Artemis Fowl

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [viii], 278, [2]. Black cloth boards, stamped in gilt to spine; cream endpapers. Complete with holographic dust wrapper designed by Tony Fleetwood.

Signed and dated by the author to title page.

Winner of the 2001 W.H. Smith Children's Book of the Year and the Children's Book of the Year at the 2001 British Book Awards. Shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award. First in the series of fantasy adventure novels, featuring the irrepressible criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl II. Colfer summed up the sequence as: Die Hard with fairies. Originally conceived as a trilogy, the series eventually stretched to eight volumes, with the final novel released in 2012.

Basis for the 2020 Walt Disney production directed by Kenneth Branagh from a screenplay by Conor McPherson, starring Ferdia Shaw in the title role, Lara McDonnell as Holly Short, and Judi Dench as Commander Root, with the author appearing in a scene as an extra. "[A] smart, amusing one-off. It flashes with hi-tech invention – as if Colfer were as much an inspired boffin as a writer." –The Observer