Series Review: Artemis Fowl books 1-4

Hi all my Bookworms!

My name is Chiara and I am a Bookworm.

How are you all?

Do you realise this is my 100th post in a row today? I know that a lot of people celebrated 100 days of lockdown last week some time but I took me about a week from coming home from Paris and us going into Lockdown before I really settled down into a rhythm of posting. There are a few times I nearly missed a post but I think I’ve done well getting this far.

Today I want to talk about Artemis Fowl.

I love the Artemis Fowl books.

I read book 1 and 2 during my first few years at secondary school and I have finally got into reading the rest of them. I’m working my way through all the audiobooks. I’ve recently finished book 5 but before I do a full review I want to go through the first four books.

As many of you will know the Artemis Fowl film was released last month and I did a review and break down of the film if you want to check that out.

This will not be a normal review. I won’t be doing a review for each book breaking them down individually. I’m going to do a summary of my opinions of books 1-4 so far. My favourite bits and least favourite bits; the things and patterns I’ve noticed and what I think of it all so you know where I stand before I do a review of Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony (book #5) next week.

Disclaimer: The Waterstones links below are affiliate links meaning that, at no extra cost to you, I earn a small amount of commission.

First I’m going to introduce the four books I’m going to talk about.

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I think I want to start talking about my favourite characters. Mulch Diggums. Mulch is one of those characters who pops up in the first book and you never expect to see again. He leaves in mysterious circumstances and and that mystery makes you think he’ll appear somewhere but you don’t really expect it. And then in the next book he appears, usually out of nowhere and in the place you would least expect.

Mulch also has some unusual talents and with every book you uncover more of them, or you find out more about them. I won’t divulge what his talents actually are, because reading about it first hand, if you’ve not read about them already, is definitely the best way you can find out about them. Also some of them are really disgusting.

Moving on to two of my other favourite characters. Holly Short and Artemis Fowl. The books are all about Artemis, as you would expect given the title of the series, but Holly Short is just as important as Artemis, in fact our hero would probably be dead many times over if not for Holly.

If this was a YA sci-fi fantasy I would say that those two are going to be together when they get older, despite their age difference (Holly is in her 80s and and Artemis is 12) but this isn’t YA and I don’t see Eoin Colfer writing a romance into his children stories but those sparks are flying.

Holly was one of my favourite heroes as a child as my dad told me about the stories of Artemis Fowl and played the audiobooks in the car. I never seemed to listen to the whole audiobooks all the way through but I always paid rapt attention to the parts about Holly Short who could fly, battle trolls and keep up with Artemis Fowl, who has never had an equal in intelligence and age.

Artemis Fowl on the other hand is, for me, a unique hero. Not for his age, no we’ve all read Harry Potter and Percy Jackson with 12 year old heroes that save the world. No, Artemis for me is unique for his intelligence. He is smarter than most adults and most fairies (who are acknowledged to be the smarter and more technologically advanced species) and uses that smarts and his youth to get away with things that most adults never could. Children see world in a way that adults don’t. Something about age and experience change the way that we see the world. Artemis still see the world with a lot of innocence (his intelligence has made him jaded but not in the same way) and thus he is able to see possibilities that we don’t and able to think way outside the box.

I think through all the stories my favourite thing is how seamlessly Colfer brings and merges together the sci-fi and the fantasy the myth and reality until you completely believe the stories and you are sad when it’s over and you find yourself reaching for the next book.

And in a way that sums up the stories as well. Completely outside the box. I love the adventure in the books and the description that Colfer always gives is (almost) always from a small person’s point of view, whether that be Holly’s, Mulch’s or Artemis’ and it creates such a different perspective of the world.

The stories are action packed and will keep you on the edge of your seat even if you are reading them as an adult for the first time or to share with your own child. Perfect bedtime story to keep them dreaming of adventures and more.