Co-Review: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
What: Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy; published by HarperCollins, April 2007 (review copies)
About (without revealing too many spoilers): When twelve-year-old Dubliner Stephanie Edgley’s strange Uncle Gordon dies, she is thrust into a world of magic with Skulduggery Pleasant — a walking, talking, wisecracking skeleton who can throw fire with the snap of his bony fingers — at her side. The death of her uncle spawns an underground, frantic search — by inhabitants of a world Stephanie can hardly believe exists — for the Scepter of the Ancients, a weapon that mythology dictates will allow one to rule the world. And, as it turns out, Skulduggery’s nemesis, Nefarian Serpine, is the one after the weapon he believes can call forth the world’s original, rather baneful gods from their obscurity. Writes Kirkus Reviews: “A high-intensity tale shot through with spectacular magic battles, savage mayhem, cool outfits, monsters, hidden doors, over-the-top names, narrow escapes, evil schemes and behavior heroic, ambiguous and really, really bad.” Stephanie and Skulduggery, along with a few other noble and magical folks, struggle throughout the novel to keep one step ahead of Serpine and his evil lackeys — all within a world of magic; super, special-secret powers; lots and lots of witty, droll dialogue, and some kickin’ good action scenes. This is Landy’s debut novel, though he has written screenplays for horror films (and, hey, check out the Skulduggery movie news) . . .
eisha: Oh, this has a lot of potential as a movie. I mean, the book felt like a screenplay, didn’t it? The really standout feature for me was the dialogue. Stephanie and Skulduggery had that sarcastic banter thing goin’ on – it was like Moonlighting without the sexual tension: Read the rest of this entry �
