| Product: |
Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel - Eoin Colfer |
| Date: |
12/06/02 (242 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Its got fairy people in it
Disadvantages: Its all over too soon
Artemis Fowl was tipped to be the next "Harry Potter", and I thought I would see if the book lived up to the hype. Since it was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book of the Year Award Children's Book Category (2001) and it won the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year Award (2002), I knew I was going to be in for a good read. Eoin Colfer was offered £500,000 for this, his first UK-published novel. The Hype was amazing in the Book World, and after reading so much about it in the trade magazines, I knew I had to go out and get a copy.
Jacket and Bibliographical Info
--------
Its shiny, its bronze with gold sparkly bits, its now out in paperback and you can get your copy for only £3.99 from amazon.co.uk.
Bit for publishers to hum and haw over: Paperback - 288 pages new edition (7 March, 2002) Puffin Books; ISBN: 0141312122
Reviews
----------------------------------
Colfer himself describes the book as "Die Hard with fairies". However, USA Today described it as a "manipulative little tale" and a "cynical, action-flick screenplay with some heavy-handed excrement jokes." Harsh. Ok, so its not Harry Potter. But it quite obviously isn't meant to be, so any comparison is pretty much unfair. Artemis Fowl is not a character you have any emotion for, quite unlike Harry. He's not a hero, he's a twelve year old criminal mastermind. This is not a book about love, loss, betrayal, magic, friendship and survival the way Harry Potter is. This is a book about bio bombs, hover trolleys, and Devastator Slugs.
The Plot (without giving too much away!)
-----------------------
This is a twenty-first century fairy tale, where the fairies are armed and dangerous, and humans are referred to as "mud people". Feisty Captain Holly Short of LEPrecon (the Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance) Unit, is busy getting on with ordinary fairy work. She needs to renew
her fairy power having used it all up sorting out a rampaging troll, which was interfering with human activities. So she heads off to Ireland, and here she meets Artemis Fowl, who is a criminal genius (aged 12.) He hatches an ingenious plab to kidnap her in the attempt to get some of the Hostage Fund of fairy gold, which he needs to help support his dwindling family estates. With the help of his sidekicks, a giant manservant called Butler and his sister Juliet, he plans to get the fairy gold as ransom money. He has in his possession the Fairy Rule book, so he is one step ahead of the game, until the fairies decide not to pay by the rules....
Overall
----------
I liked the book, as expected, and I'm not even one of the 10 year old boys it was aimed at. Don't expect the gritty realism you often find in teenage fiction (often more than in adult fiction in my experience!) but you can expect some disgusting bits, and some amazing feats of imagination - if like me you are into the "wee folk" who live underground, this will fuel your imagination no end.
Extra Bit of Fun
-------------------
See if you can decipher the code that runs at the bottom of each page. It can be done!
Sequel
------
Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident is out now in hardback (half price at WH Smith...)
Summary:
|
Last comment:
 |
idodoyou - 13/06/02 Have picked this up a couple of times, but the blurb still fails to excite.
Maybe the next time ..... ?
Lisa :) |
View all
6
comments
|
