Artemis Fowl
by Eoin Colfer (Viking, 2001); audiobook read by Gerry O’Brien (Puffin, 2013)
The fairy world is imaginatively realised and affords a new set of (magical) parameters within which Colfer can manifest Artemis’s ingenious criminal scheming. O’Brien’s audiobook reading goes some way towards papering over such writerly cracks as blatant tell-don’t-show and one-dimensional, stereotyped characters.
Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
by Eoin Colfer (Puffin, 2005); audiobook read by Nathaniel Parker (AudioGO, 2011)
An engaging enough caper, albeit one in which the Fairy People take the lion’s share and Irish boy genius and criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl remains frustratingly just off centre stage. Colfer’s freewheeling plot, though clever, seems oddly neglectful of its titular character.
The Reluctant Assassin
by Eoin Colfer (Puffin, 2013); audiobook read by Maxwell Caulfield (Brilliance Audio, 2013)
Colfer is a dab hand at characterisation—be it his protagonists, bit players or villains—and Caulfield’s narration gives distinct voice to each. The time travel story (lively if somewhat extemporised) sees teens on the run in both modern and Victorian London.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Hexagonal Phase
by Eoin Colfer; adapted by Dirk Maggs (BBC, 2018)
Colfer’s contribution to Hitchhiker’s probably works better in adaptation—as a continuation of the seminal radio series—than as a novel. Forty years on, the original actors have returned to their recording booths and sound ever-young, still invested in Adams’ cosmic zaniness.