Artemis Fowl
Eoin Colfer, Author Talk Miramax Books $16.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7868-0801-4
Colfer's (Benny and Omar) crime caper fantasy, the first in a series, starts off with a slam-bang premise: anti-hero Artemis Fowl is a boy-genius last in line of a legendary crime family teetering on the brink of destruction. With the assistance of his bodyguard, Butler, he masterminds his plan to regain the Fowls' former glory: capture a fairy and hold her ransom for the legendary fairy gold. However, his feisty mark, Holly, turns out to be a member of the ""LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police,"" so a wisecracking team of satyrs, trolls, dwarfs and fellow fairies set out to rescue her. Despite numerous clever gadgets and an innovative take on traditional fairy lore, the author falls short of the bar. The rapid-fire dialogue may work as a screenplay with the aid of visual effects (a film is due out from Talk/Miramax in 2002) but, on the page, it often falls flat. The narrative hops from character to character, so readers intrigued by Artemis's wily, autocratic personality have to kill a good deal of time with the relatively bland Holly and her cohorts, and the villain/hero anticlimactically achieves his final escape by popping some sleeping pills (it renders him invulnerable to the fairy time-stop). Technology buffs may appreciate the imaginative fairy-world inventions and action-lovers will get some kicks, but the series is no classic in the making. Ages 12-up. (May)
Details
Reviewed on: 05/01/2001
Release date: 04/01/2001
Genre: Children's
Paperback - 288 pages - 9780307343093
Prebound-Sewn - 320 pages - 9781417689590
Downloadable Audio - 1 pages - 9780739344668
Paperback - 314 pages - 9789867759139
Paperback - 297 pages - 9789867759917
Paperback - 277 pages - 9780141339092
Hardcover - 304 pages - 9780141339399
Compact Disc - 5 pages - 9781400085866
Open Ebook - 288 pages - 9780307832849
Paperback - 288 pages - 9780345804181
Hardcover - 312 pages - 9781587240928
Hardcover - 1 pages - 9781855498143
Hardcover - 288 pages - 9780786808014
Audio book sample courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio