Artemis Fowl

Eoin Colfer describes his new book, Artemis Fowl, as " DieHard with fairies. " He`s not far wrong. Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is the most ingenious criminal mastermind inhistory. With two trusty sidekicks in tow, he hatches a cunning plot to divestthe fairyfolk of their pot of gold. Of course, he isn`t foolish enough tobelieve in all that " gold at the end of the rainbow" nonsense. Rather, he knowsthat the only way to separate the little people from their stash is to kidnapone of them and wait for the ransom to arrive. But when the time comes to puthis plan into action, he doesn`t count on the appearance of the extrasmall,pointy-eared Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements PoliceReconnaisance) 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 runriot by combining folklore, fantasy, and a fistful of high-tech funk in anoutrageously devilish book that could well do for fairies what Harry Potter hasdone for wizardry. But be warned: this is no gentle frolic, so don`t be fooledby the fairy subject matter. Instead, what we have here is well-written,sophisticated, rough `n` tumble storytelling with enough high-octane attitude tomake it a seriously cool read for anyone over the age of 10. --SusanHarrison