Advance Booking

I'll kick off my new monthly feature with this Irish author, born May 14, 1965. Happy Birthday, Mr. Colfer!!







Brief Bio: Eoin Colfer was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland (a fact that features prominently in his writing). His first published book was Benny and Omar, based on his experiences in Tunisia; he, however, attained worldwide fame with the Artemis Fowl series, tales about a young criminal mastermind. Most of his works have reached the New York Times bestseller list at least once, and he has been commissioned to write the sixth instalment in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, entitled And Another Thing... His book, Half Moon Investigations, featuring Fletcher Moon has been adapted into a TV series by the BBC. To learn more about him, visit his website at http://www.eoincolfer.com/.






Selected Bibliography:

Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident

Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code

Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception

Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

The Legend of Spud Murphy

Benny and Omar

The Wishlist

Airman

The Supernaturalist

Half Moon Investigations

My Reviews:
Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
The Supernaturalist


My Views: I liked the the two books I have read (I am halfway through another, and enjoying it). He is a children's writer, but the dark humour that fills his works will appeal to older readers as well. Also, there are elements of his books that are decidedly adult- Artemis blowing up the whaler with Semtex, the paralegals' actions in Supernaturalist. His Fowl series has been compared to Harry Potter, but there is a world of difference between the two. The Potter series have clearly defined good and evil characters, and you root for the good guys; but in the Fowl series, the hero is a criminal mastermind, cold and calculating. There are the take-over-the-world type of villains, of course, but the heroes who fight them are not perfect. But that does not take anything away from the wit and sarcasm throughout the books. However, I don't find his brand of humour to be particularly subtle. He sometimes takes the pain of pointing out the wisecracks, and that annoys me. Sarcasm loses its flavour when you add a tag.

Most of his books have a street-smart protagonist wise beyond his years (Artemis, Cosmo, Fletcher). They are more oriented towards young boys, a little violent, but there are some strong female characters also, atleast in the ones I've read. There is a lot of tech stuff throughout: the fairy gadgetry in the Artemis series, the sci-fi setting of the Supernaturalist, building a flying machine in Airman; that's another thing I like. You don't see much technology in fantasy books; Colfer's books stand out in this respect. Another nice thing is that every book is a standalone book, you don't need to read the previous ones in the series to get an idea of what's going on. But the best thing about his books is the non-stop action. It starts right from page one and makes every book a page-turner. I'm a big fan of thrillers, and Colfer is probably Forsyth for children. If you haven't picked up any of his books, give one a try. If you have, tell me what you thought about the writing. Either way, I'd love to hear what you've got to say.