Armageddon Outta Here - The World of Skulduggery Pleasant: The Definitive Story Collection (So Far)
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 8.5
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, YA? Adventure/Collection/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: A hardened posse of war veterans hunts a fugitive dark mage across the American Western frontier... a childhood dare involving a "haunted" house has dire consequences decades later... a man haunted by visions of a peculiar machine may be the conduit for a world-ending event... a string of seemingly random deaths is linked by a cursed pen... These and more tales explore the world and characters surrounding Dublin's infamous skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant and his friend and apprentice Valkyrie Cain.
This collection includes the previously-reviewed story Apocalypse Kings.
REVIEW: This collection of 22 stories is billed as 8.5 in the series, but some elements of the later tales constitute spoilers for coming events; I suspect it would fit better elsewhere in the timeline. (There are also a few that were apparently written for special events based on group participation or guest-submitted character ideas. They played out fine in Landy's tales, though my first thought was that he was flirting with the "evidently written entirely by the fans" territory that some authors venture into, and there are a few people in that particular pool that one would do better not to be around... but I digress.) Some slot into the main timeline, while others are essentially standalone side adventures, but all work quite well and maintain Landy's particular blend of humor, wonder, intrigue, horror, and tragedy.
Starting with a tale set in 1800's South Dakota and ending with events taking place after (what I presume occurs in) Book 9 (or maybe later; I'm currently only up through Book 8 in the main arc), the stories are presented roughly in chronological order. Several of them only involve the lead duo of Skulduggery and Valkyrie as side characters. A few could've been complete standalones with minor reshaping, particularly "Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon", which features mortal kids inadvertently stumbling into a dark magical secret left behind by a cultist when a traditional neighborhood rite-of-passage dare goes awry; even the tone almost felt more like a standalone, more serious and introspective as the main character finds himself dealing with impossible events. Landy demonstrates his writing range across these tales, some being shorter and sillier (but never embarrassingly goofy), some being longer and much darker. Often, the tales involve tragedy in some form or another, a loss of innocence if nothing else (and it's often more than just that), reflecting how even fleeting contact with the magical world always comes with a cost, a cost often much, much greater than even willing parties anticipate. The world of Skulduggery Pleasant is not a whimsical wonderland but a shadowed realm of sharp edges and sharper teeth with roots firmly in the horror genre, even if the earlier entries lampshade those roots and there's never a shortage of humorous quips. Nobody is safe, not even innocent bystanders, and good hearts and good intentions are no guarantee of a happy ending... or even a survivable ending. The tales varied a bit but were generally strong.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Carnacki the Ghost Finder (William Hope Hodgson) - My Review
Apocalypse Kings (Derek Landy) - My Review
Sparrow Hill Road (Seanan McGuire) - My Review
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