Skulduggery Pleasant
The covers of the first series of Skulduggery Pleasant
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| Author | Derek Landy |
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| Country | Republic of Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Children's literature, Teenage Fiction, Horror |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Published | 2007–14 (first series) 2017– (second series) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) Audiobook |
Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of fantasy novels written by Irish author Derek Landy. The books revolve around the adventures of the skeleton detective, Skulduggery Pleasant, and a teenage girl, Stephanie Edgley/Valkyrie Cain, along with other friends. The central story arc concerns Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world, finally find justice for her late uncle's death, and her internal struggle of keeping the darkness within her to stay within.
Since the release of the first novel in 2007, Skulduggery Pleasant, the series has been praised by both readers and critics. Following novels were released each year afterwards, with the exception of the fourth and fifth novels, Dark Days and Mortal Coil, which were both released in 2010. Landy was initially contracted to write three books, with any further books depending on how well the first trilogy sold. The success of the first novels ensured that the deal was extended first to six books and in 2011, HarperCollins signed the deal for the final trilogy.
In July 2016, Derek Landy announced via a video blog that although the first Skulduggery Pleasant series was complete, a tenth Skulduggery Pleasant book is set to be released on 1 June 2017, titled Resurrection, as the start of a second series.
Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley is tired of her boring life. But when a man breaks into her recently deceased uncle's house and tries to kill her, she is saved by a funny, arrogant, fireball-throwing, 400-year-old detective named Skulduggery Pleasant, who just so happens to be a walking skeleton, and she is thrust into a world of danger, murder and magic. Taking the new name of Valkyrie Cain, she partners up with Skulduggery to solve her uncle's murder, and to prevent the devious Nefarian Serpine from obtaining the Sceptre of Ancients, a mystical weapon that can slay gods. The sceptre is a powerful weapon which can be used to defeat and overcome the world and bring back the Faceless Ones.
Baron Vengeous, one of Mevolent's Three Generals, has escaped from prison, and he has big plans for the Grotesquery, a dark creature created from the remains of some of the most deadly creatures to ever walk the earth. Most worryingly of all, it has a torso of a Faceless One, one of the dark gods that ruled the earth eons ago, and the Baron plans to use this to bring back the rest of the Faceless Ones, so they may resume their reign of tyranny and torture, and to help him with this endeavour he has an army of vampires at his disposal. This will be Skulduggery and Valkyrie's toughest battle yet.
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