The Faceless Ones
The Skulduggery Pleasant series, Book 3
Derek Landy
HarperCollins
Fiction, MG Adventure/Fantasy/Horror/Humor/Mystery
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Two years ago, Stephanie was an ordinary twelve-year-old Dublin girl living an ordinary life. That was before her favorite uncle was murdered and she found herself pulled into the hidden society of magic wielders... before she discovered her own magical heritage as a descendant of ancients who once helped free the world from the Faceless Ones, godlike entities of unspeakable malice. Now, having taken the name Valkyrie Cain, she spends most of her time as the apprentice/partner to the living skeleton Skulduggery Pleasant. It's a dangerous life, but she wouldn't have it any other way.
Six months after she and Skulduggery were summarily expelled from the Dublin Sanctuary of magic practitioners, they continue their now-technically-extralegal investigations. A string of murders has left most of Dublin's teleporters - people with the rare ability to instantaneously jump to different locations, sometimes miles away - dead, baffling Sanctuary officials. A longshot lead ties the recent killings to a strike fifty years ago, and puts Skulduggery and Valkyrie on the trail of the Diablerie, a cohort of dark mages who seek the return of the Faceless Ones via the remnants of the horrible Grotesquerie. While pluck and luck have worked in Valkyrie's favor in the past, it may not be enough to see her through this newest threat.
REVIEW: This series continues to impress me, melding magic, humor, a dash of horror, and a plot full of twists and turns and betrayals and surprises. Starting about half a year after the eventful climax of the previous installment, Valkyrie is even more immersed in the magical world than ever, to the concern of most everyone except herself and Skulduggery. Sometimes she does feel a twinge of guilt or loss, as her mirror self - left behind at home to cover for her increasingly-frequent absences - goes to school and makes friends and even experiences "her" first kiss, as several people warn her that not only is she missing an invaluable span of her life but that Skulduggery isn't always such a good and trustworthy guy, but she just digs in all the harder. Magic is her heritage, after all, and she and Skulduggery have proven they can be a formidable team... and now that Sanctuary officials are bungling things, it's more important than ever that she keep going. But this time, she might have jumped in over her head. She's faced dangerous foes before, but the Diablerie and their unseen master are a new order of magnitude, and while others have talked about bringing the Faceless Ones back to this world that they once ruled, these mages might actually pull it off. Friends and foes from previous installments turn up again, sometimes in unexpected places or roles, while new faces are introduced, including an immature teen teleporter and the petty new Sanctuary investigator who seems more interested in following strict protocols (and pursuing a personal grudge against Skulduggery, who is both terribly unorthodox and an undeniably superior detective) than actually tracking down criminals in the magical community. As in previous installments, the action kicks off early and rarely slackens the pace, ratcheting up to a climax even more intense than the previous volume's great battle - and a near-cliffhanger that almost demands I track down the fourth volume as soon as possible. Three books in, and it's still a very enjoyable series that retains some great humor, even as it edges deeper into horror-proper territory, growing up with Valkyrie Cain.
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