Skulduggery Pleasant

For the series of the same name, see Skulduggery Pleasant (series).

Skulduggery Pleasant
Author(s)	Derek Landy
Original title	List Of Conflicts
Cover artist	Tom Percival
Country	Ireland
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's novel, Fantasy novel
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	2007
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	368 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-724161-5 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number	77012018
Followed by	Playing with Fire (2008)

Skulduggery Pleasant is the debut novel of Irish playwright Derek Landy, published in 2007. It is the first of the Skulduggery Pleasant novels. The novel crosses the horror, comedy, mystery, romance and fantasy genres.

The story follows the titular character Skulduggery Pleasant, an undead sorcerer and detective, with his partner Stephanie Edgley who calls herself Valkyrie Cain (valk-i-ri cane), and numerous magic-wielding allies as they try to prevent Nefarian Serpine from unleashing a weapon of terrible power on the world. The book was retitled Sceptre Of The Ancients for the 2009 paperback release in the US and Canada.

It won the coveted Red House Children's Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award in 2007.^[1]

The second book, Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire, third book, Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones, fourth book, Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days fifth book, Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil, and sixth book Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer are currently available. Harper Collins Audio also publishes the unabridged CD sets of the books read by Rupert Degas.

Plot summary

Stephanie Edgley's novelist uncle dies, leaving her his vast mansion and the royalties from his best-selling books. At the reading of the will, a strange man called Skulduggery Pleasant in a tan overcoat, a hat, sunglasses and a scarf is present, who is left a piece of advice, along with Fergus and Beryl, Stephanie's none-too-liked aunt and uncle. Stephanie's aunt and uncle are given something as well: a seemingly useless brooch, a boat, and a car, which they both do not want. Spending a night alone in the mansion, Stephanie is attacked by a strange man, demanding she gives him a "key". As the man attacks Stephanie, the mysterious man in the tan overcoat from Gordon's funeral arrives and saves her, throwing a fireball and then shooting the attacker. Skulduggery's disguise of a hat, wig and sunglasses fall off to reveal that he is an undead sorcerer, made up of only his skeleton held together by magic.

Upon slowly realizing that her uncle was murdered , Stephanie, wanting to escape her previously boring and tedious life, helps Skulduggery investigate his mysterious death. Skulduggery and Stephanie gradually uncover a greater plot for world domination. Stephanie's uncle discovered an ancient weapon used by the first sorcerers, the Ancients, to defeat their tyrannical gods, the Faceless Ones. He sealed this deadly weapon, the Scepter of the Ancients, in a maze beneath the house Stephanie inherited. The "key" is in fact the old, insignificant-looking brooch left by her uncle to his other brother's wife, Beryl.

Stephanie and Skulduggery, aided by Skulduggery's best friend, an immensely strong tailor named Ghastly Bespoke, and English professional swordswoman Tanith Low (tae-nith low), attempt to prevent the main antagonist, Nefarian Serpine (Ne-varian ser-pine), from obtaining the Sceptre (sep-ter). Serpine once served under the evil wizard Mevolent who waged a secret war on the wizard community, trying to take over the world. Skulduggery opposed Mevolent in this war several hundred years ago, when he was still alive. He became ensnared in a trap by Serpine, his wife and child murdered before his eyes and himself killed after several days' torture. His hate for Serpine allowed him to return from the grave as a skeleton and complete the war.

Now working as a detective and with Stephanie's help, Skulduggery defeats Serpine, destroying him with the Sceptre to protect Stephanie, breaking the Scepter's power in the process. At the conclusion of the novel, Skulduggery offers to take Stephanie on as his assistant and student in sorcery; Stephanie has discovered through the course of the novel's events that her family are descendants of the Ancients and she herself has magic abilities.

There are many similarities to H. P. Lovecraft in the story. The Faceless Ones are likely inspired by the Great Old Ones of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and Lovecraft actually gets a mention by Skulduggery saying that his stories were inspired by myths about the Faceless Ones. Serpine also uses Lovecraft's name as an alias.

Characters

Skulduggery Pleasant

Skulduggery fought on the good side under the wizard Meritorious during the secret war as one of the generals but was caught in a deadly trap by Nefarian Serpine under Mevolent's command. He killed Skulduggery's wife and child in front of him. Furious, Skulduggery grabbed a dagger to kill Serpine with, but Serpine had planned this. The dagger was poisoned and killed Skulduggery. After Skulduggery's death, his body was impaled on a spike and burned as an example to Mevolent's other enemies. Though as a result of a necromancer experiment, Skulduggery did not move on after his death but stayed and watched the war progress; to his horror, the tide turned and Mevolent gained advantage. In the book, Skulduggery's past life name (given name) has not been revealed, though author Derek Landy says it was "Skulduggery Pleasant" before he died. Skulduggery accepts the sacrifice of individuals as part of war, but he is highly reluctant to allow this to happen to Stephanie. He protects her diligently throughout the novel. He has many loyal friends.

Stephanie Edgley (Valkyrie Cain)

Stephanie is a 12-year-old girl living in the quiet Irish sea-side town of Haggard. She is the niece of Gordon Edgley, a recently deceased horror novelist, whose novels she discovers were not completely fictional. She first meets Skulduggery at Gordon's funeral; Gordon was a friend of Skulduggery's. Skulduggery tells Stephanie how Gordon once described her as "strong-willed, intelligent, sharp-tongued, doesn't suffer fools gladly",^[2] traits Gordon himself possessed. Stephanie proves herself to have all these qualities in spades, clashing wits with Skulduggery and annoying him to no end. She refuses to be left behind by Skulduggery when they first meet, despite his advice that she keep out of danger. He later comes to respect her abilities, recognizing them when she herself does not. Stephanie despised her boring, ordinary life; she did not have anything in common with her peers and though not disruptive at school, has a healthy disregard for authority. She takes great enjoyment in Skulduggery's more criminal escapades, such as breaking into a museum vault. She constantly proves herself to be every bit the equal of the adults, though some people under-estimate her - her pet peeve is being called "child" or "baby".

Though possessing no immediately obvious special abilities, other than fundamental running, swimming and fighting instincts which help her out of trouble at the outset of the novel, Stephanie later learns she is a descendant of the original sorcerers. She begins to develop her magic skills, manipulating air in a climatic battle scene and managing to create fire at the end of the novel. Skulduggery offers to help her master her magical abilities, so that she can assist him in adventures to come. Her main strengths, however, are her intelligence, her sheer strength of will and determination. She is also a very quick learner of magic, being able to master the basics of Necromancy.

Stephanie is revealed to be the Darquesse, a powerful sorceress who is even seen to have murdered her family. Stephanie is briefly transformed into the Darquesse when she is possessed by a Remnant.

According to the novel's magical premise, knowing someone's name gives you power over them. China Sorrows knows Stephanie's name, and uses this knowledge to prevent Stephanie from rescuing Skulduggery. Stephanie takes on the name Valkyrie Cain. Taking this name seals her given name away, keeping others from controlling her and breaking China's hold on her, allowing her to save Skulduggery. Although known as Valkyrie by other characters from this point onwards, Landy continues to refer to her in the third-person as Stephanie, and Skulduggery chooses to call her by Valkyrie. However, for the rest of the series, she is known as Valkyrie.

She got her name from the Norse warrior women who guard Valhalla (she first heard this name after listening to "Ride of the Valkyries" with her dad) and she got her last name from the word cain. (Skulduggery Pleasant introduced the word to her, claiming that she had a "penchant for raising cain", meaning that she makes trouble).

Tanith Low

Tanith Low is a master swordswoman who is first introduced while battling a troll on London Bridge in the first book. Tanith does not work for the Elders (who are the leaders of the magical population of Europe) because she has a natural distrust of all authority. Instead she merely, as Springheeled Jack says in 'Playing With Fire', "deals out what she calls justice". She is English and originally lived in London. Tanith Low's job is to apprehend or otherwise kill criminals and evil creatures who threaten national security.

She befriends Valkyrie in Book 1. During a conversation with Valkyrie, Tanith expresses a desire for a little sister and she and Valkyrie develop an affectionate sisterly relationship. Valkyrie refers to Tanith as being like a sister to her in the fourth book. Tanith is also known to have an elder brother whom she states she "loves to death." Despite her softer, warmer side, Tanith can be very ruthless, sending two Cleavers to their death in order to distract some Hollow Men to rescue Skulduggery from Serpine. She is also an excellent fighter. She takes on Serpine's White Cleaver in combat at the end of the book, and nearly wins, but the White Cleaver throws his scythe through her back and she nearly dies.

She assists Skulduggery in defeating the Torment in the second book. She is an Adept who can run on walls, strengthen doors and unlock locks by touching them. Her appearance is one of beauty as she is described as appearing in her early twenties with golden hair. Her actual age is around eighty. In Playing With Fire Springheeled Jack thinks to himself And such a pretty face. Jack hadn't seen a pretty face in many a year. and Valkyrie has remarked that Tanith acts like a four year old despite her physical or actual age. In Book 2 she comments that Valkyrie should spend more time with people her age. While fighting the Grotesquery halfway through the book she was poisoned by it and the others had to go to the Sanctuary to get the antidote for her.

In Book 3, she is asked to protect Peregrine, but fails and is injured in the hand by Murder Rose and Gruesome Krav in the process. In the end of the book, she loses in a fight against Murder Rose again, resulting in more injuries.

In Book 4, Tanith assists Valkyrie in finding Skulduggery’s skull. She is arrested by the Sanctuary when she tries to assist in stealing Skulduggery’s skull from the Sanctuary. She is later freed, and is kidnapped by the Revengers Club and tortured by a possessed Grouse.

In Book 5, Mortal Coil, Tanith develops some feelings towards Ghastly Bespoke after he asks her out on a date. Later on, Tanith is taken over, or possessed by a remnant, and loses her true self and control of her body. At the end of the book she and Billy-Ray Sanguine are together. As Valkyrie puts it "Tanith was gone now. She was lost." Though Valkyrie hopes that they will be able to track down Tanith and remove the remnant, she doubts it.

Nefarian Serpine

The arch-villain Serpine is an evil sorcerer who once served under Mevolent. He possesses magical powers that rival orpine and he eventually does by using the Sceptre to destroy the Great Book of Names, preventing the return of the Faceless Ones, enraging Serpine who attempts to kill Stephanie but Skulduggery stops him and avenges the death of his family by vaporizing Serpine with the Sceptre.

Serpine is highly intelligent and a skilled manipulator who seduced Sagacious Tome into joining him. He is a fanatic who is believed by many (Skulduggery included) to be insane, although the Faceless Ones (as proved in Book 2 Playing with Fire and Book 3 The Faceless Ones) are actually real.

The greatest weapon in Serpine's arsenal is his right hand which some dark power has stripped of all its flesh and possesses the ability to put individuals in great pain, eventually killing them when pointed at them.

Serpine bears many similarities to Sauron of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien: a dark sorcerer who was once a servant of an even greater evil but is now the greatest villain in the world and who seeks a potent magical device to aid him in his quest for domination of the world (in Serpine's case the Sceptre, in Sauron's case the One Ring). In this, Mevolent could be seen to resemble Morgoth and Sagacious Tome could be seen to resemble Saruman.

Minor characters

For minor characters see the List of minor characters in Skulduggery Pleasant.

Reviews

Skulduggery Pleasant has opened to largely positive reviews by critics.

• Phillip Ardagh (The Guardian):

It's exciting, pacy, nicely handled and it's fun. There's nothing worthy about it, and it's all the better for that. And, I might add, it's self-contained. Landy may well revisit these characters - I sincerely hope he does - but it's a pleasingly rounded tale, which is refreshing in these days of endless open-ended books of never-ending series.^[3]

• Nathan Nicholls (Whitby Gazette):

There is no expense spared by Landy in this book and I would have to say that everyone who could be bothered to read it, would definitely be drawn into it and certainly enjoy it. (…) Something for everyone and everything for someone, Skulduggery Pleasant is easily my book of the year so far. Read it!^[4]

• Christina Hardyment (The Independent):

Landy is an established horror writer, and the combats between Skulduggery, Serpine and his legions of Hollow Men and vampires rival the climaxes of the Potter films for hair-raising effects; it isn't often that writing makes you feel as if you are watching a film.^[5]

• The Times:

Derek Landy's debut, Skulduggery Pleasant (…) has a distinctly Horowitzian humour and verve to it, being a detective story featuring a wizard's skeleton as hero. When Stephanie's uncle dies, she discovers his horror stories weren't fiction, and that evil forces are after her for a mysterious key. Wisecracking madly, the duo must survive each other as well as Hell. At the end of it, readers of 12+ may well be regretting their consumption of chocolate eggs.^[6]

Awards

Skulduggery Pleasant won the Red House Children's Book Award,^[7] the Bolton Children's Book Award^[8] and the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award.^[9] The book was also recommended for confident readers (9+) by the Richard & Judy Children's Book Club in 2007. It also won the Portsmouth Book Awards in 2008, having been selected by school children in Portsmouth.^[10] Also, in 2009, it won the Kernow Youth and Grampian Book Awards by a majority vote. In 2010, Skulduggery Pleasant was awarded the title of Irish Book of the Decade, after being up against some of the world's best sellers.^[11]

References

1. ^ Red House Children's Book Award.
2. ^ Landy, p. 13
3. ^ Review at The Guardian
4. ^ Review at the Witby Gazette
5. ^ Review at The Independent
6. ^ Short Review at the Times
7. ^ Red House Children's Book Award
8. ^ Bolton Children's Book Award 2008 at Bolton Literacy Trust
9. ^ YTF 2008
10. ^ http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/learning/1048.html
11. ^ http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/irish-book-of-the-decade-announced-2201796.html

External links

• Skulduggery Pleasant UK, Australia and New Zealand Official Website
• Skulduggery Pleasant US and Canada Official Website