5 Minute Listening: My Name Is Fowl. Artemis Fowl
There is nothing ordinary at all about Artemis Fowl, the Second. At 12, he is already a master criminal, and is highly skilled at creating forgeries.
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Voice 1: If you saw young Artemis Fowl walking down the street - something he rarely, if ever, does, by the way – you might mistake him for an ordinary, smartly-dressed young man. You would be making a grave error if you did for there is nothing ordinary at all about young Artemis Fowl the Second.
Voice 1: Twelve-year-old Artemis looks older than his actual age. He has pale skin, piercing blue eyes and black hair. He is handsome, like his father. His smile has been called “vampire-like” and his choice of clothing? Armani suits.
Voice 2: He is the son of Artemis senior and Angeline Fowl, and has two younger twin brothers, Beckett and Myles. The Fowls are a family of ruthless crime lords whose history goes back centuries.
Voice 1: The Fowl family lives in Fowl Manor on a vast estate in Ireland, and its infamous family motto is “Gold is power”. For hundreds of years, generations of the Fowl family have built up an enormous fortune through crime, and Artemis is set to carry on the family tradition. At twelve-years-old, he is already a brilliant criminal mastermind, and is exceptionally skilled at creating forgeries.
Voice 2: He has a brain that’s astonished medical and psychiatric experts all over Europe. He has been called a ‘teenage genius’. He has published articles in scientific journals, delivered lectures on politics and even filed patents. He is also a talented musician who enjoys composing extra sections to famous works by renowned composers such as Bach and Beethoven.
Voice 1: Needless to say, the child prodigy is fluent in several languages too: Russian, Spanish, French, just to name a few. He’s also an expert lip reader. All these great talents and abilities are aimed in one direction: crime.
Voice 2: This means Artemis is often completely ruthless in the way he treats people. Due to his strict upbringing, he is socially awkward and some may say, even cold and cynical. He purposely isolated himself from anyone who tried to be his friend from a young age. After all, Artemis Fowl does not need any friends.
Voice 1: Or so he thinks. Sometimes, every once in a while, he feels conflicted about his life and wishes he were a normal teen. But such moments never last, for his criminal side always wins. Such is the life of young Artemis. And this coming summer, this ingenious criminal mastermind and titular character in Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl book series will be coming to a theatre near you.
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