It’s a rule of life that everyone likes free stuff. If you’re one of those people, which would be implied by my use of the word ‘everyone’, then you might be pleased to hear that Netgalley.com is offering a sneak peek at Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian.

For those of you not familiar with Netgalley, it’s a website that provides electronic advance copies of books for review purposes. Once you’re a member, you can read the book. You’ll have to download some Adobe freeware to unlock the book (they’ve got that pesky DRM on it, see), but after quite a bit of trial and error it’ll be ready to go!

The sneak peek comes with their timely re-release of the previous book Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex (which I’ve only just started reading and I’m not happy with it – if it continues in this vein I will need both a new phone and a new wall). The excerpt itself covers roughly the first 70 pages, which is much more than I was expecting.

I’m sure this excerpt will be enough to whet your appetites for the new book, which hits shops in July. We’re taking all bets on whether this is actually the last book. My money is on ‘of course not’ – I’m waiting for the inevitable comeback, which if they have any sense at all will be called Artemis Fowl: The Search For More Money.