The Wokingham Book Group read Artemis Fowl and thebook produced a very happy discussion with lots of laughter, but which was not without it’s thought provoking moments, thanks largely to the addition to the group of nine year-old Thomas.

Like all the best thrillers (and action movies), the advantage moves frequently between the opposing sides – Artemis is trying to acquire enough gold to restore his family fortunes and discover what has happened to his father; the little people are simply defending their world as best they can.

The fact that there are no real baddies (just the occasional character whose eventual comeuppance is highly enjoyable!) and that the reader’s loyalty changes throughout the book also earned praise for Colfer. None of the characters are predictable and you really do want them all to succeed as each has justifiable goals.

The perceived height of fairies and trolls sparked a very lively debate; the majority of adults present admitted that they had believed fairies to be less than a foot high, but Thomas thought the author had it right and that they were about his height (1m). (We then digressed and talked about faked photographs and whether or not all trolls were bad – the general consensus being Yes!).

We compared Artemis to other children left without parental control; the boarding school genre from Blyton to Rowling and the orphaned/abandoned children of so many of the other Top 100 titles, and concluded that the device works well because it allows the fictional child a larger degree of freedom. Tom, however, made the point that whilst he likes to read about children like Artemis who can cope without parental guidance/presence, he doesn’t like to read about children who are on their own and not coping.

The adults in the group all thought that it was a very enjoyable read for children and adults, containing as it does, just enough tongue-in-cheek social and cultural references that adults pick up on but which might be missed by a younger child. We also thought that Artemis Fowl easily measured up to the other children’s titles on the Top 100 and that it would still be on a ‘best-loved’ list in 10 or 20 years time.

One member of the group (who had loved the tagline ‘Like Die Hard with fairies’ and bought the book when it first came out) wondered whether the hieroglyphics could actually be translated?!