Artemis Fowl, An Introduction.

Well, where to begin. Artemis Fowl has started out as a book that was written by an Irish author named Eoin Colfer, by the way his name is pronounced Owen, took me forever to get used to that.
These books are rather seperate from the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling. In fact over in Britain, people's nerves are beginning to get worn thin by Harry Potter, he has been around for almost 8 years now and is becoming very irritating. But this blog is not a rant about Harry Potter, (I don't think people would appreciate that and I think I'm sticking my neck out enough by saying I'm British.) This is about explaining what is great about Artemis Fowl.
Artemis Fowl is written very well and at the same time has been written below the radar so Colfer could write the books without being under too much pressure like Rowling was.
But I digress, after about what looks like an hour of skirting around the point (notice that I'm still doing it) here it is.
Artemis Fowl is the story of a criminal mastermind called Artemis the II, who is the son of an Irish crime lord who was killed on a business trip in Russia, Artemis however refuses to believe that his father is dead and sends out continuous expeditions in orer to find dearest daddy. The problem is that these expeditions are very expensive and so the Fowl family is beginning to run out of money. Artemis, being the smart little kid that he is decides to find a way to bring his family back to being rich Irish millionaires, something I didn't even think existed before I read this book. For some reason to find this solution Artemis starts looking into the legends of Fairies, (why is beyond me) and eventually finds out that the fairies have their own rules and regulations. He then kidnaps one of the fairies with the help of his enormous bodyguard who is coincidentally called Butler. With this fairy in hand Artemis thinks he can get some of the fabled fairy gold, but he doesn't realise that these are some kick ass fairies and they are not without their own tricks. What then happens is a battle of wits between the fairy world with all their races, (yes there is more than one) and Artemis Fowl and his Bodyguard. Granted this does look very one sided but Artemis Fowl thinks he knows exactly how to play these fairies and get what he wants, or does he.

Right so that is the beginning of the plot of Artemis Fowl. You should be tense to want to know what happens next right? You aren't? Wow, tough crowd. I guess you need more convincing. Ok, (deep breath) Artemis Fowl is a tale that as opposed to all these stories like The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights depending on where you live) and the big daddy Harry Potter, this one does not work in clear set black and white settings of good and bad. You can't tell at times who is the good guy and who is the bad guy here. These fairies are good guys in that some of them are trying to get one of their own back to them but others of them are trying to make sure that Artemis doesn't get hold of their gold. At the same time Artemis is bad for kidnapping a fairy but we can't help feeling sorry for Artemis because and here is the punchline, he's only 12 years old. That's right the guy who manages to find a hidden civilisation and kidnap one holding it at ransom hasn't even hit puberty yet. We can't help feeling sorry for this kid as he has had grow up very quickly as his father was killed and his mother went into depression because of it. This leaves poor little Artemis to find a means to fund his family.

This book has often been described as Die Hard with fairies, and this isn't far from the truth. I know what you're thinking, how could a bunch of fairies be anything like the awesome explosiveness of Die Hard, you're out of your mind, but this actually isn't what is meant by that, yes in Artemis there are kick ass fights and bloody scrapes, but it gets the spirit of Die Hard. The idea that you can have incredibly awesome fights and at the same time a very funny repartee between the characters, which lets you have a lot of fun.

They are actually planning to make a film of this and I will watch it, praying that they have got the spirit of the story as opposed to what they did with Golden Compass. My resolve is strong, and hopefully I will not be dissappointed.

Well that's pretty much all that I have to say about Artemis Fowl, and yes that is a hell of a lot to say about something, in fact if anybody has actually managed to read this whole thing without losing interest then I have to commend you. You are a wonderful person for getting this far. I'm not quite sure what to talk about for my next explanation but if anybody could post their suggestions then I'll look through them and come up with something for next time. Until then, goodbye and good luck, you great Spillers.