EOIN COLFER: THE AUTHOR
For lots of people like me who have been looking for new books to read after having exhausted all their Tolkiens and Harry Potters, the Artemis Fowl series was a perfect discovery to make. ?Artemis Fowl? by Eoin Colfer is the first of the popular Artemis Fowl series.
In 2002, a year after the release of the first book, the author published ?Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident? and in 2003, ?Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code?. The author went on to publish two independent novels, ?The Wish List? and ?The Supernaturalist? in 2003 and 2004.
THE PLOT :: Artemis Fowl, the twelve-year-old protagonist is a genius with LOTS AND LOTS of money. His father, Artemis Fowl Sr. had been a well-known criminal who wanted to turn over a new leaf and establish himself as a respected businessman. Unfortunately his ship, the Fowl Star drowned in the Bay of Kola near the North Pole while transporting 250, 000 cans of cola.
His body was never found and he was declared dead. His wife, Artemis Fowl?s mother, Angeline Fowl became insane after his disappearance. Artemis, however was convinced that his father was alive. The young genius stopped going to school and started spending all his time in funding search parties in the north pole region in the hope of finding his father..
He also had thirty-one patented inventions to his credit and had beaten the best chess player in the world in a match online in six moves. He soon began to run out of money. In a quest to recover his lost family fortune, Artemis stumbles upon a race of fairies living underground, who call themselves ?The People? and humans ?Mud Men?
After having read the Book of the fairies to find out all their secrets, Artemis decides to rob them of some gold. With the help of his loyal manservant and bodyguard Butler, Artemis kidnaps a leprechaun Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elemental Police Reconnaissance).
Holly was the only female officer in the LEPrecon. Fowl?s plan was simple. All he wanted from the fairies was one ton of gold. No fairies ever gave up their gold to Mud Men without putting up a fight. So, Commander Julius Root of the LEPrecon tries to rescue Holly with the help of a select team, Mulch Diggums, a kleptomaniac dwarf and against the Commander?s wishes, a troll.
Artemis outwitted the fairies at every stage of the kidnapping in spite of the People?s terribly advanced technology until something went horribly wrong. Read the book to find out how Short?s quick thinking helped prevent a cross-species war and come to a compromise with Fowl.
The book is a fascinating mix of advanced technology and the fantasy of fairies and goblins and dwarfs. A person reading it is sure to feel the thrill of reading a science fiction while enjoying the pleasure of Harry Potters. The series is just perfect for those who are graduating from their Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to more serious science fiction like Isaac Asimov or Arthur Clarke.