Ack! It’s Sunday afternoon, and I haven’t started my book review yet. Sigh. If only Skulduggery Pleasant would show up at the bookstore now, in person …. well, I guess I can’t say “in person” if he’s a skeleton, and actually the skeleton of a dead wizard, but he does talk and joke and cast spells and fight bad guys and drive an awesome tricked-out Bentley, so what should I say, “in dead-but-actually-quite-animated person” ? No matter. If Skulduggery were here, I’d have him cast the reflection spell, creating an exact (if a little more boring) duplicate of me, who could walk straight out of my mirror to work at the store and write this book review, while I went to play practice and then spent the rest of the day relaxing with a book.
Anyway, I digress, but it’s difficult not to do that with Skulduggery around. There’s always something unexpected popping up or dropping in that needs explanation. Luckily, the explanations are delivered with great deadpan humor, snappy repartee, in dialogue with a host of weird characters, and accompanied by life-threatening escapades. Skulduggery lives in a world of magic which is parallel to ours, happening in the same time and space as the “normal” lives we mortal humans lead, with Detective Pleasant and his fellow wizards living right under our noses all of the time, not unlike Harry Potter and his friends. We first meet Skulduggery Pleasant in Derek Landy’s book, Scepter of the Ancients, originally released in Great Britain as the eponymously titled Skulduggery Pleasant, in 2007.
Stephanie Edgley encounters Skulduggery (complete with wig, sunglasses, scarf and raincoat to disguise his lack of tissues) at the funeral for her Uncle Gordon. An only child, living in the small Ireland village of Haggard, Stephanie was a favorite of her Uncle Gordon, a bit of an eccentric writer who had strange friends. Though intelligent, given to a sharp tongue and droll humor, Stephanie’s life has been rather quiet and ordinary until Gordon’s will is read: she has inherited the bulk of his estate. Soon, she finds that she has inherited his enemies, too, as well as his friends, most of whom were part of a world of magic about which she has never known. One evening, visiting Uncle Gordon’s house to check out her new inheritance and perhaps get a peek at his latest, unfinished manuscript, a powerful man bursts in, demanding her name, insisting she give him the key, threatening her death. Enter Skulduggery – battle ensues, with fisticuffs, magic balls of fire, and the unveiling of Skulduggery’s boney figure.
Stephanie gets some quick lessons in the world of magic, where one must protect both their “real” and “given” names by taking a name of one’s own choosing. In less than a week, she meets China Sorrows, an entrancingly beautiful woman, collector of rare magical artifacts; Ghastly Bespoke, a supernaturally-talented tailor; and the Elders, including the deliciously named Sagacious Tome. Eventually, after much thought and several more brushes with near-death experiences, Stephanie chooses her own name. Readers will cheer the name she chooses, and the new girl-warrior it represents, as Stephanie surprises everyone, including herself, as a force to be reckoned with. Like J. K. Rowling, Derek Landy has given his readers complex vocabulary to chew on, while weaving it smoothly into the storyline.
In this first adventure, Skulduggery is certain that his old nemesis, Nefarian Serpine, is behind the murder of Stephanie’s uncle. Looking for any excuse to bring Serpine to punishment, Skulduggery soon finds out that there’s a great deal more at stake – such as the end of the World as we know it, the re-emergence of the Old Gods of Legend (“the Faceless Ones”), and the death of all humanity. Skulduggery and Stephanie face vampire guards, trolls, fearsome “Hollow Men” assassins, and the embarrassment of driving in an ugly yellow car while the Bentley is in the shop, all in their quest to prove Nefarian’s wickedness to the Elders, and find the Scepter before he does.
The best part about these books is that I discovered them after the second and third books were already published, so I don’t have to wait for the release of Playing with Fire or The Faceless Ones. So, don’t wonder too much if you stop at the bookstore and I seem a little more dull than usual, or I don’t seem to recognize you – that’s just my reflection at work. And, whatever you do, don’t tell my enemies that I’ve changed my name.
Hobo doesn’t need any more names, not even a last name. He doesn’t believe in name-calling. Don’t worry, he’s not interested in taking over the world, because cats are already the gods of Earth. He realizes he is often imitated, but never duplicated. Read his first adventure in “Hobo Finds A Home, and learn of his further adventures at his blog, frommyshelf.blogspot.com, or on facebook at www.facebook.com/kcbookstore.
No comments:
Post a Comment