Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

Book 1 - Artemis Fowl

Synopsis: Atremis Fowl is the world's greatest 12 year old crook. When his father goes missing, he decides that it's time for the world's greatest caper - kidnapping a fairy named Holly Short and ransoming her for gold. However, he gets quite a lot more than he bargained for when the LEPrechon tries to get their soldier back using any means necessary including high-tech weapons, a flatulent dwarf, and one very nasty troll.

Book 2 - Atremis Fowl and the Artic Incident

Synopsis: Artemis discovers that not only is his father alive, but he's being held for ransom by the Russian mafia. At the same time, an evil pixie named Opal Koboi is planning to take over Haven City - underground home of the People. Instead of fighting, Artemis and Commander Root and Holly Short must help each other to save Haven City and rescue Artemis' father.

Book 3 - Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Synopsis: Artemis' father has returned and sworn to live a reformed life. Artemis has voiwed to join him - after one more scheme. Using stolen fairy technology, he creates a device to control the world's technology called the C Cube and devises to sell it to a wealthy Chicago businessman. However, the businessman steals the C Cube leaving Artemis no choice but to ask his old friends from LEPrechon to help him retrieve it.

Book 4 - Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception

Synopsis: Evil Pixie Opal Koboi has pulled off the ultimate caper - escaping her own death. Garnering shadowy supporters, she kills Commander Root and frames Holly Short for it. In order to clear her name and capture Opal, Holly must rely on her old ally Artemis Fowl, whose mind had been completely wiped, to help her.

Book 5 - Artemis Fowl and The Lost Colony

Synopsis: An island inhabited by goblins trapped in time is fading. When one appears in front of Artemis Fowl, he realizes that this spells big trouble for the People. However, when he tries to help the goblins, he discovers that he may have met his match in a twelve year old girl who steals the very goblin he was trying to help. Now Artemis and the gang must rescue the goblin, an imp known as No. 1, and keep the colony from slipping in time and exposing the People to humans.

Assessment: These books are hot and it's no wonder. Very fast paced, exciting, and with a touch of humor, the Artemis Fowl series are terrific. These books will especially appeal to boys, but girls will also enjoy them. Artemis, despite being touted as the world's greatest criminal, hardly ever does anything particularly bad, apart from stealing a painting from a secure Swiss bank vault, but seeing as the painting had already been stolen, it doesn't strike one as particularly villianous. And at the end of each book he learns to be more selfless, even if begrudgingly. The nadir of the series is the third book Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code. Compared with the first two books, it lagged greatly in plot, pace, and even interest. Fortunately, it picked up with the following book The Opal Deception. The Lost Colony, however, seemed to be an entirely different book itself. There was so much about the new character No. 1 and his culture that I felt it could have been a complete and independent book, except for the fact that the first part of the plot seemed to mirror so closely the first book. I'm a big fan Colfer's style of writing and they wry humor he puts into each story, but after Commander Root died and Holly left LEP, they're just not the same anymore.