I’m addicted to Eoin Colfer’s series of Artemis Fowl books. Every time a new one comes out, I tell myself that they aren’t THAT good and I’m not going to buy the new one in hardback. I’m going to wait.

So far, I’ve failed 100% of the time. The only book I own in paperback is the first one.

The premise is clever: Fairies, Sprites, Pixies, Dwarves, Trolls, etc, are all real. And humans are kept minimally aware of them due to the hard work of Leprecons. Or LEP Recons; Lower-Elements Police Reconnaisance Officers, to be more specific.

Their technology is light-years ahead of "mud men" or human technology, and anyway, we humans aren’t too bright. Except for a 12 year old criminal mastermind, Artemis Fowl, who manages to unlock the fairy book of knowledge and kidnaps Holly Short, rising star of the LEP.

The books are clever, funny, and would make great movies. They do tend to be slightly heavy in the fart joke department — Dwarves are great miners and diggers because they eat dirt and air, and can then, er, use the waste products in all kinds of previously unimaginable ways.