Book Overview #1: Artemis Fowl

I finished the first Artemis Fowl and it was great. The best way to describe why, is by comparing it to the most famous of its age demographic, Harry freaking Potter, which I never liked.

1. Instead of most of the plot being about going to the exact same place in every book and spending a big chunk of the plot in aimless magic lessons nonsense, Artemis constantly travels around the world and we are told some interesting historical and political facts about every place he visits. Meaning, instead of wasting our time in Harry Potter with useless magic mambo jumbo taking place in a school, the most overused and unimaginative of all settings, Artemis Fowl is both educational for children and keeps things fresh by showing new places all the time. It is also not sugarcoating many sociopolitical situations, such as wars, famine, whale hunting, and so on.

2. Artemis explains with science how each of his plans work, instead of using a verb with an “us” at the end to signify it’s a spell. When Artemis wants to surpass security, he will tell us what chemicals he used to counter what defenses. Not simplify everything to “stupefyus”. Same goes with the elves, who despite using supernatural means, still use science to explain their tricks. This makes everything far more creative and distinctive, since it makes everything far more than archetypical elves and wizards. It doesn’t insult the intelligence of the reader either, as he is given an actual explanation. And I am not saying the science is that accurate; just better than “immobilus”.

3. Artemis is way more cerebral than Harry. He is a boy genius who uses his talents to overcome challenges, instead of an idiot who is constantly and undeservingly validated for things he never achieved personally (the boy who lived, as if it was Harry the one who killed Voltemort with the spell). Artemis is also never over-praised by his peers for breaking every rule, nor is he constantly rewarded by the very teachers whose rules he constantly breaks and the social structure he constantly insults. Artemis is a criminal mastermind, he breaks the rules for his personal gain and nobody on the side of the law cheers him for that. He stays in the dark, with no thousands of kids around his age clapping in excitement and seeing him as a role model.

4. The family status. There are no asshole foster parents who are constantly bullying Artemis. He is not even an orphan, his parents are flawed, and are not deified by everyone for sacrificing their lives in the name of good or some crap.

5. The grey morality. There are no good wizards versus deatheaters, just a boy trying to score big and some elves doing their job. It is a far more believable situation, instead of shameless over-dramatization of one-dimensional heroes and villains, aiming at the lowest common denominator.

6. Despite being the protagonist, Artemis is not in the spotlight for 90% of the book. Most of the secondary characters get an almost even amount of pages. We see the plot unfolding through multiple points of view, each one with its own morality code and objectives. It is far more multi-layered this way and helps a lot in fleshing out the cast, even if it takes away the empowerment fantasy most of the audience is looking for by self inserting as a bland protagonist like Harry Potter.

If there is one thing I didn’t like, that would be the finale, which resolved the conflict in a very cheap way. The mother was healed with a wish, and Artemis survived the bomb by jumping to conclusions regarding time stop magic. Other than that, it’s a great book and I highly recommend it to fans of YA.