Generally, I am left with a sense of both melancholy of things that might have been and sadness of what did happen in the end.

Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery Pleasant) by Derek Landy Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery Pleasant) by Derek Landy

A writer at the height of his powers . . . Whatever your age, read them and enjoy the ride” - Irish Independent Revelling in the dark comedy, action set-pieces and unforgettable characters that are a hallmark of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, this standalone novel transports readers to early eighteenth-century Italy where our heroes are forced to save the Lord of the Dark Sorcerers' Waterstones, Books You Need to Read in 2023 Four stars for the conversations, five stars for Ghastly's wonderful POV, three stars for the plot, and four stars for the historical setting. The fact that it is one day after the release date and this book is already controversial says a lot to begin with, but I would like to start by saying; I do not dislike this book. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. I think that we all came up with a vision in our heads over the last 15 books of what a prequel would look like, and what we got, at least in my case, went quite far from what I expected. I don't think that that is a good or a bad thing, but it does seem to be classic Derek fashion.I didn't like this for largely the same reasons I enjoyed the newer series (from Resurrection onwards) less than the original one, so if you like the newer series, I presume that little of this will bother you. It's still a funny book with great characters and magic - also, I did read it within a couple of hours, so I definitely didn't hate it. We learn this from the Masked Sisters, their Sensitives, and the Sanctuary Sensitives have also confirmed this. The sister that the Masked Sisterhood sent are; Sister Rapture (who Ghastly has this thing with 😏), Sister Stone (secret identity girl. More on her later), and Sister Zeal (who later changes her mind about being a Masked Sister). Anyways, we know who is the would-be murderer, and so they go about tryna stop him. A loada stuff happen, but then Mevolent opens the portal, and the murderer jumps in. And then turns powerful or something like that. Apparently it was the 'Hidden God's that was on the other side, and this dude happened to be a follower. Then Sister Zeal is pushed in, and she becomes a fanatic as well. Derek Landy, a master juggler of scary and funny, has done it again with a twisty mini-masterpiece' The Times Skulduggery Pleasant: Hell Breaks Loose is the prequel set three hundred years before the events of the actual book series.

Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery Pleasant) - Bookstation Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery Pleasant) - Bookstation

Later, the Dead Men are having dinner while waiting for Meritorious at an inn. Ghastly ponders the lives of mortals and sorcerers, his ex Anselm and then accompanies Hopeless while he frees a trapped cat. It is revealed that Hopeless was a Knife in the Darkness, an assassin and that he seemingly has a different personality for different people, explaining why he was said to have many faces. They reach the cat and discuss whether Skulduggery will kill Serpine or not, now they are not that far away. Hopeless also says that of the Dead Men, Skulduggery is the most notorious, Anton is the scariest, Skulduggery, again, is the darkest. In addition, Dexter is the most honest, Saracen is the most charming, Ravel’s the most loyal and Ghastly is the most decent. I fell off Skulduggery Pleasant during the second phase due to a mix of time and not vibing with the new stories, but I was attracted at the idea of a prequel focusing on Skulduggery's adventures with the Dead Men- I distinctly recall hearing about Derek Landy mentioning this would be a story years before Valkyrie entered the picture, and I thought a standalone novel would be a fun side-adventure, given how long the fanbase had been asking for a story focused on the Dead Men. Until the End– The Faceless Ones have returned to our universe. The bad guys have won. With the end of everything just days away – and no longer able to rely on Valkyrie Cain – Skulduggery must make allies of enemies if he’s going to stand any chance of saving what’s left of the world. And just when things are looking their bleakest, they manage to get even worse, with Omen Darkly suddenly having to step up when his brother, the Chosen One, falls. There’s a lot going on. Most of it is bad. Sorry about that. Discover the world of Skulduggery Pleasant in this prequel to the bestselling series. So many enemies, so little time . . . Derek Landy is an Irish writer and screenwriter. In addition to the bestselling children's/YA series of Skulduggery Pleasant books, a supernatural mystery series starring Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective, and Valkyrie Cain, a young female magician, he has written two screenplays that have been made into films: the IFTA award winning "Dead Bodies" and the IFTA nominated "Boy Eats Girl". Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.

Last Stand of Dead Men – War has finally come. But it’s not a war between good and evil, or light and dark – it’s a war between Sanctuaries. For too long, the Irish Sanctuary has teetered on the brink of world-ending disaster, and the other Sanctuaries around the world have had enough. Allies turn to enemies, friends turn to foes, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie must team up with the rest of the Dead Men if they’re going to have any chance at all of maintaining the balance of power and getting to the root of a vast conspiracy that has been years in the making. Revelling in the dark comedy, action set-pieces and unforgettable characters that are a hallmark of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, this standalone novel transports readers to early eighteenth-century Italy where our heroes are forced to save the Lord of the Dark Sorcerers' Waterstones, Books You Need to Read in 2023 - At some point, Skulduggery kind of just said "we have to kill this one guy here AND in the future to make our problem go away. I know this, but you'd never understand it so I won't explain why". That lead to the big problem of "we only have one of these magic knives that can kill him but the magic knife is only magic for one cut" - for the sole reason that there wouldn't be a big problem otherwise, I guess. Ok. So: I've read the first Skulduggery Pleasant book when I was 12 and have read every book in the series published so far. I love Derek Landy's style of writing, love the Skulduggery Pleasant universe, love the characters, and I'm a massive fan of the original series. But I'm not a huge fan of this. I will say halfway through I DID NOT expect that plot twist, and it was quite out of left field but can why am I not surprised with the way phase 2 was handled. That’s where the disappointment sets in because while I’m all for it, this new direction/pattern is something that hasn’t made me want to re-read the newer books compared to the way I used to want to read the phase one books.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery Skulduggery Pleasant - Hell Breaks Loose (Skulduggery

This one definitely kept me guessing, and while my theories didn't pan out, this was still a really, really fun book to read, and has possibly added to what was set up in the Grimoire and Until The End, which could may be the start of a new Skulduggery run! We've been owed a book in Ghastly's perspective since LSoDM, and I missed him a lot. I loved getting to know Ghastly better, including the appearance of his mother, Rustica Strife, in all her glory! She was a really charismatic, loving character and her and Ghastly clearly have a great bond, my only complaint would be that we didn't really get to see her legendary skills on the battlefield. It broke my heart to read Rustica and Skulduggery talking and laughing about Ghastly, when in less than twenty years, Vile would be her killer. I really enjoyed Sister Rapture as Ghastly's love interest; we needed a love interest in this book, we really did. Ghastly also proves himself a wonderful and caring friend, especially to Skulduggery, and some of his words hit me so hard. Initially, that's what the novel provides and it does so successfully. It's interesting to explore these relatively uncharted waters in the series, with Landy using the chance to elaborate on some of the cast left by the wayside in the original stories. Ghastly especially gets a lot of time to shine here as he's essentially the viewpoint character for the story, letting us meet his mother and some of his closer friends outside of the Dead Men.The action is always so impressively written; it flows, the chaos is vivid, the movement articulate. You can see it playing out, startingly, in your head like a movie. And, always, Derek plays with violence and conflict and pain in an accessible way without glorifying it; action scenes leave scars, people get hurt, people are conscious of their actions. Those are all factors that so often are just left behind because they're heavy, and even more so with characters who you're supposed to root for without descending your book into discussions on moral philosophy. Derek touches on the dark, but has such an appreciation for the light (be it comedy, characterisation, motivation) that he can do both. I liked the insight into the Dead Men and some of the surrounding characters (e.g. Corrival Deuce or Sagacious Tome) a lot. Just gonna jump in and say that I overall enjoyed the book. I won't lie and say I wasn't little disappointed with the plot twist, I was having a good time until that happened and thought it ruined it a lil bit. I really thought we were finally getting a full length prequel but hey... In case you were wondering, Dexter's the most honest, Saracen's the most charming, Ravel is the most loyal and you are the most decent." Ravel came with him. Ghastly could tell that he had a question, his friend's face was just too honest to disguise it.

Hell Breaks Loose by Derek Landy | Goodreads Hell Breaks Loose by Derek Landy | Goodreads

I think this is also the best place to point out the cruel, cruel irony and foreshadowing to Ravel's betrayal: And oh my goodness, Ghastly's mother! She is the mother we all want, I just love their relationship. Skulduggery is different in this story, and it is in my opinion very accurate considering what he has been through so very recently. With the help of Skulduggery, Valkyrie wants to stop evil forces threatening the world, but also find justice for her uncle’s death. A writer at the height of his powers . . . Whatever your age, read them and enjoy the ride.” - Irish IndependentWe are friends, then, in the future?" Valkyrie struggled to maintain the scowl, but it was a losing battle. "Yes," she said. "We're very close friends." The Villains The idea that his own friends had to jump him to stop him from sabotaging the mission. The whole thing is incredibly unfair on Skulduggery but it's hard to imagine Skulduggery risking the whole mission for his own personal gain, but he does. In book 1 China tells Valkyrie that he will do this, but this is the first time we actually get to read about it happening. Eh, not a fan to be completely honest. The first half was awesome and interesting, but I didn't love the twist. I'm not that much of a fan of time-travel that doesn't have any real effects (that we know of). I like how they all handled and adapted to the situation but just the fact that Valkyrie was there felt a bit forced to me.