Artemis Fowl: the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

I love these books. I love that they're written for teenage boys. I love that he took the idea of fairies living "in the hills" literally and I love that he made them so technologically advanced that Steve Jobs would be speechless were he to encounter them.

I love that Artemis is basically a sociopath. I love that he's a genius. I love that Butler has tunnel vision and questionable morals. I love that Holly is the toughest member of the bunch and that the tech genius (Q, if you will) is a centaur with a potty mouth.

I love that the world is always in peril and that it's mostly Artemis's doing. Love. Love. Love. Love this series.

This is the first that I've listened to, and I very much enjoyed it. Hearing it with the accents really does make all the difference.

Now, if they'd just make these into movies already!

UPDATE::: hello, movie! http://www.artemis-fowl.com/movie_1.php

Click: One Novel Ten Authors

I missed this when it was released, but that's ok. I still enjoyed it. An interesting approach: a novel written by ten authors...some of whom I read just because their name is on it (Colfer, Hornby.) It switched points of view, but it didn't bother me at all. It also jumps in time a bit, which was also not bothersome.

It opens with the death of a grandfather, and his grieving grandchildren. Being that he was a prize-winning photojournalist, it only makes sense that his photos would help structure the narrative. Fortunately, this potentially hokey plot device was not hokey at all, and felt less like a device than a signpost, guiding us through history and geography smoothly. The narrative spans a full century - sometimes after World War Two until sometime after 2030...it's full of interesting characters and a good deal of "what if...?" Which we all know I like.

All in all, I enjoyed it enough that I'll be gifting it to some people in the future...and paying full price, as all proceeds go to Amnesty International.