But who says they have to be?
Most master criminals are so evil you hate them.
But is that really necessary?
In the case of Artemis Fowl, a young lad of 12 who comes from a criminal family, I found him both intriguing and charming, in his own nasty way.
There are 8 books in the Fowl series by Eoin Colfer.
- Artemis Fowl
- Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
- Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
- Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
- Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony
- Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox
- Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex
- Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian
I read the first three books in the list. I had actually read the first two a while ago and reread them before writing this review. I have it from a trusted source (J.Z., not to be confused with Jay Z) that only the first three are really worth your time.
The Artemis Fowl books feel like a simpler version of Harry Potter to me. That's not to say that they are anything alike. They both have magical elements, but Artemis is fully muggle and doesn't go around casting spells like Harry.
The Fowl books really hinge on one rather clever pun. Leprechauns don't really exist the way humans (aka Mud Men) think they do. The word comes from a human mishandling of LEP Recon, which is the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance unit.
The LEP is mainly extremely high-tech fairies who live underground (along with goblins, trolls, centaurs, etc.) and can fly with the assistance of strapped-on, motorized wings.
Colfer comes up with several clever mechanisms to explain how things work between Mud Men and Fairies, as well as reasons why humans never see (or remember seeing) the People.
A few chapters in The Eternity Code that involve a pair of henchmen called Pex and Chips are hilarious. That book is almost worth reading just for their conversations alone.
I highly recommend these books (at least, the first three - maybe more) for middle school students through adults who like an easy read in the fantasy genre.
