Artemis Fowl
Created | Updated May 25, 2004
The Author
Eion Colfer is the author of the international bestseller trilogy of Artemis Fowl books; he was born in Wexford, in Southeast Ireland, and was interested in writing from a young age.
He has taught as a teacher and worked in Tunisia for four years before returning to, and settling down, in Wexford.
He has written many children’s books but the three that shot him to fame were the books about a certain pre-adolescent criminal mastermind…..
The characters (well, some of them…)
Artemis Fowl :- Artemis starts the trilogy as a 12-year-old boy who’s father is missing presumed dead and who’s mother is not in her right state of mind. Along with the help from his faithful servant and friend Artemis decides to win back the Fowl fortune with is own, brilliant criminal plans.
He has an IQ higher than anyone since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and he doesn’t mind showing it, his manners are appalling and his demeanour is cold and ruthless. However, as the books progress he begins to change into a human being worth knowing.
Domovoi Butler :- Butler, as he is known throughout the books, is Artemis’ manservant / bodyguard. He is one of the world’s deadliest individuals and a great military mind. He doesn’t often understand Artemis’ plans but always goes along with them as he has implicit faith in his young charges mental ability.
Juliet Butler :- Juliet is Butler’s younger sister and just as deadly as he is. She is still only a teenager as the books progress but she prefers wrestling to clothes shopping any day; her ambition was to be a bodyguard like Butler but by the end of the third book she decided she was too unreliable for that and went into the wrestling career.
Captain Holly Short :- Holly Short is an elf who is determined to make a career for herself in the LEPrecon unit (Lower Elements’ Police Recon Unit), despite the fact it is a male dominated profession and she receives adversity at every turn. Originally the captive of Artemis and his sworn enemy the two become friends as they battle for the safety of the People together.
Commander Julius Root :- Commander Root is one of the most decorated and respected officers of the LEP. He seems very hard and bad-tempered on the outside but on the inside he can be quite caring; at first he hates having the first female Recon officer under his jurisdiction but he grows fond of Holly and begins to trust her. He has a habit for smoking noxious fungus cigars and his complexion is always beetroot red, giving him the nickname ‘Beetroot’.
Mulch Diggums :- Mulch is a kleptomaniac dwarf who gave up his ability to use magic for the secret pleasures of robbing human houses. He is a sworn enemy of Commander Root (although the two seem to like each other deep down) and he has been in and out of prison for the last three hundred years.
One of the best in his business he has proven invaluable on more than one occasion.
Foaly :- Foaly is a centaur who works for the LEP, he is a technical genius who is, literally, irreplaceable. He designed most of the security himself and is very patronising to all around him. As a centaur he is naturally paranoid but he takes it to the extreme by even wearing a tin-foil hat at all times to stop people reading his mind. His only joys in life are his creations, carrots and tormenting Commander Root.
Briar Cudgeon :- Briar is a disgraced LEP officer who is mentally unbalanced and physically deformed. He hates Root with all his heart and wants nothing more than to see him dead and take his place as the LEP’s most respected officer before finally becoming a council member. He has proved very dangerous in the past and is one of the main threats the heroes face.
The Books
Artemis Fowl
With Artemis’ father missing in Russian waters after a ‘dispute’ with the Russian Mafyia and his mother bedridden with sorrow, Artemis decides to restore the family millions by exploiting the Fairy People.
Meanwhile, underground in Haven, the fairy city, Holly Short is having trouble with Commander Root and a troll. While completing the Ritual she is kidnapped by Artemis and Butler who hold her to ransom for a metric ton of gold. After trying all possible means to get Holly back without paying the money, including sending retrieval squads, bargaining, sending in a kleptomaniac dwarf, Mulch, sending in a troll and a time stop; Briar Cudgeon gets the go-ahead to use a bio-bomb. Artemis and company escape the time field and survive the bio-bomb, therefore winning the battle and getting to keep the gold, he uses some of the gold to buy a wish from Holly to restore his mother back to full health.
Artemis Fowl : The Arctic Incident
While at a school counselling session Artemis receives word that his father has been found, he is being held in the clutches of the Mafyia in Russia who want a large ransom for him.
In Haven it has been discovered that The B’wa Kell, a goblin band, have been trading with the humans for batteries to power outlawed laser weapons.
Holly immediately suspects Artemis and she brings him and Butler down to Haven for questioning, after Foaly confirms they are innocent they agree to help find out who is supplying the batteries in return for help with the rescue operation in Russia.
Briar Cudgeon and a sprite called Opal Koboi have masterminded the whole affair and when Root and Holly are in Russia with Artemis they disable the weapons of the LEP and begin their assault.
The heroes manage to foil the plot with the help of Mulch Diggums and rescue Artemis’ father, with a very risky plot, Artemis and Holly almost part friends. Almost, but not quite.
Artemis Fowl : The Eternity Code
Artemis quickly realises that his father is different after receiving fairy magic; he is kinder and less power-hungry,
As a result Artemis begins to question whether or not he needs to keep criminal masterminding plans; he decides to stop after one last escapade. Using fairy technology he has constructed a technological marvel called the C-cube, which will render all other technology obsolete.
Butler is killed in a fight over the C-cube but thanks to cryogenics and fairy magic he is brought back, only an old man now.
The C-cube, which has been stolen by a businessman called Jon Spiro, is locked with an eternity code, which only Artemis can unlock. He is captured to break the code but a daring plan where friends and enemies work together is implemented and the C-cube is recovered while destroying Spiro’s business.
At the end of the book the fairies have decided that Artemis and his friends are too much of a threat to The People so they mind-wipe them, despite all Artemis’ plans to leave something to trigger full memory recall.
He has, however, outwitted them in the end as Mulch is given instructions to return someday to hatch new, and no doubt, dreadful plots.
Eion Colfer is the author of the international bestseller trilogy of Artemis Fowl books; he was born in Wexford, in Southeast Ireland, and was interested in writing from a young age.
He has taught as a teacher and worked in Tunisia for four years before returning to, and settling down, in Wexford.
He has written many children’s books but the three that shot him to fame were the books about a certain pre-adolescent criminal mastermind…..
The characters (well, some of them…)
Artemis Fowl :- Artemis starts the trilogy as a 12-year-old boy who’s father is missing presumed dead and who’s mother is not in her right state of mind. Along with the help from his faithful servant and friend Artemis decides to win back the Fowl fortune with is own, brilliant criminal plans.
He has an IQ higher than anyone since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and he doesn’t mind showing it, his manners are appalling and his demeanour is cold and ruthless. However, as the books progress he begins to change into a human being worth knowing.
Domovoi Butler :- Butler, as he is known throughout the books, is Artemis’ manservant / bodyguard. He is one of the world’s deadliest individuals and a great military mind. He doesn’t often understand Artemis’ plans but always goes along with them as he has implicit faith in his young charges mental ability.
Juliet Butler :- Juliet is Butler’s younger sister and just as deadly as he is. She is still only a teenager as the books progress but she prefers wrestling to clothes shopping any day; her ambition was to be a bodyguard like Butler but by the end of the third book she decided she was too unreliable for that and went into the wrestling career.
Captain Holly Short :- Holly Short is an elf who is determined to make a career for herself in the LEPrecon unit (Lower Elements’ Police Recon Unit), despite the fact it is a male dominated profession and she receives adversity at every turn. Originally the captive of Artemis and his sworn enemy the two become friends as they battle for the safety of the People together.
Commander Julius Root :- Commander Root is one of the most decorated and respected officers of the LEP. He seems very hard and bad-tempered on the outside but on the inside he can be quite caring; at first he hates having the first female Recon officer under his jurisdiction but he grows fond of Holly and begins to trust her. He has a habit for smoking noxious fungus cigars and his complexion is always beetroot red, giving him the nickname ‘Beetroot’.
Mulch Diggums :- Mulch is a kleptomaniac dwarf who gave up his ability to use magic for the secret pleasures of robbing human houses. He is a sworn enemy of Commander Root (although the two seem to like each other deep down) and he has been in and out of prison for the last three hundred years.
One of the best in his business he has proven invaluable on more than one occasion.
Foaly :- Foaly is a centaur who works for the LEP, he is a technical genius who is, literally, irreplaceable. He designed most of the security himself and is very patronising to all around him. As a centaur he is naturally paranoid but he takes it to the extreme by even wearing a tin-foil hat at all times to stop people reading his mind. His only joys in life are his creations, carrots and tormenting Commander Root.
Briar Cudgeon :- Briar is a disgraced LEP officer who is mentally unbalanced and physically deformed. He hates Root with all his heart and wants nothing more than to see him dead and take his place as the LEP’s most respected officer before finally becoming a council member. He has proved very dangerous in the past and is one of the main threats the heroes face.
The Books
Artemis Fowl
With Artemis’ father missing in Russian waters after a ‘dispute’ with the Russian Mafyia and his mother bedridden with sorrow, Artemis decides to restore the family millions by exploiting the Fairy People.
Meanwhile, underground in Haven, the fairy city, Holly Short is having trouble with Commander Root and a troll. While completing the Ritual she is kidnapped by Artemis and Butler who hold her to ransom for a metric ton of gold. After trying all possible means to get Holly back without paying the money, including sending retrieval squads, bargaining, sending in a kleptomaniac dwarf, Mulch, sending in a troll and a time stop; Briar Cudgeon gets the go-ahead to use a bio-bomb. Artemis and company escape the time field and survive the bio-bomb, therefore winning the battle and getting to keep the gold, he uses some of the gold to buy a wish from Holly to restore his mother back to full health.
Artemis Fowl : The Arctic Incident
While at a school counselling session Artemis receives word that his father has been found, he is being held in the clutches of the Mafyia in Russia who want a large ransom for him.
In Haven it has been discovered that The B’wa Kell, a goblin band, have been trading with the humans for batteries to power outlawed laser weapons.
Holly immediately suspects Artemis and she brings him and Butler down to Haven for questioning, after Foaly confirms they are innocent they agree to help find out who is supplying the batteries in return for help with the rescue operation in Russia.
Briar Cudgeon and a sprite called Opal Koboi have masterminded the whole affair and when Root and Holly are in Russia with Artemis they disable the weapons of the LEP and begin their assault.
The heroes manage to foil the plot with the help of Mulch Diggums and rescue Artemis’ father, with a very risky plot, Artemis and Holly almost part friends. Almost, but not quite.
Artemis Fowl : The Eternity Code
Artemis quickly realises that his father is different after receiving fairy magic; he is kinder and less power-hungry,
As a result Artemis begins to question whether or not he needs to keep criminal masterminding plans; he decides to stop after one last escapade. Using fairy technology he has constructed a technological marvel called the C-cube, which will render all other technology obsolete.
Butler is killed in a fight over the C-cube but thanks to cryogenics and fairy magic he is brought back, only an old man now.
The C-cube, which has been stolen by a businessman called Jon Spiro, is locked with an eternity code, which only Artemis can unlock. He is captured to break the code but a daring plan where friends and enemies work together is implemented and the C-cube is recovered while destroying Spiro’s business.
At the end of the book the fairies have decided that Artemis and his friends are too much of a threat to The People so they mind-wipe them, despite all Artemis’ plans to leave something to trigger full memory recall.
He has, however, outwitted them in the end as Mulch is given instructions to return someday to hatch new, and no doubt, dreadful plots.
