I really think Colfer hit his breaking point with Artemis when Disney was having him come out for defense of the movie during the backlash. When he said this was the way the story was ment to be.
As a long lasting fan of the serie, here is my take on it. Beware, this zone is full of spoiler.
Artemis Fowl: the first book, probably the best in the serie. It is Die Hard meet Ocean 11 with fairies. Great pacing, great writing, litteraly the textbook exemple on how to properly use Chekov's gun. If you only have to read one, go for this one.
Artemis Fowl the Artic Incident: it's the one that made Artemis a hero in a more classical sense. It's not as thightly written as the first book, but it introduce the best vilain of the serie. It's the more "normal" of the books.
Artemis Fowl the Eternity code: this is probably the most important book in the serie, since Artemis get to actually be confronted by the consequences of his decisions and actions. It is what trully turn him from the bratty little shit that he is into a more mature and well rounded hero and cement his friendship with the fairy. It is cruelly taken away by the end, ressetting the former status quo. If Colfer main intent was to make a trilogy, I think that woud have been a rather poor idea considering what the character went through.
Artemis Fowl the Opal deception: is my favorite of the entire serie. It is simply the ballsiest of the serie. It kills off important character, leaves us on a bitter sweet ending that would have been perfect as the serie's ending, conclude Artemis character arc and use Opal Koboi in the best way possible.
Artemis Fowl the Lost colony: I think this is where the serie start to crack for me. That book is good in itself, but it suffer from what came before. It introduce stuff that make the lore a bit more complicated (like, seriously, Wing commander Vinyaya is, by that point, becoming a plot device that make the LEP structure very confusing) and I think it trully poorly handle the character of Holly, who slowly stop to be her own character and become more Artemis personnal muscle. While the demons and Minerva are trully wonderfull addition to the universe, the Lost colony is guilty of handwaving way too much obstacle on the path of the character. Holly isn't a LEP officer since last book? Vinyaya will reinstate her because Foaly like her. Ark Sool is still the LEP commander? Who cares? Trouble will replace him off screen.
Artemis Fowl the Time Paradox: time travel is always a very delicate thing and, frankly, Artemis Fowl completely jumped the shark with that tome. The good stuff from the lost colony will not be used or will be cancelled very early on, some important status quo element (like the rules to enter a human building) are been overulled between the books. Opale is shoehorned in the plot and is pretty much a parody of herself. The book could also make you think the ship between Artemis and Holly is now an actual thing which doesn't help. I think this is easily the weakest tome in the entire serie.
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex: That book feels like a filler episode. Last book ended with an Opal from the past showing up to cause trouble in our time, capturing her should be the main priority, yet, we are being hickjacked by Artemis having a mental breakdown and by a new antagonist that the book treat as if everyone had read the bonus material "the Artemis Fowl files". I guess Opal can only be the antagonist of even tomes. It is overall enjoyable, but Colfer is trully repeating himself. Artemis struggle again with his morality and his capacity to open to his friends, a mentor figure dies again, etc…
Artemis Fowl the last Guardian: this is the last book in the main franchise and, let's just say there is a big "toy box effect". Everything litteraly explode (and, no, this isn't a hyperbole, the world is figuratively sent back to the stone age in a single shot), everyone is brought to fight it, Artemis even get a cool "Fowl mobile" and he get to cheat death itself while battling ancient goddess fairy warrior. It is enjoyable, but this felt more like the story a little would make with his toy, sending them everywhere in the room and feeling a sense of annoyance when come the time to put everything back in the box.
I think the big problem with the series is that Colfer didn't knew what to do with characters, especially Artemis and Holly after the Opal deception. They had resolved their arc in a rather satisfying and logical way. Artemis was now a real goodguy who started to use his genius for making a better world, Holly had left the LEP to do her own thing, because she couldn't deal with the hypocrisy of the instution, which became worse after the death of her mentor figure.
Artemis the good guy is mostly done in rather supperficial ways and we loose the super genius he was at book 6, from which he is pretty much a far cry of the mastermind we used to know. Holly, meanwhile, is reinstated and her beef with the LEP is pretty much handwaved in book 5 as if nothing ever happened.
Then, if you look at secundary character, the whole thing becomes more and more difficult. Mulch, who is often used as the ace in the sleeves of Artemis or Holly is more and more shoehorned in the story and more and more utilitarian.
The Kelp brother pretty much disapear. Grub and Trouble have always been nice foil to Holly and Root. Trouble was the very model of a LEP officer, efficient, courageous and by the book with a dash of bravado, while his little brother, Grub, was the incompetent, cowardly and contentious cop. Both were however loyal and well meaning, rising to the occasion, either by accident or by their strenght of character. They offered a nice view of what the rank and file of the LEP was like. By book 5, Trouble is basically turning into Root 2.0 and Grub is simply gone.
Honestly, after the opal deception, the only character whom trully benefit from further developpment are the Butler and the rest of the Fowl familly. Butler is confronted to his declining health, Juliet become the ace in Artemis sleeves during odds book (except in the 8) and Fowl Sr, Angeline and the Twin get show a rather wholesome story of redemption and turning good.
Foaly also benefit quite from the last 4 books of the serie, getting to be something more than the tech support guy. He gets a girlfriend, grows more involved into the LEP affairs and even get his own set piece at the end of the book, where he is alone and must solve his problem alone without anyone's help.
Well, disney does have this other book series called Kingdom Keepers. Hopefully a video can be made on that series and i feel like an adaptation of the first Artemis book, percy Jackson, and maybe an in-between story for the keepers could happen kingdom hearts 4 with the new realm of unreality.
I read books 1-7, but the Atlantis Complex left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (I absolutely hated Orion), and never picked it back up. I literally didn't learn until today that the 8th one was called the Last Guardian, or that there was a spinoff with the twins
My ranking would go 4,1,2,3,5,6,7. Excluding the excellent 4th book, the quality seemed to decline with each book I read.
I absolutely love Artemis fowl and, this might be controversial, I am glad Colfer seems to be letting it die at least mostly peacefully. Books can die two ways, peacefully at the authors choice and agonizingly with the author trying to squeeze every last cent out of the audience. It sounds like he is doing the first, which in my opinion ends much better for everyone. Side note: if he found the romance between Holly and Artemis gross too why in the world did he write it?!?
Did any of you guys read the books about his twin brothers? I tried reading it but, maybe because I'm an adult now, seeing little kids being able to do so many genius things (they're younger than Arty when he started) and overpower adults kinda puts me off for some reason. I didn't finish the book yet, I stopped halfway because I've yet to see them struggle (mentally or physically) the way Arty did. Arty is smart, but weak so he had to rely on Butler. The twins had each other. Butler has devoted his life to train as a great martial artist; yet, one of the twin was just… good at it. It's bordering Gary Sue. Maybe it's just me. I really wanted the Twin Fowl to continue the legacy Artemis Fowl was/is, but maybe I'm no longer the target audience.
The disconnect between the books and the movie hit like truck, I used to listen to rappers like Bliss n Eso name drop Artemis Fowl and laugh when my mates didnt get it, then got served the most banal movie i had watched in years. Even with amazing talent on the actors, the story just would not let it hit 🙁
I loved these books as a kid, I even re-read them over the pandemic. I did hate that by the of the series it kept returning to Opal Koboi as the big bad, although Artemis shooting her in the face with a flare gun was badass. There was so much potential for other villains within the world, that pixie was so frustrating!
And I liked Minerva. She was fun, smart, spoilt, and such a great foil to Artemis. I know Colfer was setting her up as a love interest, but if he kept her as a friend and ally to the main group it could have really worked!
I never liked Holly x Artemis, it was weird. She was older than his parents. I've always wished she could have stepped in to be a big sister mentor role instead. Holly and Butler however…
I really loved the Bartimeaus books as well. They 're super underrated, and so good
Am I the only one who liked the later books? I thought the first two were fine but boring to reread as much as I did. I was so excited for the last book and loved it when it came out. Some of the books were good and some were more meh but they were all perfect for little nerdy child me.
I absolutely adored the first six Artemis Fowl books, with my favourites being the 1st and 5th. I read all of them probably 10 or more times growing up. I think the series just had its time and success and that the author should have moved on to another series rather than continuing past book 6. His standalone novels Airman and Half Moon Investigations were also EPIC.
Who gives a fuck if butler is black the show didn’t capture the soul of the books. They could have pulled some of these changes off if they actually knew what made the books special
So for myself Artemis Fowl fail, because it refuses to evolve, the books keep coming with new random and unnecessary conflicts to push the story in this big "entropy" state that doesn't really develop in any direction, because the new conflict keep erasing the past development, i feel that if the story stop with 3 books things would be way better, but things really start to go bad after book 5
It’s like they deliberately tried to make fans angry with the „adaptation“.
The dead father – lives. The first ever female fairy agent – has a female boss now. The villain protagonist – just a kid, trying to save his father. He hates sport and sun and is pale as death – loves surfing now. The mother – irrelevant.
I saw the trailer and immediately thought: Percy Jackson and Eragon combined their respective weaknesses so the bullshit gets up to eleven. It is just sad.
Let the new adaptation be animated like Treasure Planet’s style or Arcane! Right now, the studios need to stop with the live action teen franchise adaptations, it’s getting boring and redundant.
I loved the first book, but the more sympathetic Artemis became, the worse the books came out. It was no longer him pushing the story forward with his plans.
I got into this series when my parents bought me the audiobook of the eternity code, not knowing that it was the 3rd book of the series. I didn't figure that out myself until halfway through the book after constantly trying to piece together the whole backstory. 😀
I think that this comment section is the best place to start my search: Anyone of you remember "Matt Hidalf"? Four books(at least four of them were released in my language), bratty (and egotistical) protagonist and his odd companions(sisters, his very… specific father and cunning mother, his classmates with vary level of inteligence), written by French author(?), published circa 2014? I remember that pacing of series was weird and, overall, it was not that good but I like it as guilty pleasure, few concepts from books would be awesome in something better.
Eoin seemingly had such little respect for his own work that he made no attempt to stop Disney from changing it so radically. The movie looked nothing… NOTHING … like Artemis Fowl.
I remember not being able to stomach harry potter books when i was young (and it wasn't just the length coz i have always read bulky books and this is despite enjoying the HP movies) but i read and loved Artemis Fowl! I felt like Artemis was more grounded (for as much as a boy genius can be lol) and the magical world and angle was more fun and interesting.
When I was a kid, I felt so disappointed that Minerva stopped being relevant after her single entry. It was refreshing to see a parallel character challenge Artemis on his own grounds somewhat. (Admittedly it's been a few years so I may be remembering some things wrong.) But I always felt Artemis needed more human friends, not just the Butler family.
The saddest part of the movie adaptation, is that there are deleted scenes/trailer parts that show it was meant to more closely follow the book. Some idiot higher up decided to try and make it more "marketable" (aka make Artemis more a kid than a brilliant genius with agency), but that completely ruins Artemis as a character.
39 comments
My books as a kid: Artemus Fowl, 39 clues, a series of unfortunate events, Percy Jackson, Pendragon series, etc.
they race-swapped holly too, what part of coffee-colored skin did they not understand?
I really think Colfer hit his breaking point with Artemis when Disney was having him come out for defense of the movie during the backlash. When he said this was the way the story was ment to be.
As a long lasting fan of the serie, here is my take on it. Beware, this zone is full of spoiler.
Artemis Fowl: the first book, probably the best in the serie. It is Die Hard meet Ocean 11 with fairies. Great pacing, great writing, litteraly the textbook exemple on how to properly use Chekov's gun. If you only have to read one, go for this one.
Artemis Fowl the Artic Incident: it's the one that made Artemis a hero in a more classical sense. It's not as thightly written as the first book, but it introduce the best vilain of the serie. It's the more "normal" of the books.
Artemis Fowl the Eternity code: this is probably the most important book in the serie, since Artemis get to actually be confronted by the consequences of his decisions and actions. It is what trully turn him from the bratty little shit that he is into a more mature and well rounded hero and cement his friendship with the fairy. It is cruelly taken away by the end, ressetting the former status quo. If Colfer main intent was to make a trilogy, I think that woud have been a rather poor idea considering what the character went through.
Artemis Fowl the Opal deception: is my favorite of the entire serie. It is simply the ballsiest of the serie. It kills off important character, leaves us on a bitter sweet ending that would have been perfect as the serie's ending, conclude Artemis character arc and use Opal Koboi in the best way possible.
Artemis Fowl the Lost colony: I think this is where the serie start to crack for me. That book is good in itself, but it suffer from what came before. It introduce stuff that make the lore a bit more complicated (like, seriously, Wing commander Vinyaya is, by that point, becoming a plot device that make the LEP structure very confusing) and I think it trully poorly handle the character of Holly, who slowly stop to be her own character and become more Artemis personnal muscle. While the demons and Minerva are trully wonderfull addition to the universe, the Lost colony is guilty of handwaving way too much obstacle on the path of the character. Holly isn't a LEP officer since last book? Vinyaya will reinstate her because Foaly like her. Ark Sool is still the LEP commander? Who cares? Trouble will replace him off screen.
Artemis Fowl the Time Paradox: time travel is always a very delicate thing and, frankly, Artemis Fowl completely jumped the shark with that tome. The good stuff from the lost colony will not be used or will be cancelled very early on, some important status quo element (like the rules to enter a human building) are been overulled between the books. Opale is shoehorned in the plot and is pretty much a parody of herself. The book could also make you think the ship between Artemis and Holly is now an actual thing which doesn't help. I think this is easily the weakest tome in the entire serie.
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex: That book feels like a filler episode. Last book ended with an Opal from the past showing up to cause trouble in our time, capturing her should be the main priority, yet, we are being hickjacked by Artemis having a mental breakdown and by a new antagonist that the book treat as if everyone had read the bonus material "the Artemis Fowl files". I guess Opal can only be the antagonist of even tomes. It is overall enjoyable, but Colfer is trully repeating himself. Artemis struggle again with his morality and his capacity to open to his friends, a mentor figure dies again, etc…
Artemis Fowl the last Guardian: this is the last book in the main franchise and, let's just say there is a big "toy box effect". Everything litteraly explode (and, no, this isn't a hyperbole, the world is figuratively sent back to the stone age in a single shot), everyone is brought to fight it, Artemis even get a cool "Fowl mobile" and he get to cheat death itself while battling ancient goddess fairy warrior. It is enjoyable, but this felt more like the story a little would make with his toy, sending them everywhere in the room and feeling a sense of annoyance when come the time to put everything back in the box.
I think the big problem with the series is that Colfer didn't knew what to do with characters, especially Artemis and Holly after the Opal deception. They had resolved their arc in a rather satisfying and logical way. Artemis was now a real goodguy who started to use his genius for making a better world, Holly had left the LEP to do her own thing, because she couldn't deal with the hypocrisy of the instution, which became worse after the death of her mentor figure.
Artemis the good guy is mostly done in rather supperficial ways and we loose the super genius he was at book 6, from which he is pretty much a far cry of the mastermind we used to know. Holly, meanwhile, is reinstated and her beef with the LEP is pretty much handwaved in book 5 as if nothing ever happened.
Then, if you look at secundary character, the whole thing becomes more and more difficult. Mulch, who is often used as the ace in the sleeves of Artemis or Holly is more and more shoehorned in the story and more and more utilitarian.
The Kelp brother pretty much disapear. Grub and Trouble have always been nice foil to Holly and Root. Trouble was the very model of a LEP officer, efficient, courageous and by the book with a dash of bravado, while his little brother, Grub, was the incompetent, cowardly and contentious cop. Both were however loyal and well meaning, rising to the occasion, either by accident or by their strenght of character. They offered a nice view of what the rank and file of the LEP was like. By book 5, Trouble is basically turning into Root 2.0 and Grub is simply gone.
Honestly, after the opal deception, the only character whom trully benefit from further developpment are the Butler and the rest of the Fowl familly. Butler is confronted to his declining health, Juliet become the ace in Artemis sleeves during odds book (except in the 8) and Fowl Sr, Angeline and the Twin get show a rather wholesome story of redemption and turning good.
Foaly also benefit quite from the last 4 books of the serie, getting to be something more than the tech support guy. He gets a girlfriend, grows more involved into the LEP affairs and even get his own set piece at the end of the book, where he is alone and must solve his problem alone without anyone's help.
Well, disney does have this other book series called Kingdom Keepers. Hopefully a video can be made on that series and i feel like an adaptation of the first Artemis book, percy Jackson, and maybe an in-between story for the keepers could happen kingdom hearts 4 with the new realm of unreality.
I read books 1-7, but the Atlantis Complex left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (I absolutely hated Orion), and never picked it back up. I literally didn't learn until today that the 8th one was called the Last Guardian, or that there was a spinoff with the twins
My ranking would go 4,1,2,3,5,6,7. Excluding the excellent 4th book, the quality seemed to decline with each book I read.
I want to know why every AF book is available on Audible EXCEPT Atlantis Complex.
I absolutely love Artemis fowl and, this might be controversial, I am glad Colfer seems to be letting it die at least mostly peacefully. Books can die two ways, peacefully at the authors choice and agonizingly with the author trying to squeeze every last cent out of the audience. It sounds like he is doing the first, which in my opinion ends much better for everyone. Side note: if he found the romance between Holly and Artemis gross too why in the world did he write it?!?
i always thought it was just as boring as harry potter.
Did any of you guys read the books about his twin brothers? I tried reading it but, maybe because I'm an adult now, seeing little kids being able to do so many genius things (they're younger than Arty when he started) and overpower adults kinda puts me off for some reason. I didn't finish the book yet, I stopped halfway because I've yet to see them struggle (mentally or physically) the way Arty did.
Arty is smart, but weak so he had to rely on Butler. The twins had each other. Butler has devoted his life to train as a great martial artist; yet, one of the twin was just… good at it. It's bordering Gary Sue. Maybe it's just me. I really wanted the Twin Fowl to continue the legacy Artemis Fowl was/is, but maybe I'm no longer the target audience.
The disconnect between the books and the movie hit like truck, I used to listen to rappers like Bliss n Eso name drop Artemis Fowl and laugh when my mates didnt get it, then got served the most banal movie i had watched in years. Even with amazing talent on the actors, the story just would not let it hit 🙁
Never like it in the first place…
I loved these books as a kid, I even re-read them over the pandemic. I did hate that by the of the series it kept returning to Opal Koboi as the big bad, although Artemis shooting her in the face with a flare gun was badass. There was so much potential for other villains within the world, that pixie was so frustrating!
And I liked Minerva. She was fun, smart, spoilt, and such a great foil to Artemis. I know Colfer was setting her up as a love interest, but if he kept her as a friend and ally to the main group it could have really worked!
I never liked Holly x Artemis, it was weird. She was older than his parents. I've always wished she could have stepped in to be a big sister mentor role instead. Holly and Butler however…
I really loved the Bartimeaus books as well. They 're super underrated, and so good
The movie killed the franchise. It was nothing like the books.
Am I the only one who liked the later books? I thought the first two were fine but boring to reread as much as I did. I was so excited for the last book and loved it when it came out. Some of the books were good and some were more meh but they were all perfect for little nerdy child me.
I absolutely adored the first six Artemis Fowl books, with my favourites being the 1st and 5th. I read all of them probably 10 or more times growing up.
I think the series just had its time and success and that the author should have moved on to another series rather than continuing past book 6.
His standalone novels Airman and Half Moon Investigations were also EPIC.
Artemis Fowl, The Last Apprentice (Spooks if you’re in the UK), and Skulduggery Pleasant were so peak to read. They defined my early teen years.
Grimalkin my beloved.
Who gives a fuck if butler is black the show didn’t capture the soul of the books. They could have pulled some of these changes off if they actually knew what made the books special
So for myself Artemis Fowl fail, because it refuses to evolve, the books keep coming with new random and unnecessary conflicts to push the story in this big "entropy" state that doesn't really develop in any direction, because the new conflict keep erasing the past development, i feel that if the story stop with 3 books things would be way better, but things really start to go bad after book 5
It’s like they deliberately tried to make fans angry with the „adaptation“.
The dead father – lives.
The first ever female fairy agent – has a female boss now.
The villain protagonist – just a kid, trying to save his father.
He hates sport and sun and is pale as death – loves surfing now.
The mother – irrelevant.
I saw the trailer and immediately thought: Percy Jackson and Eragon combined their respective weaknesses so the bullshit gets up to eleven. It is just sad.
The race swap is the worst. Why did there have to be black peoples
Shuld have gone to the Japanese anime scene for that movie adaptation.
Let the new adaptation be animated like Treasure Planet’s style or Arcane! Right now, the studios need to stop with the live action teen franchise adaptations, it’s getting boring and redundant.
It all went to heck in the sixth book. At least for me. Three and four are some of my favourite YA novels to date.
I will NEVER see that movie.
Side note: read Airmen. Its another banger from this author.
I loved the first book, but the more sympathetic Artemis became, the worse the books came out. It was no longer him pushing the story forward with his plans.
I have a great respect for creators who know when to finish their works. These really should have stopped at book 3.
Book 1 was slow but enjoyable, book 2 slammed and slammed well like yes, book 3 fell off and the movie just spit on the grave of it.
Hollywood now thinks having a young villain in a kids movie is a bad influence on kids now.
I got into this series when my parents bought me the audiobook of the eternity code, not knowing that it was the 3rd book of the series. I didn't figure that out myself until halfway through the book after constantly trying to piece together the whole backstory. 😀
I think that this comment section is the best place to start my search:
Anyone of you remember "Matt Hidalf"? Four books(at least four of them were released in my language), bratty (and egotistical) protagonist and his odd companions(sisters, his very… specific father and cunning mother, his classmates with vary level of inteligence), written by French author(?), published circa 2014? I remember that pacing of series was weird and, overall, it was not that good but I like it as guilty pleasure, few concepts from books would be awesome in something better.
Disney AND Eoin ruined it.
Eoin seemingly had such little respect for his own work that he made no attempt to stop Disney from changing it so radically. The movie looked nothing… NOTHING … like Artemis Fowl.
I remember not being able to stomach harry potter books when i was young (and it wasn't just the length coz i have always read bulky books and this is despite enjoying the HP movies) but i read and loved Artemis Fowl! I felt like Artemis was more grounded (for as much as a boy genius can be lol) and the magical world and angle was more fun and interesting.
9:08 kek
I remember reading this in like the 5th grade. I loved it.
When I was a kid, I felt so disappointed that Minerva stopped being relevant after her single entry. It was refreshing to see a parallel character challenge Artemis on his own grounds somewhat. (Admittedly it's been a few years so I may be remembering some things wrong.) But I always felt Artemis needed more human friends, not just the Butler family.
The saddest part of the movie adaptation, is that there are deleted scenes/trailer parts that show it was meant to more closely follow the book. Some idiot higher up decided to try and make it more "marketable" (aka make Artemis more a kid than a brilliant genius with agency), but that completely ruins Artemis as a character.
I only remember reading two Artemis Fowl books…
My series is Warrior Cats. Massive dubiously written mess my beloved
I felt in love with this when i found it in my school's library. What this series needed was a proper animated release, either a movie or a series