I never really paid much attention to the book, thinking it was just another children’s book and I should have learned my lesson when I first dismissed the Harry Potter series before falling in love with them. The statement "Don’t judge a book by its cover" always comes to mind when this situation happens. Nonetheless, I needed a second opinion and this came from a good friend of mine who said, "Artemis Fowl can kick Harry Potter’s butt anytime!" I guess it was the way she said it that made me want to read the book and see if it was true.
The first chapter of Artemis Fowl was enough to hook me till the last page. You may find the book in the young adult section of bookstore shelves but you will certainly forget that category once you lose yourself within the pages of the book. I was totally blown away by the pace of the storytelling, the humor and wit in every page. Mind you, Artemis Fowl is your average human, albeit he is able to outsmart an elite team of fairies, but that is of course giving away too much of the story.
What makes Artemis Fowl different? My answer to that are nine chapters worth of wit, humor, action, adventure, and a little bit of magic (there are fairies so naturally there would be magic but not the kind you are already familiar with). All throughout the book you try to grasp the fact that even if Artemis Fowl is the protagonist he is still the villain. I have to admit that there were many moments in the story that I totally forgot about that detail because he is always one step ahead of everybody. It’s a refreshing change for us as readers who have been used to having the hero as the main character of a story. You should not be disillusioned by this because Artemis Fowl is truly the villain.
The story does have its edge and dark moments but it still has a wholesome atmosphere, which is why it is classified as young adult literature. The Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter series are books that both children and adults cannot seem to keep their hands off.
No matter how old you are, you will enjoy reading every page of Artemis Fowl, the first of three novels. The thing that makes it even more enjoyable is that you do not have to read the books in order. No matter if you start with the third book (Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code) or the first one, you will be able to relate with Artemis Fowl and the other characters. Another special secret about the book is the symbol code that can be found at the bottom of each page. At first I thought that it was just part of the book design but after reading the page where the copyright of the book can be found I realized that it was a special coded message prepared by the author. The message decoder can also be found within the book and when you finally crack it you will find yourself with a nice surprise message.
Naturally, I will leave it up to you to crack the code yourselves.
Reader participation is something very rare nowadays in novels and it’s nice that Eoin Colfer is actually taking the time to reach out to his readers even if it is just through decoding a message.
The book never lets us forget that we do not really have to grow up because there are still things in life that we can enjoy along with those younger than we are. Like what the New York Post said about the book: "It truly is a new thriller fairy tale that grabs the interest of anyone no matter the age."