Most media picks a lane. You’re either in a world of dragons and spells, or you’re riding a spaceship powered by neon blue lights. And when stories do try to blend both, it usually comes off like one genre is just cosplaying as the other. “Oh, it’s not magic, it’s just tech so advanced it looks like magic.” Cool. Sure. But that’s not a blend. That’s sci-fi wearing a glittery hat and calling itself a wizard.

But Artemis Fowl? Artemis Fowl gave us elves flying with mechanical wings, centaurs programming surveillance satellites, and also dwarves unhinging their jaws and eating through solid rock. It didn’t strip the fantasy creatures of their mythic weirdness to make them technologically advanced. It also didn’t simplify the tech to keep the magic pure.

And what makes it work is that both sides of the worldbuilding, the magic and the machinery, are treated with equal weight, equal logic, and equal absurdity. There’s internal consistency. There are rules. There's friction. The LEP doesn’t just use magic to solve every problem. They rely on tactics, training, strategy, and yes, a whole lot of gadgets.

It's nothing like the disaster of a Disney movie.

The first is kind of like a bank heist story but with magical creatures.

The series has a subplot dealing with sexism in the workplace.

One of the main characters is a woman of colour. (Well, fairy of colour)

There's a sassy IT guy who's also a centaur who wears tinfoil hats.

The main character is the bad guy in the first book, which is not something you usually come across, especially in children's series.

There's an alphabet (Gnomish) you can learn to read/write in relatively easily. (My friend and I would write notes to each other using the language back in middle school, lol)

I don't know about newer editions, but the older editions had clues about what's going to happen in the next book on the margins of the book written in Gnomish.

FANART YAY! I found this tumblr post on pinterest and thought it was really funny so i drew this.

I finally tried drawing my two babies again

My New Year's goal to draw beloved literary characters from my childhood continues! Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer is still one of my favorite series. It was so huge to me to have the main character be - at least in the beginning - the villain. Considering I'm still usually most interested in the villains, it's possible Artemis was formative in that 😄

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!

It has:

British humour

Spaceships

A guy with 2 heads and 3 arms

Gay ship that should be more popular that reminds me of ineffable husbands

Multiple adaptations (some better than others)

A depressed robot

A repressed bisexual Brit

6 WHOLE BOOKS

A number that you will see and comment on everywhere after you read it