Skulduggery Pleasant
by
Derek Landy
Wizards with unusual names and strange monsters living in the same
world as us but hidden from the view of mortals, a very evil wizard who
seeks an item of unbelievable power, friendships and betrayals....
All sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's been done before...
Well, that's true, but Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, is a fresh
and exciting take on this type of hidden world fantasy. It walks that
fine line between comedy and serious story, and does so to perfection.
On the death of her Uncle, Gordon Edgley, Stephanie finds herself
plunged into a hidden world of magic and danger as she accompanies the
detective Skulduggery Pleasant on an investigation to find the mythical
Sceptre of the Ancients before it falls into the wrong hands.
The two greatest strengths of this wonderful book are the characters
and the dialogue.
All the characters are wonderfully realised with names to perfectly
match them - from the evil and sadistic Nefarian Serpine, to the
egnimatic Mr Bliss, and the mysterious, beautiful and totally
untrustworthy China Sorrows. There are no two dimensional characters
here all are wonderfully deep and complex, and a joy to read about.
The dialogue is snappy and, especially between Skulduggery and
Stephanie, funny. It drives the plot on, matching pace with the story
that speeds along dragging the reader with it.
The plot itself is not complicated though there are a few twists on the
way. The action/fight scenes (and there are plenty of them) are well
written and easy to follow.
All in all, a fantastically enjoyable read, and I would recommend this
book to anyone of any age...
... after all - a wise cracking skellington detective? Who would want
to find out more!