Ian Moore, the mugger in Death Bringer. He hurt Valkyrie almost as bad as Melancholia did and nearly killed her despite being a mere mortal. Vandermeer Craven is a far straighter example, trying to manipulate everything by using Melancholia St Clair as his Death Bringer only for her to turn against him due to her belief that she's above life and decide and therefore can decide who lives or dies. 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. [46] Internal Reveal: Valkyrie - and the audience, with her - discovers in Dark Days that her true name is "Darquesse", the sorcerer predicted to destroy the world. She reveals this fact to Skulduggery in the next book, but the secret remains hidden from the rest of the cast until Last Stand of Dead Men, when Darquesse takes over Valkyrie's body seemingly for good. Living Emotional Crutch: Skulduggery and Valkyrie tend not to function particularly well without each other. They're a wee bit codependent. This is best demonstrated in "Dead or Alive" where in the alternate future 72 years later, Skulduggery goes dark (again) and renames himself Cadaver Cain, having lost Valkyrie who had been transformed into a vicious harpy. Review at the Whitby Gazette". Whitbygazette.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009 . Retrieved 18 November 2012.

Darquesse has at various points proven herself to be a bigger fish than the Jitter Girls, Kitana and her followers and freaking Mevolent. Argeddion nonetheless turns out to be capable of seriously inconveniencing her.After having lost everything she worked for, Abyssinia spends her final moments with the man she loved, who confesses that he once loved her in turn. Bolton Children's Book Award 2008 at Bolton Literacy Trust". Boltonliteracytrust.org.uk . Retrieved 18 November 2012. [ permanent dead link] Skulduggery Pleasant is a book series written by Derek Landy. Phase 1 of the series consists of nine novels plus a spinoff novel and a short story collection, the final installment of which was released on August 28, 2014. Phase 2 of the series began in June 2017 with Resurrection. Skulduggery implies that actual ghost ships exist but are useless for transport because people just pass through them. Hardyment, Christina (20 April 2007). "Books for 8-12s reviewed". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 21 August 2009.

Everyone Is Bi: By nature of having longer lifespans than mortals, sorcerers have largely embraced sexual fluidity and most of the characters in the series are therefore bisexual. In fact, it's more unusual for a sorcerer to remain attracted to a single gender for their whole life.Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of dark fantasy novels written by Irish author Derek Landy. Tom Percival is the series' illustrator. The books revolve around the adventures of fledgling detective Valkyrie Cain and her mentor Skulduggery Pleasant, along with other friends and allies. The central story concerns Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world and her internal struggle to resist the darkness within.

Even the Faceless Ones play a part in the book's resolution, despite not having been seen at all since the third book. Valkyrie having a grappling match with Darquesse (while invulnerable!) in the final battle, then putting on the instant-death-on-touch gauntlet after that. Brilliant stuff. A reference guidebook, The Skulduggery Pleasant Grimoire, was published on 27 May 2021. [39] Accolades [ edit ] Skulduggery interrogates Scapegrace by making him think that Tanith Low had the power to do this, and would do so if he refused to talk. I Am Not Right-Handed: Pulled by a swordsman in book 5 as a deliberate Shout-Out to the Trope Namer.Two chapters of Mortal Coil are from the perspective of random citizens caught up in the Remnant's clash. Death Bringer: A Big Bad Ensemble between Lord Vile and the new Death Bringer, Melancholia St Clair. Melancholia is Valkyrie's Necromancer Sitcom Arch Enemy who is experimented on to become the Death Bringer, before getting Drunk on the Dark Side. Lord Vile, the last of the Three Generals and Skulduggery's Superpowered Evil Side, wants to kill Melancholia for usurping his title. Melancholia is ultimately the bigger threat as she tries to kill every living thing, but Vile serves as the Final Boss after depowering her, chasing down Valkyrie as she tries to save Melancholia's life. Tanith Low in The Maleficent Seven has the titular Remnant-possessed Tanith as a Villain Protagonist, forming the "Maleficent Seven" to destroy the God-Killers so they can't be used to destroy her Dark Messiah, Darquesse. I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Played with in regards to Dusk, who fully embraces his vampire heritage (or at least uses it without problem) but ends up killing his sire, Moloch, because he hated being made a vampire. In Book Four, Skulduggery is revealed to have undergone this at the hands of the Faceless Ones for an entire year. He seems to have come out the other side more or less fine, but it's shown there are some scars... and it unhinged him enough that his subconscious reanimated the armour of Lord Vile.