Artemis Fowl follows the main character as he, as a child tries to bring his family back into the good graces of the criminal world and show that they are still a force to be reckoned with. To do this, however, he has to find a faerie and get their gold. Thankfully, he’s a genius and no one suspects that he knows about the faeries. Of course, things don’t go as easily as he’d hope or as easily as the faeries would hope.

This was a really fun book to read. All of the characters were interesting and enjoyable to read about. The main character wasn’t someone you were supposed to just imagine yourself as, so he was fleshed out quite well. And while I would say that possibly some of the secondary characters were just as interesting as the main characters, they didn’t overshadow them. It’s really a pet peeve of mine when the main character is just a blank slate that stuff happens to and around and you’re supposed to feel like you could be the main character, but really the author just wrote a boring character. Eoin Colfer doesn’t do this, and that actually makes the main character more relatable because they seem more like an actual person, at least for me, reading it at an older age than the target audience.

I like the twist that Colfer puts on the faerie world as well. While there are a bits and pieces that are clearly taken from more traditional fae lore, we get to see a developed world, but one that is in such a way that it changes things up a lot. I don’t want to go into it too much because it is a bit of spoiler as how it works, but you do get a nice and diverse cast of fae creatures. And I think that the take on dwarves, while maybe not my favorite, is really unique and fun to see it handled it in such a different way. Now, there are bits and pieces of how it is shown that is a bit juvenile, but I didn’t expect it to handle dwarves the way that they did. And, yes, I realize dwarves are technically not faeries, but they get lumped into that world in this book.

I really don’t have a point in the book where I don’t enjoy it. Maybe the dwarves, but again, it wasn’t what I expected, so that was interesting to see the twist. It also drew me into the world so it was easier to overlook something that might not be my favorite. I do think the the book is pretty simply written. Yes, there are a few twists to it along the way, but you generally expect things to end up the way that they do. And when all is said and done, they do, but again, it’s a book for young and middle age readers, so you kind of expect the story to be a bit more simplified. Probably another topic for later, if books need to be simplified as much as they are for that age of reader, probably not, but I do think that Artemis Fowl doesn’t drop down to the level that a lot of young adult and middle age books do.

So, there are more books in this series, do I want to read them? That’s a great question, and one that I’m not sure I know the answer to yet. Like I said, I did this for a reading challenge, while I enjoyed the story a lot, I’m not sure I need to read more of them. Some of it is that simplified story, and because I’m reading another series that is heavily fae focused in the Dresden Files. Now, obviously the level or reader they are written for is massively different, so probably not a fair comparison. I think that I’d go back to the series, and I think that it’s a good series for the age range it targets. However, I’d probably go back when I just want to read through some quick and short things, it won’t be a series that I’m actively seeking out.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.Facebook 

1. I resolve to play the games that I got in 2018 that I haven’t played yet. Board games and video games. But really mainly board games is what this is for. Now, I’m not going to be too crazy and say something like I won’t buy more until I’ve played these games, but I want to get these games to the table. On the Dice Tower FB group, they call those unplayed games as your shelf of shame, and I have a number on there right now. The streaming of the games is going to make getting them off the shelf of shame easier.
2. That takes me nicely into Nerd Year Resolution #2. I resolve to do 20 streams this year. Now, what that looks like is still up in the air, but I want to stream a board game play 20 times. It might mean that I take a week of vacation in the summer and do a stream each day to get a bunch of them done, it might mean that I stream every other week (or at least try to). Or it might mean that I end up streaming 100 times (that would be a lot), but I want to try and stream board game content 20 times.
3. Complete the Pop Sugar reading challenge. I tend to think Pop Sugar is a pretty dumb site, but three of my co-workers and myself are doing their 40 book reading challenge, and people who don’t finish it by the end of the year have to buy the others lunch. I fully expect to fail at this simply because of having a small child, or baby as they are known as by most people, but I’m going to give it a go and see how many Dresden Files books I can get onto the list.
4. Watch and/or finish five new animes this year. That isn’t a big number, but look at what else I’m resolving to do. With my previous work schedule I was able to watch a lot of animes, but now it’s a bit trickier, and Funimation leaving VRV slowed it down for a moment as well. But now we have Funimation’s streaming service, so we’re watching Dagashi Kashi which has been hilarious.

Now, four things isn’t a ton of resolutions, but a few of them are pretty big, actually all of them could be big, but I’m probably not going to say I need to watch all of One Piece as the anime, it’ll probably be shows with 20-50 episodes for the whole show. But I was trying to do a few specific things with these resolutions.

First, I was trying to make them at least semi-attainable. It is going to be tricky to get through all 40 books for me, unless I find some pretty short books to read. Maybe some of the baby books will fit a category. But one thing you’ll notice, to make them semi-attainable, was that I set bigger numbers, but not a specific pace.

I could have said that I want to stream every other week, but I don’t have my streaming computer yet, and I don’t know how long it will take to get the set-up for streaming right. So instead of going with something that I might fail at easily, because it might not show up and get set-up until two weeks into January. So I went with the bigger numbers, 40 books is daunting, but saying that I want to read a book a week sounds nearly impossible.

Secondly, I’m fine with failing at all of these resolutions. I could have said that I wanted to get back to the gym three times a week and lose 30 pounds so that I’m healthy again or something very important like that, like graduate college or get a job if I were job hunting. But those aren’t great resolutions, those are things that you should be wanting to do without actually making a resolution about them. While I hope all of these comes true and I can get them done, because they would be fun to get done, they aren’t key to my survival still.

That actually quite nicely flows into the final point. All of these are fun resolutions. Kind of like being fine failing at any of them, I’m also going to be more tempted to keep them as compared to losing 30 pounds or finding a job, because I like them. Again, doesn’t mean that those two things aren’t highly important, but you get the point. It’s more that resolutions should be stuff you want to do for yourself to better yourself because you want to do them, not because you have to do them.

Anyways, those aren’t really resolutions, but I wanted to add that in to help people think about their nerdy or non-nerdy resolutions. It might help to put down something you need to do as a resolution, but make sure you pepper in some fun stuff as well

What are your nerdy resolutions for 2019? Do you want to try a new nerdy hobby, read a book that’s been on your reading list for years, or watch a certain TV show or movie? Leave them in the comments below so that people know, and you can help hold me accountable to what I put above as well.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter at @NerdologistCast
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.