Amazon.com
Eoin Colfer describes his new book, Artemis Fowl, as "Die Hard with fairies." He's not far wrong.
Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. With two trusty sidekicks in tow, he hatches a cunning plot to divest the fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn't foolish enough to believe in all that "gold at the end of the rainbow" nonsense. Rather, he knows that the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnap one of them and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to put his plan into action, he doesn't count on the appearance of the extrasmall, pointy-eared Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaisance) Unit--and her senior officer, Commander Root, a man (sorry, elf) who will stop at nothing to get her back.

Fantastic stuff from beginning to end, Artemis Fowl is a rip-roaring, 21st-century romp of the highest order. The author has let his imagination run riot by combining folklore, fantasy, and a fistful of high-tech funk in an outrageously devilish book that could well do for fairies what Harry Potter has done for wizardry. But be warned: this is no gentle frolic, so don't be fooled by the fairy subject matter. Instead, what we have here is well-written, sophisticated, rough 'n' tumble storytelling with enough high-octane attitude to make it a seriously cool read for anyone over the age of 10. --Susan Harrison

BookRay!

Since some of the same people are on both rays and the books will be separated at times, please feel free to hold on to book 2 until you receive and read book 1. Also, if you are mailing both books international you're welcome to wait until both books are read to send on together. Enjoy!

vcrain VA (US) 1
goldensnitch KY (Int) 1
Mokona MI (Int) 1&2
hbrogan NY (US) 1&2
CheriePie MA (US) 1&2
Lpree MD (Int) 1&2 <~ here

Mochagirl Austraila (Austraila/Int) 1&2 <~On it's way

DJgib Netherlands (Int) 1&2
RonOren Netherlands (Int) 1&2

csvariation UK (UK) 1&2
FiBe UK (UK/Europe) 1&2
dodau UK (Int) 1
Koalabare UK (UK) 1
miss-muffet UK (UK) 1
biffin44 UK 1
catrionamoore UK (Int) 1&2

Thanks so much for letting me participate in this! This book is great fun, especially for those who enjoy fair lore. I went into it not really knowing much about the story. I had seen it at the bookstore and thought it might be a good read. I had imagined it might be a Harry Potter rip-off kind of situation. But it isn't at all. Definitely in its own genre.
Cheers, Robin

CAUGHT IN LOUISVILLE KY USA

Received as part of the Bookring, will get started asap. :)

Released on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at about 3:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at by mail in To the next participant, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

Finished over the weekend, still waiting on book 2, but mailing onto Hbrogan seperately to keep it moving. :) Thanks a lot for sharing this series! I really enjoyed this book, but it's kinda a weird feeling when you really aren't sure which side you're "rooting for" ...I really liked Butler, though, he was a great character. I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

I received book 1 right before I went away for two weeks, so I'm sorry I didn't journal until now. :)

Anyway, at first I didn't really like the book. I just couldn't get behind Artemis as a protagonist. He's so...cold. But, as the book went along, and the fairies were introduced, I started to like it more. I'm still not a huge fan of Artemis, but I love Holly Short and the Butler family. Good to see that Holly's back for book 2!

Received this book today, along with book 2, and also The Stupidest Angel from another bookring. I had nothing for the last month and then receive 4 all within a week. *grin* In any case, it may be a little while before I can get to these but they're at the top of my TBR. Thanks for sharing!

A pretty good read, even if a little less intricate than what I'm used to. But I guess that's probably because it's a children's book, a la Harry-Potter-esque, so the author might not have wanted to convolute the story with too many subplots and such.

I couldn't really bring myself to like the character of Artemis all that much, though I did like the fairy Holly Short. In any case, I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series, Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, which I've got here as well, to see where things go with these characters. Especially since Holly is supposed to be teaming up with Artemis in that one too.

(I'll be hanging on to this until I finish the 2nd book and mail both to the next reader together.)

This and book 2 on their way to Lpree in Nebraska on 18-Apr-2005 via Media Mail.

This arrived in today's mail, along with Book 2. I have a few other bookrings ahead of it, but will read it as soon as I can. I've heard so much about this series so I'm looking forward to reading these!

I finished this over the weekend. An interesting story... I too had trouble liking the character of Artemis - I also really had trouble remembering he was only 12. He's the perfect evil villain... I did like all the description of the underworld and all the other characters - elves, goblins, etc. It was certainly a fun story and I'm partway through book #2. I'll mail both books out together.

thanks very much to BrynnSC for starting this ring!

UPDATE - sent media mail on 5/19

First: apologies for taking 4 months to journal this book. I received it (and book 2) about 2 days after I found out I was to move overseas. And then work got really hectic, too! So the books kind of got lost in the rush. I managed to read them, but because I don't have an internet connection at home, I never got around to journalling them, and getting to a post office during work hours was also a somewhat Herculean task... Anyway, now I'm sorting myself out for my move, and have finally got around to doing this part of it!

So, I enjoyed both this book (and book 2), as long as I kept reminding myself that it was written for children and not for adults. I did think it was very well written - Colfer has got a very rich world going, with multi-dimensional characters that act like real people! (This counts a lot for me ;) ).

Anyway, I'll send this on to DJgib (now I've sorted out my confusion over the shipping order for this plus book 2) - but since I'm moving to the UK, I will send it from there (in about 1 1/2 weeks).

RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to DJGib as part of bookray.


Apologies everyone for my ridiculous delay. Bookray has now started again... :)

It arrived for DJgib (together with a very nice RABCK, for which I'm sure she'll thank mochagirl heartily) in the weekend. Since she has a few more ring books lying around, though, and I have none for the moment (surprisinlgy enough!), we figured it would be smarter to switch the order of us around. So I'll read it as soon as I've finished my Umberto Eco, and then will pass it to DJgib.

I loved it! I have to admit, when I got the book, I had completely forgotten what it was about, and I was quite surprised when I read the text on the back of it. For some reason, I had formed this completely different (and obviously completely false) idea of what Artemis Fowl would be.

But I did certainly like it. It's the sort of story that Terry Pratchett could've written (probably has written something like it, too), but then without the jokes of his.
I think what I liked best was how everything that folktales attribute to fairies and elfs and whatnot got translated into superior science. And of course, the leprechaun stemming from LEPrecon was a masterstroke.
The only negative thing was that Artemis was a bit too much of a genius for my liking. Even though he got a little more human as the book progressed, I feel it could've done with a touch more child and less prodigy. Then again, that is what makes the story work, isn't it?

I'm really glad I could join in on this one, and am really itching to get to number 2. Thanks for sharing these books! This one will go to DJgib's shelf as soon as I get home.

Sorry, holidays and all that got in the way of journalling. I'll get onto it asap.

Eek, I finished this a couple of days ago and hadn't got round to journalling yet, sorry.

I thought this book was good fun and raced through it. Very well thought out and presented. I loved every scene with Foaly in it, what a great character! Funny though, in contrast to just about every else who's read it, Holly didn't do much for me. We all have different tastes I suppose.

I know part II isn't far away, can't wait. I'll get this one moving on to the next person though.

csvariation (now CarolineMoon) has asked to be skipped, so the book is now on its way to FiBe.

Book has been received and read. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the next installment. I think I still have dodau's address from another bookring so will hopefully get it to her shortly. Thanks for letting me take part.

RELEASE NOTES:

Oops sorry I thought I'd done my release notes already. Anyway I posted this on Saturday. Apologies for the delay but I've had the builders in gutting and redoing my bathroom so things have been a bit messy.

I hope Dodau gets the book ok :o :( Fingers Crossed

This actually arrived a few days ago but I haven't had chance to journal it till now. Apologies for that and it's next to be read

Read this a few days ago but haven't had chance to post. Great book. I'd already read one of the follow ups so I was familar with the characters but this was a great first in a series. Looking forward to reading more.

Read this a few days ago but haven't had chance to post. Great book. I'd already read one of the follow ups so I was familar with the characters but this was a great first in a series. Looking forward to reading more.

RELEASE NOTES:

Arrived last night and started reading on the train this morning. Liking it a lot already - there's a strong resemblence between Holly and Thursday Next!

More when I'm done - but thanks dodau for posting and BrynnSC for organising this!

Well, I thought this was great - very funny tongue-in-cheek humour, wonderful characters and the promise of more to come. Will definitely be looking out for the sequel now!

Thanks once again BrynnSC for organising this.

Will send on to miss-muffet as soon as I have an address.

Recieved this book just before going away for a week so was able to take it with me and finish it pretty quickly.
Well written children's story but I didn't feel it had the adult appeal that so many good children's books seem to have.
I would definately recommend it for children but don't think I'll be reading any more in the series myself.

received through post this morning, thanks very much... will finish up current read by the end of the week and get started on this one as soon as.

This book is a good quick read but I have to say I was a little disappointed with it on the whole - perhaps I shouldn't have built it up so much in my mind. I found the hero - artemis fowl - hugely irritating but I can understand how children might sympathise with him, and he does after all learn from his adventures in this book.

To show myself up - the bits of this I found most enjoyable were all related to toilet humour!!!

On it's way to catrionamoore today.

Arrived safely with me today. I have a rather large book ahead of this one but I shall get to it soon enough. Book two may or may not be on its way just yet so I shall wait and return them together.

Ooops, mea culpa.

I meant to journal when I read both the Artemis Fowl books but I was rather busy at the time.

I enjoyed this book although I don't think I would worry that there were more books in the series that I hadn't read. That said if I had the opportunity to read one I wouldn't pass it up, if you know what I mean. Perhaps I'm burbling.

Anyway as the last person in the ray, and I say that with all the confidence of someone who has hardly ever been last on a ray, I double checked that it was a ray and not a ring and no-one has told me otherwise so I am going to pass this on to another bookcrosser but the book will be doing its shortest journey of all probably as it would be more accurately measured in yards.

Thanx Cat will put these on TBR pile & see if can get kids interested as well!

Thought I might as well get down to some reading from ever growing piles of books around house.This ended up in my eager paws. Not quite sure what I expected- a cross between Harry Potter & little people/ elfs I suppose. Boy was I in for a shock! how wrong could I get.A totally readable story but not what expected. I can`t see myself rushing out to read the rest of series though. Have got book 2 to read next & pass both books onto my 9 year old.