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)

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

I felt like I needed a bit of a change after the boredom of 'Creating a world without poverty' so I decided to read some fiction. 

Ender's game got some great reviews and I like a bit of Sci-Fi so I thought I would give it a shot. I think the audio book was 14 hours long which I hadn't really thought about before starting but I was happy with this by the time I got into it. 

Enders game is about a boy who has been bred to lead the world against invading aliens called "buggers" (they look like bugs). In fact the whole world has been breeding (I'm guessing through genetic engineering) to produce a leader, genius enough to do this. The only reason earth survived the previous invasion was because of such a genius. 

Ender turns out to be the cleverest person alive. 

The book is set in the future though I don't remember it saying when.  I expected there to be a big emphasis on new technologies like in most futuristic stories, this wasn't really the case.  One of the new things that you will notice is the language.  Kids talk in a kind of pidgin occasionally, it would be interesting to see if Scott Card has a connection to this language for some reason.

There are quite a few things that keep you guessing in this book and keep you really involved with characters. Including Ender;s evil brother (Peter), strict commanders, interesting sounding strategy games and some details that are left out that make you feel clever when you realize what really happened.  

Spoiler Alert-click to show

I did manage to guess the big twist at the end

but only because I'd been thinking about it a lot between readings.  It really was very engrossing.  I listened to it on short car journeys and during breaks at my other job.  And as I said I thought about while not listening to it.  I think a big part is the humble heroship of Ender.  Unassuming perhaps a bit naive but genius.  

The best fiction book I've listened to so far ;)  Let's see if the movie that is meant to be coming out in November this year will live up to the book.