Minerva Paradizo

Minerva Paradizo
Artemis Fowl character
First appearance	Book 5: Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony
Created by	Eoin Colfer
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Female

Minerva Paradizo is a fictional character from the Artemis Fowl series of books by Eoin Colfer and is one of the main antagonists in Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony.

Minerva is a twelve-year-old girl during her appearance, described with tight blonde corkscrew curls. The book also mentions glasses (although the glasses are only mentioned once, so it is possible that they are either reading glasses or sunglasses). She was born in Cagnes-sur-Mer, South of France, and her father Gaspard Paradizo is a fifty-two-year-old cosmetic surgeon of Brazilian descent. She also has a five-year-old brother, Beau Paradizo, an obnoxious little boy who loves chocolate. Her mother, Penny, left her family and ran off with the gardener about a year before the events in The Lost Colony. Although Minerva is only twelve, she has already completed high school and is currently studying for two long-distance learning degrees. When she speaks in English, she sometimes inserts French words, especially at the moments of strong emotion. She also won a national spelling bee at the age of four. She is a child prodigy with an IQ similar to that of Artemis Fowl II himself, though in Book 5 she is easily outwitted by Artemis due mainly to the superior technology and support he has available to him (as well as his extensive knowledge of fairies).

Personality

At first Minerva seems like a ruthless, power-hungry villain, much the way Artemis was in the first book. She exhibits disregard for others well being on numerous occasions but she is a kind-hearted character deep down, as illustrated by her love to father and brother. She also agreed to stop the project and forgave Artemis for tricking her after he had saved her from her ex-employee, Billy Kong.

It's also said that she's quite witty and has a good sense of humour. Her quark joke made on a train is a good example of this. She is very intelligent, and possibly hinted as Artemis's equal, as Artemis is named after the Greek goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and Minerva is named after Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom.

Role in series

During the fifth book, The Lost Colony, we find out that Minerva has discovered the existence of demons and pinpoints the exact time and place of the next materialisation, along with an assassin going by the name of Billy Kong and her head of security, Juan Soto. Minerva wants to prove the existence of demons to scientists to win the Nobel Prize. It seems that Minerva does not know about the other species of fairy, as she refers to Holly, an elf, as a demon. She successfully defeats Artemis Fowl in the race to capture a demon, N^o1 (actually an imp and an apprentice warlock) and hopes to unveil him in a bid to win a Nobel Prize. Minerva is eventually tricked by Artemis, who steals back N^o1. However, Billy Kong believes that demons killed his brother Eric, and threatens to kill Minerva, her father and Soto unless he is given a demon to kill. Artemis, Butler, Holly and N^o1 come to their rescue.

When Artemis, Holly, and demon warlocks Qwan and N^o1 go to Hybras, Minerva becomes good friends with Butler and starts him reading fiction. Artemis does not return for three years, giving Minerva the chance to feel attracted to the teenage genius. Butler has told Artemis on his return that Minerva has been talking about Artemis ("Artemis this and Artemis that"), and thinks very highly of him. There are hints throughout the book that Artemis has "blasted feelings of attraction" towards her, and when they are talking on the phone, Minerva admits she has never talked to a boy her own age for this long.

Minerva does not return in the sixth book, and in an August 23, 2009 Tweet, Eoin Colfer implied that she would not return for the seventh either, stating he could not use her as its villain as she was involved with "a skier in the Alpes Maritime".^[1] Colfer was true to his word, and Minerva did not appear in the seventh Artemis Fowl installment, The Atlantis Complex.

Age

Since Artemis travelled forward in time almost three years at the end of The Lost Colony, this would now make Minerva fifteen, while Artemis would be close to eighteen legally, but still fifteen physically. In The Lost Colony Minerva is twelve years old, the same age as Artemis when he first met the fairy people.

References

1. ^ http://twitter.com/eoincolfer/status/3473367723

See also

Children's literature portal

• Femme fatale
• Evil genius