Artemis Fowl // Eoin Colfer {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
It’s one of those series/characters I keep hearing about, and it’s Scifi, and it’s available on audiobook.

Where I got the book
Greenwich!

Expectations
To be honest? Not high. I got pretty burnt by the trainwreck that is the Dresden Files, so I’m hesitant to start another popular scifi/fantasy detective series. Also, Artemis is a girls name.

So how was it?

The adventures of Artemis Fowl, pre-teen super-villain ; his bodyguard Butler ; fairy LEPrecon officer Holly Short ; the technical genius centaur Foaly ; and Mulch Diggums, a kleptomaniac dwarf.

Soooo much better than I expected. It’s not high literature (or even high fantasy) and it’s definitely YA, but it’s a good solid adventure with a well-built world and lots of interesting characters. Fairies are real, and they're technologically advanced. Awesome.

I’ve seen it billed as something similar to Sherlock Holmes, and Artemis is theoretically the villain... and while that’s not untrue, it’s not really accurate. Artemis himself certainly fits the idea of a young Sherlock well (or, since the audiobook reader gives him an Irish accent, BBC’s Moriarty) and some deduction happens, but the plot is more action/adventure than detective mystery. As for his villainy, you might not even notice that he’s the “villain” of the first story if he (and other characters) didn't keep mentioning it.

I blew through the whole series in a few days:

1. Artemis Fowl
   Twelve-year-old Artemis, super-villain in the making, kidnaps fairy officer Holly Short for a ransom of fairy gold.
2. The Arctic Incident
   Artemis and the fairy LEP reluctantly team up to fight a goblin conspiracy, led by an evil pixie.
3. The Eternity Code
   Artemis looses a piece of refitted fairy technology to an evil human businessman, and once again teams up with Holly and the LEP.
4. The Opal Deception
   Fairy LEP drafts Artemis to help prevent humans from finding and destroying a major fairy city.
5. The Lost Colony
   The demon island Hybras, banished millennia ago, returns to the normal time-stream.
6. The Time Paradox
   Artemis and Holly go back in time to save his mother from a magic-related illness; the timeline gets all sorts of messed up.
7. The Atlantis ComplexArtemis is suffering from magic-related paranoia and OCD, and is kidnapped.
8. The Last Guardian
   Artemis and Holly struggle to prevent an evil pixie from destroying the human race.

Recommendation
Fans of Scifi and Fantasy. I'd call this "techno-fantasy" or "techno-detective-fairies."

Feels
A little bit like like a detective story, a little like a classic YA novel (before they all got obsessed with love triangles and contests).

Favorites
I really can't choose. Technologically advanced fairies, for one. The ridiculous characters.

Least favorites
Okay, let me get this off my chest: OMG ARTEMIS IS A GIRL’S NAME. Greek goddess. Hello. I actually just met someone who didn’t know that. But hey, at least someone acknowledges that in the second book.