Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I picked this series up through PaperBackSwap.com in my search for books to entice a 7 year old. The next in my series of books-that-I’ve-purchased-for-other-people-and-read-myself.

The ideas are good. I enjoyed the mythology of high-tech fairies that is built up here (which has similarities to the Christmas special from last season, “Prep and Landing”). I appreciate the effort to create an anti-hero protagonist in Artemis Fowl. Because of the fantastical nature of the book in general, we’ll accept that he is a 12 year old super-genius criminal.

Overall, the writing is so-so, and some bits didn’t make much sense. If you translate something from a fairy language, why does it rhyme in English? Maybe the writers were just that good? Or the translator?

While I was in New Jersey last weekend, we were perusing the library, and I discovered that Eoin Colfer was tapped to write a 6th book in the Hitchhiker’s five book trilogy, And Another Thing. There it was, on the shelf in front of me, released in October 2009. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of this.

Of all the writers in the world, why Eoin Colfer, who has never written a “grown-up” book? If you can call “Hitchiker’s” a grown-up book. Maybe you can’t. It is pretty silly.