A review by books_baking_brews
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

4.0

I realize I am over a decade late to this party but I did enjoy book #1 from the Artemis Fowl series, my plan is to read one a month to spread it out (we will see if I am able to keep to that schedule and not binge the remaining books in one month!). Artemis is a young, millionaire, genius who kind of reminds me of Tony Stark (Iron Man), without the playboy-ness of Stark, you know because Artemis is 12. But Artemis is a technological wizard in a world with fairies, gnomes, goblins and some really big nasty trolls. He is not the most moral of characters, but if you had been raised in a criminal family with your only living and able parent figure, for most of book 1, being a man you pay to follow your orders then you might have a shaky grasp as well. Artemis has figured out there is an underworld of magical creatures and he means to exploit them for money. Captain Holly Short is a a LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Recon) officer he kidnaps to help restore some of his family's fortune. Things I liked: the environmental aspect, the book is rife with reproach about how Mud people (humans) are destroying the planet, and I am here for it. Yes, all humans are not bad but so far in this book I have not seen many beyond that reproach. The humor is there, though I think I would find it even funnier if I were a 12-year-old child (i.e., the flatulence jokes that abound, the wrestling moves with which Juliet is obsessed). Actually it is hard for me to say anything bad about this book, given it is the first in a series and I tend to judges series as a whole. If hard pressed, I would say that it has got some of the usual cliches, there is the single female officer out to break in to the all-male world of police recon, the lonely beleaguered tech guy, and the absentee parental figures.

But overall I think it is off to a great start. I cannot wait to see what Artemis gets up to next. This book also does not really end on a cliff hanger, which is nice if you just wanted to read this one book and see how it is, you will not be committing yourself to the entire eight-part series. You can tell by the end Holly and Fowl will have a long history (there is a blatant plug for a sequel) but book 1 is wrapped up very nicely.