Artemis Fowl: Reliving my Youth

For the most part, I really dislike reading fantasy. Of course I love the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, but the has some really awesome illustrative ideas. Pretty much everything else, Harry Potter included, just can't really get me going. That being said, when I was younger I fell in love with the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. I can't quite discern why it happened, but it did.

Recently, I have discovered that I still really enjoy the books. Maybe it's driven by nostalgia or maybe the books are just well written. For those that don't know, the Artemis Fowl series revolves around an incredibly intelligent teenage boy that has a fascination with the supernatural. Thanks to his father, he is obsessed with acquiring money because as daddy always said, "Aurum Potestas Est." Translation: Gold is power. The connection? As legend tells, leprechauns always carry a pot of gold around with them. Ergo, capture a leprechaun, capture their gold.

Little does Artemis know that there is actually much more to the supernatural race that even he realizes, and he knows much much more about "The People" (as the book calls them) than any other human ever has. Unfortunately for The People, he also knows more than any of them would ever expect.

I won't tell much more because I don't want to spoil the books in case someone finds them interesting. However, I can offer up some general information.

Some characteristics of the series...

• High action - Artemis is constantly looking for his next adventure and it drives each book through a variety of twists and turns
• Awesome characters - You will fall in love with so many of the characters. They each have such a dynamic impact in each book and Colfer does such a great job of building a unique personality for each one.
• Great villains - Hint: Artemis Fowl is not always the villain. Sometimes he is and sometimes he plays an interesting antihero, but overall the villain in each book is really well done. It makes you root for the protagonists hard.
• Really interesting relationships - There are some fascinating relationships among characters, some right out in the open and others kind of subtle. This is particularly true among the characters that are a part of "The People."\
• Redemption - There is a ton of redemption in the series. Characters are constantly changing and mostly are seeking to better themselves. (Can't share much here because it's a big part of the stories)

All this being said, I think the thing that I love the most about the series is the fact that it's just fun. The books don't make me think about great moral questions or force me to look into my life introspectively. They don't take a ton of effort to understand and can be read through quickly. (I have finished the first three books of the series in 2 and a half weeks.) It opens your mind to something that is so beyond the realm of possibility it provides a cool escape from the world. If anyone has read the series and has their own opinion about it let me know.