Artemis Fowl

[xparrot]

Just read Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex - does anyone know this series? I got into them around the third book and rather inordinately love them. They're kids' lit - about the level of the middle Harry Potters - and are lightweight fluff, unabashed urban fantasy action-adventure romps ("Die Hard with fairies," according to the author); but had they existed when I was eleven they might've been my favorite books in the universe, and I can't help but enjoy the hell out of them now. Putting aside that I adore kids' books anyway, Artemis Fowl reads like Eoin Colfer's got a checklist of All of X-parrot's Buttons and is going down it one by one. We've got:

--A villain turned reluctant hero protagonist
--Who's also a twelfth-level-intellect-style ultra-supergenius (at 12 years old, no less)
--With a badass bodyguard/assistant/lackey who redefines loyalty (<333 Butler forever)

But wait, there's more! For no extra charge there's also:

--Male/female platonic friendship (okay, mostly platonic; and it's a credit to the relationships that I'm okay whichever way it turns out in the end)
--A bit of cute sibling dynamics
--A gang of misfits saving the world together on a regular basis

And that's just the set-up; once the plots get going there's plenty of h/c and presumed dead and friends saving one another. Plus there's nifty magic-science amalgamating and really stupid puns (Holly is an elven police officer, a member of the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance - in other words, she's a LEPRecon.) As well as a few gags - see dwarven flatuence and pretty much anything else about dwarf physiology - that could only be appreciated by a ten-year-old boy (and/or a Gintama fan :P).

The Atlantis Complex was as much fun as the rest of the series, and continues the button-smash tradition by screwing with the hero's sanity, which plot I obviously hate so much that I can't stop writing it :P Supposedly the next book will be the last in the series (SIIIGH)...don't want it to end, but can't wait for it!

Comments

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

I used to work for the house that published Artemis Fowl so I devoured the first few books and really enjoyed them. Butler was probably my most favorite character ever because he was basically Alfred with the body of the Hulk and badass ninja skills.

I haven't kept up with them though but since the series is ending, I feel like I should just wait until the last book is out so that I an read them all in one go.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Butler is in fact made of awesome - I always do love the badasses, so.

If the last one lives up to the rest of the series, they're definitely worth a read - they're very consistently entertaining, I loved this latest one as much as any before it ^^

[(Anonymous)]

I love Artemis Fowl!

More so way back when but I'm so happy you've mentioned it now! Brings back so many memories xD It ticks all my boxes too (though you missed out 'Irish!' and 'hilarity' :P) Hell, I even went out my way to read ALL of Eoin Colfers books after this series.

Arty is definately one of my favourate ever literary characters, right up there with Peter Pan and Mr. Rochester :P

glad I'm not the only adult reading kids books these days xD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Nope, you're definitely not the only kids-lit-reading adult out here! I love a good kids' cartoons, too; there's just something about their sheer straightforward fun of storytelling...

Artemis is fantastic, in his cold and calculating and unbelievably precocious way - and he and Butler make such a classic duo, they're quite irresistible. ^_^

I haven't read anything else by Eoin Colfer - would you have any recs?

Re: Eoin Colfer

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ee, thanks for the recs, I'll definitely have to check these out, they sound like great fun!

[nijibug.livejournal.com]

I adore these books. They were a blast!

I started them when they were first coming out... I was in 5th grade. And I read up them up to the one that came out when I was a sophomore in high school... that was Time Paradox, I think. So I haven't read Atlantis Complex yet. I do mean to, but it's hard to find spare time these days. xD

the button-smash tradition by screwing with the hero's sanity

That is an absolutely perfect way to describe it! ♥

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Spare time, yeah...I used to read about 5 books a week when I was a kid, and now I'm lucky to get in one a month. But Atlantis Complex is definitely worth the read, as entertaining as ever (especially if you like your hero with a touch of crazy... ^^)

(5th grade~ - ahh, now I feel old! ^^;)

[naye]

Eee~! Yes, I really liked the first two books when I read them? Right now I... haven't been reading at all. It's tragic. Last year I read under a dozen books; maybe not even half a dozen. *cries* So that's one thing I'm going to do when I'm back home - read! And I really do want to read all of the Artemis Fowl ones. It's good to know they stay entertaining!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I haven't been reading as much as I'd like, either - realizing now how much I've missed it! And the Artemis Fowl are definitely worth catching up with - they're consistently fun, I think I enjoyed this one every bit as much as I enjoyed the first ^^

[sholio]

heehee ... I was turned off Artemis Fowl by having it recommended to me by someone whose tastes and (fictional) moral compass are wildly off from mine -- the last thing he recommended to me before that was "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", which he said was awesome and I had to turn off halfway through because I just wanted to kill all of the characters. ^^;;

... which made me reluctant to pick up Artemis Fowl. XD Especially since I had a vague recollection of reading a review somewhere-or-other that mentioned that the hero is sort of an ass, which is not something I have a problem with per se, but sort of goes back, again, to EXACTLY the issue I tend to have with this particular person's recs. (Let's just say that his idea and my idea of "sympathetic character" are worlds apart...)

But if you and Naye both like it, perhaps I should put it on my list!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

(ahh I need a book icon!)

Heh, yeah, I have people whose recs I avoid for just the same reason. But our tastes do tend to be more convergent (I'm really interested in looking up that Benjamin January series you've mentioned!) and yes, I rather love this series. Don't read it expecting great literature, but if you're looking for fun action-adventure fantasy...

The hero being an ass is...misleading? Artemis is a pre-adolescent->teenage supercriminal with a major Spock complex who is slowly growing up into a hero. So he's maybe not a likable guy at the start, but that's the whole point of his char. And "likable" here is relative - I loved him from the beginning, because he's just my sort of ice-cold ultra-rational asshole - and at 12 years old! only he's not a brat kid; "precocious" doesn't begin to cover it - but he's got a hidden heart from the beginning, and watching that grow is one of the major draws of the series.

But putting that aside, the series has two protagonists; despite the name it's as much Holly's story, and I'm very fond of her. And there's a bunch of other chars who I like as well, much of them in spite of themselves...okay, see, they do the nakama thing where they all squabble and don't seem to get along until it comes down to the wire, and then they all immediately dive in to help each other out. Which you know how much I'm a sucker for... ^^

[sholio]

It does sound like fun; I'll see if the library has 'em!

And, ooh, I do hope you're able to get hold of the Benjamin January books; they punch my buttons really hard in a lot of ways -- odd-couple friendships, estranged family, awesome women (awesome EVERYONE, actually), h/c and daring rescues; they even have a central canon couple that I really love despite being braced to dislike them when the sexual attraction showed up. (They're just so unbearably cute together that I can't help myself ...)

[angel-love-song.livejournal.com]

I want to read Artemis Fowl! He was supposed to be HP's rival but got pushed aside because people thought that wizards were cool :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee - yeah, I see where folks get the comparison. Though really, other than being kids' books about British kids dealing with magic in our world, they're not that much alike, quite different in style and substance. Both fun, though! ^^

[dogwoodblossom.livejournal.com]

I totally love Artemis Fowl. It's kind of freaking me out in the comments though that people were reading them as "kids." I'm not that old am I? It was one of those things I was trying to get everybody to read and everybody I know ignored me. But that whole fantasy world is delightful.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Eheh, yeah, I totally feel your freak-out; I would've liked to read them as a kid myself but missed that boat by several years! But they're still great fun now ^^

[shayera.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I've stayed away from Artemis Fowl simply because the hype over here when the first books were released didn't appeal to me at all (basically, I got the impression that it was like Harry Potter with an asshole antihero).

But you have a lot of the same buttons as I do, and what you describe above would definitely push my buttons! I have to look into this. ^__^

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it sounds like they were hyped more in Europe - or maybe I just missed the hype here? At any rate I think the HP comparison does a disservice to both series; they're both books about British kids getting involved in a secret magic world, but they're about as different stories as you could tell on that theme. (And I honestly couldn't say which I like better, but I think Artemis Fowl is more consistent, and Artemis himself is way more interesting to me... ^^)

[littlehollyleaf.livejournal.com]

Omg, I love Artemis Fowl to pieces! The character and the series! I was actually all wibbly for him when he got the complex and was freaking out about 5s ♥ Plus, the lead LEPrecon is called Holly, and it's always a bonus to see my name in a book :p

It's one of the series I recommend most at work because I think it's brilliant, and easy to pitch to parents - it's all about learning to change and become a better person through friendship, don't ya know? ;)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, this would be a great series to rec to parents - it's got generally good messages as you say, while being all awesome and badass and exciting!

And awful fun for us adults, too, for the same reasons. I do rather love Artemis (okay, and I cop to enjoying him being all complex-ed and nearly out of his depth, aww *wibbles with you*) And I'm quite fond of Holly, too - the whole cast is crazy but lovable in spite of themselves, really ^^

[littlehollyleaf.livejournal.com]

the whole cast is crazy but lovable in spite of themselves, really

Heh. Yes. Even Commander Root... whose fate also made me wibble :( Can't wait to see what the two Opals are up to as well, wherever they are...

Oh yes

[beautifuljoe.livejournal.com]

A favorite of mine as well ... though I cannot get my face out of the Hunger Games right now ... I should write a sermon, I should writ a sermon, I should write a sermon...

Re: Oh yes

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've heard other people mention the Hunger Games trilogy - so it's worth checking out?

Re: Oh yes

[beautifuljoe.livejournal.com]

I'm still in the first one -- busy (had to do a funeral -- there are a few things that trump reading ... very few) but yes I do think so.