Prologue
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a girl had fallen in love with the Artemis
Fowl books. She had never heard of them, until her teacher forced her, and her class,
to do a book report. She had chosen a different book, but wished to read the Artemis
books. They looked incredibly interesting, and well suited to her favorite topic
for imagining. She ordered the books through her library, getting the second book
before the first. Finally the first book came, and she eagerly started reading it.
When she was done, she went to the second book, loving every page of it. On the back
of the second book, she noticed a URL for an Artemis web site. There was a contest
going on, concerning The Arctic Incident. She eagerly entered, doubting she would
actually win. She completed what she had to do to enter, then started to fill out
the form. The first blank was for her name. She typed in her name, Shannon Johnson,
and went on the the next blank. Finally she was done, all that Shannon could do,
was wait until the 15 of July, when the people would be e-mailing everyone to say
if they had won or not. Finally the day came, and nothing was in her mail box. She
was disappointed, perhaps the whole thing was just a joke. But she continued to check
her e-mail, hoping that something would arrive. It happened the next day, she looked
into her mail box, and discovered a message from the contest administrators. She
checked the size, and was shocked to see it was 45 k, usually something saying "Sorry,
you haven't won" wouldn't take up that much space. She opened the mail, and
read it. It said
July 16, 2002
Dear Parent/Legal Guardian of Shannon Johnson,
Congratulations! As the official Judging Organization administering
the Artemis Fowl 2: The Arctic Incident Sweepstakes, it is our
pleasure to inform you that your child's entry has been selected as the Grand Prize
Winner. Your child's prize package includes: an Artemis Fowl Custom
Jacket, a signed First Edition of Artemis Fowl 2: The Arctic Incident and Artemis
Fowl T-shirt (ARV: $140)...."
And so the letter went. Shannon sat staring at the screen for several minutes, trying
to decide if this was a joke. Finally she decided to tell her parents..
"Hey Mom! Dad! Umm....well I entered a contest for Artemis Fowl stuff a little
while ago, and they just e-mailed me, saying that I had won...."
Her parents both come to see the letter, happy that their daughter had won something.
They followed the instructions at the bottom of the e-mail, sending the form and
questions to the address stated. The e-mail had said she would get the prize, about
4 to 6 weeks after they had received the entry. Shannon was hoping she would get
the stuff before school had started, but wasn't sure precisely when to expect it.
She and her parents hoped each day it would come, checking the mailbox as soon as
the faint clanking could be heard.