THE SOLARIUM

Ten words: Altered my brain chemistry in fifth grade. I never recovered.

Or more: No one else is doing it like Artemis Fowl. The premise of this book is BONKERS, and the sequels honestly just get weirder and weirder, and I am here for all of it!!! The only reason this isn’t a five-star read for me (aside from the copoganda of it all, which definitely isn’t unique to these books) is because I prefer some of the sequels, but this is a strong start to a fantastic series.

Artemis Fowl was one of my earliest hyperfixations–it was even the first series I drew fanart of. I’m not even going to try to be objective about a series I have a literal box full of old parody comics about. Instead, I’ll just touch on some of the things I love, which I’ll likely go into more depth on in reviews of later books as things progress.

Obviously, one of the standouts is Artemis himself. He is such a fascinating character, and Eoin Colfer does a great job of balancing his criminal mastermind tendencies with piercing moments of vulnerability. It would be so easy for Artemis to come across as a one-dimensional villain, especially since kidnapping Holly really is tiptoeing right up to the line of “unforgivable”, but the reader is always reminded in these sharp little glimpses that Artemis isn’t as cold and heartless as he likes to present himself. It also helps that he’s a massive loser who rightfully gets dunked on now and then. There’s plenty more of that to come in the sequels, and it never gets old for me.

All of the characters are great, honestly. Holly’s fun and feisty, Butler has a fantastic dynamic with Artemis, everything about Mulch is unhinged (sometimes literally) and I love him so much. Even characters I never really latched onto as much like Commander Root and Foaly are still distinct and have their entertaining moments.

To wrap this up, I’ll focus on an element that makes this book stand out in a series of standouts: the plot. In contrast to the sequels, which have all kinds of globe-trotting, time-traveling, dimension-hopping antics, this one is so comparatively stripped back that it almost feels quaint. Sure, there’s a lot of moving parts, but they fairly quickly come together to focus on Holly’s kidnapping and the siege of Fowl Manor.

This tight focus gives the book more of a punch compared to some of the more scattered sequels, and I have no difficulty seeing why some people might prefer it. Personally, I love the chaos of the later books, but I’ll always have a place in my heart for the smaller story that started it all.