Book report: Artemis Fowl
The "Artemis Fowl" series, by Eoin Colfer, is one of the most popular series in the UK. The five books all have more or less the same characters. My favourite book is "The Eternity Code".
To understand the book, you have to get to know the main characters, starting with the most important one. Artemis Fowl is a criminal mastermind, known all over the world. He's the brain behind the book, and the best about him: He's only 14. Secondly: his bodyguard Butler. This huge man stands beside Artemis 24/7 and would protect him with his life, and most importantly, is his only friend. Another central character is Captain Short. Well, apart from her bravery, practical intelligence and loyalty towards her friends, Holly Short is also very special in another way: She's a fairy. Without her, Artemis wouldn't be alive. She is part of a high tech fairy civilisation underneath our feet. Fairies are magical creatures with healing powers, and the power to become invisible. Most humans don't know about them, mostly because of the IT specialist named Foaly. The Centaurs' technology, and therefore the technology of the fairies, is about a century ahead of ours. Anyway, one more character must not be forgotten: Mulch Diggums. This hairy lad is a dwarf with a wide range of abilities including so-called gas explosions, which are more or less massive farts, and extremely sensitive hair that can pick up vibration, and even sense danger. So much for the characters. Why don't we start with the actual content of the book now.
Artemis Fowl has used stolen fairy technology, and has constructed a super computer that is about 50 years ahead of human standards: The C-Cube. This small box is capable of hacking into any computer system, including all the secret services of the nations. The owner of this cube is able to hijack any satellite, even fairy tech, and would therefore become the most powerful man on the planet. Apart from that, the discovery of the fairy folk would soon follow, due to the C-Cubes ability to detect fairy satellites. This would have fatal consequences for the fairies as humans are known to kill anything smarter than themselves, and everything else too. Of course, Artemis Fowl does not want this to happen, as he has developed a small bond to the fairies. Anyway, not really thinking about the circumstances, and the possible consequences, he offers to sell the Cube - obviously for an epic amount of money - to an obnoxious businessman: Jon Spiro. This man has never really cared about anything, animal, fairy or human, as long as they didn't affect his fortune. Artemis meets up with him to offer him his technology, but the meeting runs out of hands and Spiro steels the cube. With Spiro in possession of the Cube, the fairy folk is in great danger, so Artemis asks his fairy friends for help. Luckily young Artemis has locked the cube with an unbreakable code, an eternity code. The time you require to break this code is said in the name, but with Spiro's possibilities quite a bit less. Artemis once again has to think of a plan that can only be thought of by a genius like Artemis, and that matches Spiro's technology and great power. This plan includes breaking into one of the most secure buildings in the world, climbing up a glass tower and risky mind games implanted by Artemis himself. And all this to get the cube back. The execution of this plan is my favourite part of the book because it is full of risky manoeuvres and the brilliance of it surprises even the reader. What I also find very interesting is the development of Artemis from the first to the last book in the series. He turns from a ruthless, criminal mastermind to the friend of the fairies with good nature. Well almost ;)
This book is definitely worth a read and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes risky, action packed and funny adventures.
by J. R.; year 8
