The Dying of the Light
Valkerie. Darquesse. Stephanie. The world ain’t big enough for the three of them. The end will come...
The War of the Sanctuaries has been won, but it was not without its casualties. Following the loss of Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery Pleasant must use any and all means to track down and stop Darquesse before she turns the world into a charred, lifeless cinder.
And so he draws together a team of soldiers, monster hunters, killers, criminals... and Valkyrie’s own murderous reflection.
The war may be over, but the final battle is about to begin. And not everyone gets out of here alive...
Derek Landy
Derek Landy (born 1973) lives near Dublin, Ireland. Before writing his children's story about a sharply dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a slasher thriller in which everybody dies. As a black belt in Kenpo Karate, he has taught countless children how to defend themselves, in the hopes of building his own private munchkin army. He firmly believes that they await his call to strike against his enemies (he doesn't actually have any enemies, but he's assuming they'll show up sooner or later). The reason Derek writes his own biographical blurb is so that he can finally refer to himself in the third person without looking pompous or insane.
Skulduggery Pleasant
The novels in this young adult dark fantasy series cross the horror, comedy, mystery, and fantasy genres.
Skulduggery Pleasant consists of fifteen primary works, and includes four additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of three more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Book Reviews
[Note: This is a review for the entire "Skulduggery Pleasant" series, from Book 1-9 and all the short stories, spin-offs and novellas.] In total, the entire series about the living skeleton and his student/partner is more than 5000 pages long. That's an awful lot. Derek Landy is probably one of very few YA authors who actually succeeds in getting about ten different genres in one single book. Not imagine what he does with about ten books. It's amazing, really. There aren't many authors who can do what he does, and actually pull it off. 5000 pages of text mean a lot happens. When you've finished the series (I succeeded in reading it in one week) you'll probably have forgotten about half of what happened in the first books. The list of characters keeps on developing until right at the end - if anyone would count them, they'd probably strand someone above one hundred, I guess. And those characters have enough time to develop, which means there's always something happening. Certainly since Landy has a lot up his sleeve and you can never be entirely sure when someone is really dead or not. When he starts with gods, portals, human-possessing 'things' and parallel worlds, anything becomes possible - especially with Landy's own, personal writing style. It's virtually impossible to say anything about it without spoiling, so you'll just have to read it. It's really worth it - I doubt I've ever read anything like it. I'll just say this - it's a good ending. It really is. I was afraid of it, but there's no need to be.