Description de l’éditeur
Artemis Fowl, der jüngste Spross einer alten irischen Gangsterdynastie, möchte mit einem unglaublichen Plan den finanziellen Ruin seiner Familie aufhalten. Mit Hilfe des in seinen Besitz gelangten Buchs der Elfen deckt er ein Geheimnis auf, von dem bisher kein Mensch etwas ahnte. Tief unter der Erde hütet das Elfen-Volk einen legendären Goldschatz. Artemis ist zwar erst zwölf, aber hochbegabt und mit Hilfe seines schlagkräftigen Butlers macht er sich auf, das Gold zu rauben ... Artemis Fowl ist für den Internationalen Preis der jungen Leser 2008, eine Aktion der Stiftung Lesen, nominiert. Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Colfer's (Benny and Omar) crime caper fantasy, the first in a series, starts off with a slam-bang premise: anti-hero Artemis Fowl is a boy-genius last in line of a legendary crime family teetering on the brink of destruction. With the assistance of his bodyguard, Butler, he masterminds his plan to regain the Fowls' former glory: capture a fairy and hold her ransom for the legendary fairy gold. However, his feisty mark, Holly, turns out to be a member of the "LEPrecon, an elite branch of the Lower Elements Police," so a wisecracking team of satyrs, trolls, dwarfs and fellow fairies set out to rescue her. Despite numerous clever gadgets and an innovative take on traditional fairy lore, the author falls short of the bar. The rapid-fire dialogue may work as a screenplay with the aid of visual effects (a film is due out from Talk/Miramax in 2002) but, on the page, it often falls flat. The narrative hops from character to character, so readers intrigued by Artemis's wily, autocratic personality have to kill a good deal of time with the relatively bland Holly and her cohorts, and the villain/hero anticlimactically achieves his final escape by popping some sleeping pills (it renders him invulnerable to the fairy time-stop). Technology buffs may appreciate the imaginative fairy-world inventions and action-lovers will get some kicks, but the series is no classic in the making. Ages 12-up.
