Ok, this review is probably years too late, since this book came out more than a decade ago (2001 to be precise), but, screw it, I'm bored.
So once you get over the fact that Artemis is a Greek name for a female god, you'll probably remember hearing the title once in a while. The Artemis Fowl series is a 8-book series (not including the few companion books), which ended just last year. I read the graphic novelization of the first two books (which were pretty good) a couple or so years back. I just recently picked up the actual first book about a month ago, and am reading the second.
So, the book is by Eoin Colfer, an Irish author who apparently has been compared to J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, which, I have to admit, I have not read nor seen. He also has a crazy signature (look it up). Artemis Fowl is his crowning achievement, so if you haven't heard of the series, you probably haven't heard of him. But let's get right to the book itself.
First of all, the book size is great for me. Not too big, not too small. The premise is this: Artemis Fowl II, a twelve year old boy (that's right, no fifteen year old kids bringing their crap into this novel. I'm looking at you, Heroes of Olympus.) is the son of a once-billionaire-now-millionaire crime lord (namely, Artemis Fowl I) who was "lost at sea" for bring soda into Russian waters...
Yeah, don't ask. Apparently the Fowls have been criminals for centuries, thus their large fortune. Artemis Sr. tried to go legit, and turned from a billionaire into a millionaire. Anyway, Artemis (the son) is trying to get the family fortune back. Ok, seems interesting enough, right? So how's he going to do it? Investments? Making businesses? Going back to the family roots and stealing the money? Well...the last one is the most true. Get this: He's going to kidnap a fairy (or sprite, or leprechaun, it's the same thing) and hold it for ransom.
...Hey, if Rowling can write a thousand pages about wizards, an Irish guy can write a book about fairies. So through a process which is actually pretty cool, Artemis obtains and decodes the fairy book, a book of the history and rules of fairies.
What? Too fast? Fine, I'll slow down just a bit.
Artemis doesn't work alone. The Fowls have been assisted by the Butlers (apparently that's their actual name), a line of Master Chief-like body guards. Butler is just one of the great characters in the book. He's described as Artemis' only friend. So basically Alfred and Master Chief combined. Yeah. Pure awesomeness. Butler also has a younger sister obsessed with wrestling who works as a maid at the Fowl estate (she doesn't do too much in this book, but she's pretty entertaining). And for those of you who are asking, "how the heck can a twelve year old boy go around the world without his parents?", there's an answer. Since the death/disappearance of Artemis' father, his mother has been stuck in her room. She's slightly crazy, much to Artemis' concern. Oh, that's right. You might think that Artemis' is going to be the psychopathic mastermind here, and he is, to an extent. But he has his limits, and does in fact care for both his parents quite a bit, refusing to accept that his father is dead.
So now that we've got that out of the way (yeah, yeah, I'll list the fairy characters soon), let's go on.
The book is kind of like the Percy Jackson series, in that it shows how humans get the ideas of stereotypical beings. I won't go through it all, but it does make sense. Y'know. For flipping fairies (BTW, the fairies aren't bug-sized. Think elves). We meet Holly Short, the only female police captain, Julius Root, who I'm pretty sure is going to have a heart attack in the next book (probably not, but it would be a great twist), Foaly, the technical guy, and Mulch Diggums, who's a dwarf with a long record. Holly's been proud of being the only female captain (and don't worry, they don't shove a protest against sexism in your face. No, there's something much more annoying), but doesn't really have what you would call a good history of successful missions. That and the fact that she needs a refill of magic. She goes aboveground to find a spot, and that's where Butler shoots her with a dart!
So, is the book good? The rest of the book is basically Artemis vs the Fairies.
Let me put it this way: Does negotiations between a 12 year old with millions of dollars and Master Chief as his Alfred against a magical fairy police force with tons of high-tech weapons, including the ability to stop time, sound interesting?
Frik yeah.
Ok, the book isn't perfect. If I had to choose one thing that really annoyed me, it's the in-your-face environmental message. It's not throughout the whole book, but every few chapters you get a paragraph about how humans are evil and ruining the world. Heck, even Artemis is against whaling. Kidnapping? Sure! Extortion? Of course? Possibly creating a war between two races? Why not? Whaling? HOLY CRAP YOU'RE EVIL! I wouldn't mind as much, except...it's not done subtly. That, and the fairies are hypocrites. Towards the end of book, they comment about how violent humans are, and....well, it's kind of a spoiler, but not too much. It involves one of the weapons that the fairies have. Highlight the text below this paragraph to see what it is.
But if you rather not have anything spoiled for you, I'll see you later!
While the fairies are commenting about how violent mines and other human weapons are, they themselves are planning to fire a bio-nuke at Artemis' house, killing all living beings there, including the precious animals in the ground that they love so much. Maybe this was the point, but maybe not. In any case, the fairies are hypocrites.
No comments:
Post a Comment