Artemis Fowl
The Artemis Fowl Series
Eoin Colfer

Miramax (Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-7868-1787-9 (0786817879)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7868-1787-0 (9780786817870)
Publication Date: March 2003
List Price: $5.99

Review: This book is amazing! Being a fairy tale for our current times, it combines a mixture of humor, suspense and action in a real page-turner novel. Sure enough, fairies grant wishes, but they could just as well blast whoever opposes them to smithereens!

Fairy Captain Holly Short, part of the LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police is set out to confront a rampaging troll that’s causing havoc amongst human cities somewhere deep within Italy. This encounter leaves her magic completely drained, leaving her no choice but to set out to Ireland to carry out the ritual that rejuvenates her powers.

This is the moment when Artemis Fowl comes in. The last one in the Fowl bloodline, he and his bodyguard Butler will stop at nothing to get their hands on large amounts of money. They devise a plan in which they capture a fairy and hold her ransom. Due to extensive research, Artemis finds out all of the fairies’ secrets, and he is willing to use them to his utmost advantage. He succeeds in kidnapping the poor fairy, and he is now holding her inside his vast estate. It is up to the rest of the LEP to rescue her from the grasp of the immoral human.

In my opinion, the book is very well-written. The characters, settings and plot are very realistic and one could actually believe the events were happening due to the way the author explained the lives of the fairies. He made them seem almost human. That’s the only part I thought could’ve been better. The author portrayed the fairies as basically “humans with wings”. Mr. Colfer could’ve enhanced this aspect of the book a bit better.

This book, being the first in the series, won several awards. It received the Children's Book of the Year award at the 2001 British Book Awards. The book was also presented with a Garden State Teen Book Award in 2004. Also, as of this day, a movie adaptation of this novel is in production.

Overall, I find the book very creative. I would give it 4.5 stars, with one star being “bad,” three stars for “average,” and 5 for “excellent.”

Review written by Milosz, Age 13, Grade 7. Date of review: April 2009.

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