A Flavour
of the Book: “She screamed as a fist smashed through the window, showering
the carpet with glass. She
stumbled back as the man started climbing in, glaring at her blazing eyes,
unmindful of the glass that cut into him.
The moment one foot touched the floor inside the house Stephanie was
bolting out of the room…”
The
Authortrek View: This is a fast-paced novel with plenty of action, but it’s
far from brainless… Well, Skulduggery Pleasant himself doesn’t have a brain,
but he manages to be witty and insightful all the same. Skulduggery Pleasant
(the novel), does owe more than a little debt to Harry Potter – there’s
previously been a war caused by an evil mage called Mevolent, and the adversary
in this novel is one of Mevolent’s former henchmen. Like Harry Potter, Stephanie could also have some rather
special ancestry… However, there are differences in that Stephanie’s parents
are still alive (although it’s the death of her uncle that sparks off all the
action). Conversely, a debt to H.
P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is also made explicit within the text. Yet, as Roland Barthes would have it,
no piece of art is ever truly original, and Derek Landy does wonders with the
material at his disposal. There
are lots of twists and turns in the plot, as Skulduggery Pleasant and Stephanie
find out to their cost that there are people that shouldn’t be trusted… It’s a good twist that Skulduggery
Pleasant is a detective, as the various mysteries that he and Stephanie
encounter keep the plot turning nicely.
While there are clues to what will happen in the resolution, Derek Landy
satisfyingly keeps the reader on their toes, as it’s not easy to guess what
will happen next. Overall, Skulduggery
Pleasant manages to surpass Harry Potter, and Derek Landy is certainly a
far better writer than his Irish contemporary, Eoin Colfer. It would undoubtedly be pleasant to see
such Skulduggery again.
You can read a resume of the
novel on our Amazon store below. To find
out more about the author, please visit our Derek Landy page.
Press
Reviews: “A very tasty mix of the cinematic and the novelistic… against
which a cast of vivid heroes and villains play out the rip-roaring storyline.” Publishing
News
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