Artemis Fowl (series)
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Artemis Fowl is a series of fantasy novels written by Irish author Eoin Colfer. They star child criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl. The series is written in a half-serious language alternating with dark moments, a style favoured by a number of popular children's authors, including J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter) and Roald Dahl (The Witches).
Artemis, the main character, is a rather ruthless but extremely intelligent young criminal whose main goal is the acquisition of money through various ingenious ventures. The author of the series summed up his books with the line, "Die Hard with fairies."
Contents |
[edit] Main characters
- Artemis Fowl II, the central character is a proven genius and child prodigy. Artemis starts out working against the fairies, kidnapping LEPrecon captain Holly Short in order to retrieve their gold. He later works with his former captive to save the world from impending doom on many occasions.
- Domovoi Butler, his bodyguard, commonly known as Butler. In Book III, he reveals his first name to Artemis when he believes he is near death, but he is saved thanks to Artemis's quick thinking and use of cryogenics, followed by a magical healing by Holly Short. He has a comprehensive knowledge of both munitions and fighting skills, enough so to be able to survive an encounter with a troll. He also is Artemis's closest friend.
- Juliet Butler, the sister of Domovoi Butler. As of Book III, she has joined a professional wrestling team under the ringname "The Jade Princess".
- Captain Holly Short, the first female LEPrecon official (resigned from LEP as of Book IV, then partially rejoined as part of Section 8 in Book V). Holly has a strong sense of morals, and this quality often leads her into danger as she chooses to do the right thing rather than the sensible thing. She was accused of the murder of Julius Root, and her resignation is due to his replacement's distrust of her. She was once dead for one minute, but a time mix-up taken advantage of by Artemis Fowl saved her.
- Foaly, a centaur, the LEP's local technology-in-charge. He is paranoid, choosing to wear tin-foil hats to protect his brain from the mind-probing rays he believes are following him, although he knows they have yet to be invented. He also has a supreme intellect that has proved invaluable on many occasions. Has a new job at Section Eight as of Book V.
- Commander Julius Root of the LEPrecon (deceased as of Book IV) Root had a military personality and a short temper that earned him the nickname of "Beetroot", but also made him an ideal leader for the LEPrecon. He had the habit of smoking noxious fungus cigars.
- Mulch Diggums, a kleptomaniacal dwarf with incredible flatulence. Like all male dwarves, Mulch is adapted for tunnelling, and his unhingeable jaw and accelerated digestion have proved vital on many occasions.
- Minerva Paradizo, Another criminal child genius who captures a demon No1 and tries to present him as her project for the Nobel prize award in Stockholm. Earlier a couple and a half years younger than Artemis, now about the same age.
- No1, a very powerful imp warlock (Qwan's apprentice as of Book V) who helped to save Hybras. Before saving Hybras however he had a short excursion with Artemis Fowl and co. and was kidnapped by child genius, Minerva Paradizo.
- Qwan, the most powerful of the original seven full-fledged warlocks who lifted Hybras out of time. The only warlock who survived in his petrified form. He brought Hybras back to the real world outside the Limbo with help from Artemis, Qweffor(his apprentice who was believed to be deceased, but actually trapped in N'zall a.k.a. Abbot), (No1) and Holly.
[edit] Villains
There is no obvious villain for the first book, as it is Artemis Fowl vs. the LEP. The minor villain is Briar Cudgeon, who tries to kill Artemis with a troll. He is the co-head of the B'wa Kell Rebellion in Book II
- Opal Koboi, the antagonist in The Opal Deception and The Arctic Incident. A truffle-obsessed, self-centered, slightly paranoid, genius pixie, she co-headed the B'wa Kell rebellion (Book II). She also owns Koboi Enterprises, and is a rival of Foaly's.
- Jon Spiro is the villain of Book III. A shady, successful businessman from Chicago, he steals some fairy technology from Artemis and attempts to keep it for his own technology company, Fission Chips.
- Goblins are the species of the fairy folk who have lizardlike bodies and can conjure fire. Goblins form the B'wa Kell gang (a fairy Mafia so to speak) but are not very smart, as said in the book Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Mulch—
Pg 28, ¶ 7—
"Goblins. Evolution's little joke. Pick the dumbest creatures on the planet and give them the ability to conjure fire."
and Foaly inThe Arctic Incident. Pg 68
"The thing you have to understand, Fowl, is that goblins are dumb. I'm not insulting them, it's scientifically proven. Brains no bigger than rats."
- Demons attack from another dimension in the book The Lost Colony They are extremely warlike and kill on sight
[edit] Code
There are usually codes at the bottom of every book. In the newest two, and the first, these are in gnommish, the fairy text. There is a translation page at artemisfowl.com. there are also codes in the second and third book, the first being easy to dechipher (they vaguely resemble English letters, with e being replaced with a squiggly line below the symbol it comes after) and the third book is written in bars going up and down. This was for a competition held during 2003.
[edit] Minor characters
[edit] Humans
- Artemis Fowl I, the father of Artemis the Second
- Angeline Fowl, the mother of Artemis the Second
- Jon Spiro, a ruthless American businessman and criminal (imprisoned in Book III)
- Arno Blunt, Spiro's bodyguard (imprisoned in Book III)
- Fowl twins, the twins to whom Artemis becomes an older brother after his ordeal in Hybras, (mentioned very briefly in the end of the 5th book).
- Jonah Lee, A.K.A Billy Kong. Ruthless killer. He tries to hunt down demon N°1 to avenge his older brother who was supposedly killed by demons, an excuse his older brother made to keep Lee inside their house.
- Eric Lee (deceased). Jonah Lee's older brother, allegedly killed by demons; in reality, he was killed by a gang.
[edit] Fairies
In the Artemis Fowl series, "fairy" is a generic term for all supernatural creatures.
- Commander/Private Briar Cudgeon help out in the rebellion with Opal Koboi and of the LEPrecon (deceased as of Book II)
- Trouble Kelp, LEP major, he has a serious attitude and dislikes giving up. His younger brother gave him the nickname "Trubs"
- Wing Commander Vinyáya, head of Section Eight of the LEP. A supporter of Julius Root, she offered Holly a job in the secretive Section Eight department in Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony. She was one of the first to believe that Holly did not kill Root in Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception. She was also Holly's flight instructor in the LEP academy and said that Holly "could fly a pod through the gap in your teeth". During the B'wa Kell uprising and attack on Police Plaza, she was the only council member not to retreat to the operations department; she demanded to be given an electric rifle and didn't miss once.
- Grub Kelp, Trouble's younger brother who is a coward and often refers to his "Mummy."
- Chix Verbil, a sprite in the LEP; his life was saved by Captain Holly Short in Book II.
- Doctor Jerbal Argon, a video professional in Book I and owner of a medical clinic in Book IV.
- Doodah Day, illegal fish marketing pixie. He took a great disliking toward Mulch, due to being swallowed up and cocooned inside the slimy Dwarf spittle. He was later granted amnesty. Also worked as Mulch's PI partner as of the time period when Holly and Artemis disappeared.
- Leon Abbot, also known as N'zall, the supposed saviour of the demons. He caused the time-spell on Hybras to go awry.
- Mervall (Merv) and Descant (Scant) Brill, the fairy twins that are accomplices to Opal Koboi. They helped wake her from her self-induced coma by serving as janitors in Jerbal Argon's clinic where she was kept.
[edit] Artemis Fowl Files
- Turnball Root, defamed and notorious brother of Commander Julius Root
- Major Evergreen, the fairy major in the LEP who reveals the location of the next training mission.
- Sergei, a dwarf that leads a theater troupe of six
- The Significants, dwarves within Sergei's band
[edit] Books in the Series
- Artemis Fowl (2001)
- Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident (2002)
- Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code (2003)
- Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (2005)
- Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony (2006)
- Sixth and final book: Title not currently known (2008)
Others
- Artemis Fowl: The Seventh Dwarf (2004) (Short story specially written for World Book Day 2004)
- The Artemis Fowl Files (2004)
[edit] Artemis Fowl The Movie
There is an Artemis Fowl movie scheduled to come out sometime in 2008. Confirmation is provided below by Eoin Colfer himself.
In a 2002 BBC interview, the author Eoin Colfer named Lawrence Guterman as the director. Colfer said that he was "especially glad that they are going to be looking for an Irish Artemis[1].". This has now been proven false, by Eoin Colfer himself. Lawrence Guterman is not, in fact, directing the movie or has any part in it.
In a very recent 2007 AFC interview [2], Colfer stated the following:
I have been working intermittently on the screenplay for the past year with Jim Sheridan the Irish director. We have kept the heart of books one and two but I also wanted to do something cinematic and spectacular so we added a big exciting ending. No new characters but plenty of new one liners. I really love the story and we hope to go into production this Summer. No cast yet.
[edit] British cover gallery
Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl | |
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Books: | Main Series: Artemis Fowl | The Arctic Incident | The Eternity Code | The Opal Deception | The Lost Colony | Book 6 (title unknown) Related Books: The Seventh Dwarf | The Artemis Fowl Files |
Film: | Artemis Fowl |
Characters | |
Characters: | Artemis Fowl | Butler | Juliet Butler | Foaly | Holly Short | Julius Root | Mulch Diggums | Minerva Paradizo | N°1 | Arno Blunt | Billy Kong | Briar Cudgeon | The Brill Brothers | Doodah Day | Jon Spiro | Leon Abbot | Opal Koboi | Scalene | Angeline Fowl | Ark Sool | Artemis Fowl, Sr. | Caballine | Chix Verbil | Grub Kelp | Jerbal Argon | Qwan | Qweffor | Trouble Kelp | Vinyáya |
Groups | |
Organisations: | Lower Elements Police | LEPrecon | LEPretrieval | LEPtraffic | Section Eight | Fission Chips | B'wa Kell | Phonetix | Russian Mafiya |
Types of Fairies: | Elves | Dwarves | Trolls | Goblins | Centaurs | Sprites | Pixies | Demons | Warlocks |
Locations: | Fowl Manor | Police Plaza | Haven | Tara | Fowl Star | Spiro Needle | Hybras |