A time stop is a magical field generated by Warlocks.
Usage and Faults
The field isolates the area from the normal flow of time and any one inside cannot change their state of consciousness (i.e. from asleep to awake) naturally. The time stop can be defeated. Artemis Fowl overcame it by administering sleeping pills to Butler, Juliet, his mother and himself in the first book. Artemis put the sleeping pills in the glasses of champagne and handed one to Juliet, and one to Butler.
When a time stop is used anyone in the area stays in the state they started in, sleeping or awake. Artemis Fowl realises this by searching the Book and tests his theory on his mother. That is where the sleeping pills came in. Falling asleep allowed Artemis, Butler, Juliet to leave the time stop and be in the same time as his (Artemis's) mother. This allowed them to bypass the biological bomb's (bio-bomb) effect just in time. Foaly invented the Time-Stop Towers which extend the duration of the field largely. The towers work by having the warlocks put their magic into batteries which are then hooked up to emitter dishes. The time stop towers extended the period of the time stop greatly. Before, when five elven warlocks performed the time stop, the average time was hour and a half. It was extended to eight hours. A person still in the regular time stream can still enter a time stop zone, but will find it deserted. The time stop is described as setting a shimmering azure field over the time stopped area. The time stop is capable of containing any weapon blasted, fired or detonated in its boundaries, as is the case with the blue rinse, a bio-bomb that is occasionally used in conjunction with the stop. When a Time-stop is about to run out of time, lights (may) poke through the diminishing azure field, as in Artemis Fowl, the first novel.