You’re a boy genius and a member of one of the largest crime families in the world. Your father has gone missing in Russia. Your mother has lost all pretense of sanity. The family finances are in a shambles and only a major cash infusion will keep your family from going bankrupt. What do you do?
Kidnap a fairy, of course.
This is how the first Artemis Fowl book begins, as our young Irish genius uncovers a startling truth. That the fairy people, elves, dwarves, pixies, centaurs and more, not only exist but have been living beneath the earth’s surface for countless millennia.
Oh, and their technology is about a thousand years ahead of what humans have achieved.
Set on saving his family from ruin Artemis kidnaps a respected member of the Lower Elements Police Recon (LEP Recon… get it?) Squadron, Captain Holly Short, and holds her for ransom. The first adventure in this high octane series pits Artemis Fowl against the Lower Elements Police in a battle of both brawn and brains. While his devoted bodyguard works to keep the fairy SWAT officers off their backs, Artemis must devise a plan to escape the fairy people’s most effective magic trap; the time bubble.
Although this makes Artemis a bit hard to root for at times, at least in the first book, a colorful cast of characters on both sides keeps the tale riveting and the redeeming qualities of Artemis’ character make you want to read about his further adventures.
While the first book is exciting enough, where the series really shines is in the subsequent volumes. Artemis comes into contact with the fairy people again on several occasions. In one adventure bartering his services in assisting with an LEP police operation in exchange for their help in rescuing his father from the Russian mafia. In another Artemis needs the LEP’s help in getting back a piece of reverse engineered fairy technology stolen by a business rival. In another, they have to retrieve the cure to a virulent plague by going back in time to save an extinct lemur.
As Captain Holly Short and Artemis Fowl work together through the books the relationship slowly goes from enemies, to begrudging allies, to genuine friendship. Watching the boy genius mature and grow into a better person with the influence of Captain Short is a real joy. And when Artemis’ own family chooses to give up their life of crime in order to go legit and pursue the important things in life like family, the lessons he learns from the fairies become all the more poignant.
Plus there’s plenty of cool magic, awesome technology, perilous scrapes, and exciting battles to keep any adrenaline junky happy. Don’t let the fact that they’re YA or the youth of the character fool you. These are great fun for adults too, and the humor and heart with which the stories are told really ties it all together.
If you like urban fantasy, but also have a taste for spy novels or techno-thrillers, you’re definitely going to like Artemis Fowl. While some books are better than others, on the whole, the series gets 5-Stars from me.
