Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

This book's protagonist, Artemis Fowl, is not your typical lead character. He certainly cannot be defined as a hero. He is a 12 year old genius, who also happens to be a millionaire. Oh yeah, and he is a thief. In this first book of the series, Artemis decides he wants to be the first human to steal gold from the fairies. Of course this is tricky business since fairies have lived for thousand of years - and are often unseen by the naked eye. Artemis figures out a way to copy one of the fairy manuals so he can figure out how to outsmart them. There is no denying that he is clever. He is a successful manipulator, definitely thinks outside the box and always thinks ahead to his end game.

Artemis kidnaps Captain Holly Short, a fairy from the LEPrecon Unit. Her supervisor, Commander Root, tries to outwit Artemis to rescue her. Artemis wants fairy gold and Root wants Holly back - as well as the gold that he presents to Artemis as her ransom. It was interesting to discover all the "rules" that fairies must follow, like they cannot enter a home without an invitation and they cannot leave without permission from the host. They can mesmer humans (which Holly only manages to do once since Artemis knows he and his bodyguard, Butler must wear mirrored sunglasses at all times so that Holly can't look into their eyes. Holly is able to get Butler's sister to remove her glasses eventually though and is able to mesmer her into thinking she is watching 24-hour wrestling on a big screen). Anyway, I digress. The story also includes other creatures, like trolls and dwarfs, but not like you read about in children's stories. These are mean and ugly and do disgusting things.

Even though Artemis is only 12 years old, and this series is youth fiction, it doesn't necessarily read like that! The vocabulary is advanced for a typical 12 year old. There are many, many words that I wouldn't even use as an adult! There are also words that I don't really like my own 12 year old reading out loud - like damn and hell - two words that were used several times. It's a complex read for youth, but it's setting the scene - and introducing characters - for future adventures. I thought at one point that Artemis and Holly might end up as a "team" (since they help each other toward the end), but they end as they started, as antagonists. They might be antagonists that kind of like each other though in future books. ;)

Wendy's Rating: ****