Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

This one was a quick library visit pick up.  I remember thinking 'Eoin Colfer is a pretty talented writer' after reading 'Plugged'.  This being his famous book it should be even better.  The only thing I was skeptical about was that it said recommended for 12-17 year-olds.  Being slightly past this age group (my wife just chuckled as I wrote this) was this going to be a boring childish read?

My wife did, however, reassure me that this kind of book can be a fun quick read like 'The Hunger Games.'

I read/listened to the book in one day.  I think it was about 7 hours long, which went quickly.

The story line was as follows - Artemis Fowl is a rich youth who has experienced a lot of adventures with fairies (not the fairies that you picture when you hear the word) and their magic and is therefore wise beyond his years.  His mother contract some kind of disease, which Artemis diagnoses and has to go back in time and battle himself for the cure... (it seems slightly forced when you read it like that but flows naturally in the book)

The suggested age range is probably because it is entertaining enough to keep teenagers attention and therefore mine pretty well also. Despite the younger intended audience the plot was still fairly complicated. The twists and turns and then paradoxes of the time stream and time travel meant you had to think intensely about what was going on especially as there were two sets of the same character.  I appreciate these kinds of things because it usually gets my mind going even after I'm finished reading.

One of the nuances of the story was the contrast of its mythology with common stories such as 'Lord of the Rings' and folklore. For example, dwarves appear somewhat kind hearted, crackens are docile creatures, centaur are fat and lazy and demons are nerdy.  All of these little subtleties made me smile and enjoy the story even more.

It did seem like the kind of book that would have many sequels and prequel about it.  (after I wrote this I looked it up and realized this was the sixth book in the series, probably why there was not a lot of character development.  In light of this I should probably do some research before I read books like this, especially one with a subtitle on the front cover)