Artemis Fowl is not your average middle grader, he is beyond average, a villainous genius who plans on restoring his family’s dwindling fortunes. He chooses a rather unconventional way of going about it. He decides to kidnap a fairy. I found this idea fascinating as a reader and it reminded me of Edith Nesbit’s Five Children and IT with a more modern sci-fi and fantasy twist. I felt that this book blended both the middle grade sci-fi and fantasy genres.
The fairies in this book were not your everyday cute Tinker Bell kind of fairies but were rather armed and with high tech gadgets in addition to their magic. As a reader, I found this perspective intriguing because technology is often not seen as something that goes with the conventional ancient sort of magic, especially when it comes to fairies. This bringing together almost opposite concepts made the story a unique reading experience.
My favourite character from the book was Holly, as I didn’t quite like Artemis because of his rather devious ways. I guess that boils down to preference. I also noticed that Artemis is the goddess of the hunt and wilderness (as I am a Greek mythology enthusiast), which made me realise that this might have been the inspiration behind the name Artemis for the protagonist.
But Artemis’s plans backfire when the fairies fight back to rescue the fairy Artemis manages to kidnap called Holly, and Holly doesn’t submit to her fate to stay a passive prisoner as the reader discovers later in the story. I will try my best not to give away too many spoilers as they might ruin the story for you if you plan to read the book yourself, which I think you should if you love middle grade like I do.
Without further ado, let’s dive into some important life lessons and wisdom scattered across this book next. There are many lessons scattered across this book, here are some I noticed. You should pick up the book and read too, perhaps you will see something that I didn’t see. That’s the cool thing about reading, a person can read the same book and come out with different life lessons and valuable insights cloaked in a world of fiction.
Things Are Not What They Always Seem
Artemis Fowl is a twelve-year-old boy, but he is far more advanced in the way he thinks, this is something that is not limited to fiction. Sometimes, I have observed that children and those who are younger are more intuitive and therefore have a level of understanding and intuition like intelligence that most outgrow as they grow older. Things are not often what they seem in real life or reality as we call it and in fantasy too. Fiction often mirrors reality, regardless of it being embellished.
One other key area that banks up this is that the fairies are not the beings that Artemis expects them to be, they are not entirely dependent on magic, they also use technology to augment their superpowers, which I thought was totally cool.
The fact that Artemis underestimates the fairies’ abilities shows us that not seeing things for what they are can impact us in rather surprising ways, and if you have lived long enough, we all know that all surprises are awesome, there are some surprises that are downright nasty. This is often true in fiction and reality too.
Too Much Ambition Can Cloud Inner Vision and Intuition
While ambition is a good thing, I think too much of a good thing can sometimes backfire, and lead to disastrous situations. This is often clearly seen in fiction and happens to be one of the key lessons explored in this middle grade fantasy book. Artemis Fowl is an infinitely ambitious person who wants to help his family out ever since his father’s disappearance and his mother’s sickness. But he chooses a rather devious way to go about it, that is to get fairy gold and make his fortune by kidnapping a fairy and demanding ransom. But what Artemis fails to see is that his actions are rather morally ambiguous, and this clouds his good judgement. He fails to see that the fairies are not what they appear to be and there is more to them than what appears in their literature.
Devils in the Detail and Sometimes There is No Denying It
Artemis might be devious, but he is undoubtedly a very observant kid, as most kids are and most adults I have noticed aren’t. Some of us seem to lose these acute observation skills as we get older. Life seems to take its toll on us and we, I feel, start to gloss over things for the sake of convenience, often losing the child like observation and wonder. Artemis observes how his mother who is asleep escapes the effect of fairy time magic and uses this important piece of knowledge to outwit the fairies. I thought that this was quite a genius idea on the part of the author.
Failure is Not Final or Fatal
What I love about middle grade books and children’s books in general is that they are full of hope and pushes one to see beyond what’s here and now. Most children’s literature is all about never giving up, and I love the fact that middle grade fantasy is all about holding on to hope, when sometimes, hope is all what the characters of a book has, which is sometimes all one has in real life, when things go wrong or when one doesn’t see things the right way (oftentimes we see things the way we’d like them to see, but not the way they are).
Artemis Fowl never gives up, even when defeat seems like the inevitable outcome, instead he perseveres and uses his wits to overcome a fatal situation. I love the fact that the book is all about not giving up, even when all odds seem to be stacked against one.
Now let’s look at some of the characters from the story which made this story quite memorable. The characters popped off the page which made the story even more interesting.
Characters from the Book Artemis Fowl
From Artemis, who is the main character of this book and who the whole series revolves around to his ever-faithful butler, this first book in the series started off with a bang with a cast of memorable characters.
Artemis Fowl
Starting off, let’s look at the protagonist this book is named after, Artemis Fowl.
Artemis is living with his mother who is under medication for psychiatric concerns, and he is living with his butler and the butler’s sister. The story starts off with Artemis Fowl and his butler tracking down a supposed fairy to extract knowledge from her. When they discover a book about all the fairy customs and lore, Artemis struggles to decipher it. Artemis Fowl is not your typical hero but is rather an anti-hero with his mortally questionable choices. While I prefer characters who aren’t morally grey, Artemis fascinated me as an anti-hero. While he is not completely heartless, he plans on exploiting the fairies who have not given him reason to justify the exploitation.
Butler
Artemis has a faithful sidekick and that is his butler. The butler is a strong grown man but serves Artemis and his family. He believes that Artemis is always ‘one step ahead,’ when it comes to planning things out or dealing with adversaries. His support becomes the driving force behind many of the little victories Artemis achieves. While Artemis is the brains the butler is without doubt the brawn. He fights the fairies first single handedly when they come to rescue captain Holly Short. He always has his master’s back and is a loyal bodyguard and friend to him. I think he fills the role of Artemis’s dad who is believed to have passed away. He doesn’t agree with everything Artemis says, though, especially when it comes to his family, specifically his young sister, Juliet.
Juliet
Juliet is a young teenager and is in stark contrast with Artemis’s character as Artemis is a rather precocious child compared to Juliet. Juliet is more of your typical teenager, but she is into wrestling, which is rather not typical for a girl, but it makes sense since her brother is a butler and bodyguard of Artemis Fowl. She also helps with nursing Artemis’s mother who is bedridden. Despite being somewhat of a typical teenager, she does her duty well to the best of her ability, when it comes to looking after Artemis’s mother, who is demanding and seems to be portrayed as delusional.
Holly
Holly is a fairy, and a feisty one at that, who doesn’t easily give in to the demands of her superior and always seems to follow her intuition and moral compass over the voices and influence of those around her, both fairies and humans. I loved the fact that while the other fairies don’t seem to be very sympathetic towards humans, she is, despite the possibility of having to face negative consequences from her own race. Initially in the book, she fights a troll to save humans and does it single handedly for the most part. Her courageous and determined nature was truly inspiring, and I love the fact that she is someone unconventional, breaking conventions and trying her best to fight for what she believes to be worth fighting for.
Commander Julius Root
Commander Root is a strong character who cares deeply about Holly, despite his Gruff appearance. His leadership qualities help set him apart as one of a kind, as he decides to rescue Captain Holly, regardless of the difficulty of the mission and the toll it might take on his career. I thought this a truly inspiring character who, very much like Holly, stood his ground and fought for what he believed to be true.
Mulch Diggums
Mulch Diggums is a crafty dwarf with an uncanny knack getting out of situations in the most unconventional way. He is the secret weapon Commander Root uses to infiltrate Artemis’s home, the Fowl Manor, so that he can earn a better life. He doesn’t have the conventional powers the magical folk have, but his unconventional abilities are exactly what the fairies need to rescue Captain Holly from the clutches of Artemis, who is holding her ransom with profit in mind.
Foaly
Foaly is a tech wizard who is great at anything to do with gadgets. He is an invaluable asset to the fairies who don’t just rely on their magical abilities but use tech to enhance their abilities and battle strategies. Foaly is a fun-loving techy fairy who dabbles in sarcasm and is indispensable when it comes to fairy gadgets. He also plays a key role when it comes to the battle strategy of the fairy folk.
Key Themes
Some of the key themes explored in this book include good and evil, technology and nature, madness and magic, humans and the supernatural. I believe that this book did a great job exploring aspects that are commonly seen in the modern world in fictional settings. These key themes are scattered throughout the book. Let’s explore these themes in more detail.
Good and Evil
Good and evil is a key theme that is explored throughout the book, Artemis is not the ideal hero, he is morally grey, and I found this deeply unsettling as a reader. I like morally clear or white characters or dark ones in between just makes me feel uncomfortable. I remember reading this book (the first few chapters as a kid) and thinking that Artemis is not the type of character I’d like to have as a friend. But the sad reality is this world has more morally grey characters than they have pure characters. From my perspective it feels like a sad thing, I also think that this deep exploration between good and evil invites us as readers, both young and older to question ourselves.
Technology and Nature
Technology and nature are often presented as the opposite of each other and in this story, we see fairies who are often associated with nature. Nature and fairies are often connected with each other and technology is often not. But I think the author did something super clever and creative bringing these two together.
Magic and Madness
Magic is something that most humans dismiss, but Artemis is driven to the very last options to help save his family from misfortune and helps to rescue his family with something beyond natural, and decides to search for solutions in the supernatural world, which leads to him finding what he is looking for in the supernatural world as a means of restoring his fortune in the human world. This goes to show that the line between magic and madness is very thin, which is what I feel as a reader.
Now let’s look at what I found interesting in this book. While these are some of the interesting things I saw, I bet I missed out on some things you might enjoy.
Why I Like This Book
This book was packed with unconventional themes and ways of looking at the human world and the possible supernatural (which has not clearly been proven or disproven in my opinion).
The Cool Characters
I love some characters, including Holly, who is feisty and stands up to what she believes in and the whole book is technically based around her, though the protagonist is Artemis she is the key focus on the story as she is the fairy that Artemis happens to kidnap. I love the fact that she fights in every way possible for her and within her means and abilities. I adore her strength, and strong sense of right and wrong, which is quite a contrast when it comes to Artemis’s character.
The Fairies
The fairies are unconventional in the fact that they are supernatural, but are also not averse to technology, they embrace it to enhance and augment their abilities. Fairies have a strong sense of community, and their social structure portrayed in this book is quite similar to most human societies. I love the fact that there are the same struggles portrayed in the fairy world as they are in the human world.
About the author
Eoin Colfer is author turned primary school teacher. Born in Ireland he graduated from the University of Dublin with a degree in Education. His rise to fame was marked by the popularity of the Artemis Fowl series.
It’s never too late to pick up this book and give it a read. I am not a middle schooler, but I enjoyed it. That’s the thing about books, genre conventions and societal norms that don’t exist within the world of fiction, this is more pronounced in children’s fiction than it is in adult fiction. Plus, we get to revisit our childhood (if we happen to be past that age) and that is magical.
