Characters and Plot:
The protagonist is Artemis Fowl, the smartest human in the world, a boy by the age of 12. He lost his dad, a criminal mastermind, and is determined to outdo him in their family business: thievery. Artemis himself claims to be young enough to believe in fairies, (which canonically exist,) but old enough to exploit them. That is exactly what he does. He manages to get a copy of the people's (that is to say, the fairies') book, which contains all of the magical rules that give them magic. He uses this book to learn about a ransom fee that fairies must pay if one was captured. He uses his knowledge of the book to learn where a magic-less fairy, whose name is Holly Short, would be. Holly is a fairy elf, who is about 3 feet tall, and over a hundred years old. Holly works for the LEPD, the "Lower Elements Police Force," which is the police force that governs most of the underground where the fairies live, so that they do not become discovered by humans. Her commander is Commander Root, a quick tempered fairy who always insists on following the rules. Their technology mostly comes from a centaur, Foaly, who is very paranoid about humans discovering them, aliens, etc. Another notable character is Mulch Diggums, a fairy dwarf who has extremely large tombstone teeth, capable of chewing through solid rock. That's exactly what he uses them for. He eats rocks in order to make tunnels underground and absorb nutrients, as he burns in the sun. The rock he eats is quickly disposed of via his caboose, and he has extremely powerful farts. The main plot starts when Artemis Fowl abducts Holly, and contacts the fairy police force for the ransom money. Using the books rules, he outsmarts the fairies, learning how to escape their best weapons, and how to prevent them from rescuing his captive. He does this all with the help of his bodyguard, the "man mountain," Butler. Butler is over six feet tall, and could easily snap someone's spine in half. He knows more martial arts than anyone in the world, with the exception of an extremely old guru that the book only mentioned once or twice. The Lower Elements Police is forced to use the dwarf escape artist, Mulch Diggums, to break into the Fowl Estate. Towards the end of the book, Artemis Fowl gives up half the ransom money to Holly in order to grant a wish: Heal his extremely mentally ill, bedridden mother.
Important Themes and Symbols:
Artemis Fowl is not a book without morals. In the book, Artemis Fowl is a thief and a criminal, who tries to constantly do exactly what he feels is necessary without letting any emotions get in the way. That's what he tries to do. Throughout the book however, there are signs of distress in Artemis. When he checks on his mother's sickness, for instance, Artemis' words become unsure, and he stutters. Considering he only uses 3 or 4 slang words in the entire series, this is a very rare occurrence for Artemis. Even when a troll attacks his mansion, he screams at Butler to duck for cover, then explains he did so because he thought using words familiar to a bodyguard would provide the fastest route to Butler's cognitive functions. Another time where he was unusually emotional was when he told Butler not to kill any of the fairies. Leaving witnesses can be sloppy for a criminal, but he seemed unwilling to hurt them. Leaving one alive to spread fear would make sense, but he let all of them live. Butler even saved one of the fairies from the troll. Perhaps he left more fairies alive because leaving only one alive would allow the other fairies to just think he's crazy, and perhaps he saved the fairy from the troll because that particular fairy was their captive. But none of that explains why he saved his bedridden mother for half of the ransom. After all, she put an end to his crime spree soon after getting better. (Or at least she tried to.) This gesture shows that Artemis Fowl really grew from this experience. He learned that some things are worth much more than their weight in gold. Some things are irreplaceable, such as family.