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Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a brilliant criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't realise what he's taken on when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the fairy LEPrecon unit. Artemis thinks he's got them just where he wants them, but then they stop playing by the rules...
About the author
Eoin Colfer ist Lehrer und lebt mit Frau und Sohn in Wexford, Irland. Er hat mehrere Jahre in Saudi-Arabien, Tunesien und Italien unterrichtet. Seine bisherigen Bücher für junge Leser standen in Irland, England und den USA an der Spitze der Bestsellerlisten. Er ist der international gefeierte Bestsellerautor der "Artemis Fowl"-Serie. Seine Bücher erscheinen in 44 Ländern und wurden bislang weltweit über 18 Millionen Mal verkauft. 2004 erhielt er den "Deutschen Bücherpreis".
Report
"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." (From Publishers Weekly)
