin Colfer first burst onto the radar into 2002 with the phenomenal worldwide best-selling novel Artemis Fowl (which some believe to be the anti-hero to J.K.Rowling's Harry Potter), chronicling the adventures of an 11-year-old genius who discovers the world of fairies, who are more sophisticated than the ones in children's stories, and plans to steal their gold.

These fairies are deadly, with computer technology many, many light years ahead. What follows is a fast-paced game of wits, with plenty of humour, action and adventure thrown in.

Since that first novel 2 years ago, Eoin Colfer has published 2 more Artemis Fowl adventures, as well as Artemis Fowl: The Seventh Dwarf (a mini side-adventure, written specially for World Book Day), The Wish List, a young adults' novel dealing with death, and the children's adventure The Legend of Spud Murphy. The Supernaturalist is Colfer's 6th book in 2 years, and is just as thrilling as the rest.

With each new book Colfer spins a tale more exciting than the last, keeping you hooked on every word, with heart-stopping thrills till the end of the book, and The Supernaturalist is no different. Eoin Colfer is once again in top form with his cynical yet witty take on life on the rough side, together with a love for making fun of pop culture's clichés. Eoin Colfer is to be commended for his writing approach. Like J.K. Rowling, he has that rare trait of being able to write for young people without babying them - he tells life as it is, and shows convincingly how a young person is likely to deal with life's obstacles.

A highly entertaining read for children, teenagers and adults, The Supernaturalist is an eye-opening, thrilling satire of the world today, all encompassed in a fantasy.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars