DEREK LANDY'S Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of dark fantasy novels. The volumes follow the exploits of aspiring investigator Valkyrie Cain and her de ella mentor de ella Skulduggery Pleasant, as well as various friends and allies. The main plot revolves around Valkyrie's effort to stop evil forces from endangering the planet, as well as her internal struggle de ella to resist the darkness within de ella.
The first series, which spans a total of nine books, begins when Valkyrie's uncle dies, leaving her a fortune and his mansion. Valkyrie - who is going by the name Stephanie Edgley at the time - is later rescued by Skulduggery Pleasant, a mystery skeleton mage. She soon discovers that her uncle de ella was killed by the villain Serpine.
Stephanie and Skulduggery attempt to thwart Serpine's plot for world dominance with the help of Ghastly Bespoke, China Sorrows, and Tanith Low. Serpine is seeking the Scepter of the Ancients, a weapon intended to overthrow the despotic gods known as the Faceless Ones.
Serpine once killed Skulduggery and his family in a war four hundred years ago. However, Skulduggery inexplicably returns from the dead as a living skeleton.
Stephanie sees her True name in the Book of Names during the fight with Serpine in the Sanctuary, but forgets it, just before the Book of Names was burned.
Skulduggery then offers Stephanie a position as his assistant and apprentice because she is a descendant of the Ancients, and she chooses the name Valkyrie Cain.
In their next adventure, Valkyrie and Skulduggery must deal with Baron Vengeous, who causes dead bodies and vampires to start appearing all across Ireland. With Baron Vengeous pursuing Lord Vile's lethal armor and nearly everyone out to murder Valkyrie, the brave investigative duo face their most difficult struggle yet.
In the next book, Skulduggery Pleasant suddenly vanishes, having been pulled into a parallel dimension ruled by the Faceless Ones. There's a band of villains bent on destroying the Sanctuary, some very powerful people want Valkyrie dead, and it appears that a sorcerer named Darquesse is planning to kill the world and everyone on it.
War eventually arrives. But this is a conflict between Sanctuaries, not between good and evil, or light and dark. Allies become opponents, friends become foes, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie must band together with the rest of the Dead Men if they are to maintain the balance of power and get to the bottom of a great conspiracy that has been in the works for years.
Valkyrie then faces her own conflict, as her own dark side, the outrageously strong entity known as Darquesse, is about to emerge. And if Valkyrie falters even for a second, Darquesse will rise and the world will burn.
Eventually, the Sanctuaries War is won, but not without cost. Skulduggery Pleasant is forced to use any and all means to seek down and stop Darquesse before she turns the globe into a burnt, lifeless cinder, assembling a band of warriors, monster hunters, killers, criminals... and Valkyrie's own vicious reflection of she.
While this story arc effectively ended the Skulduggery Pleasant book series in 2014, Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery returned in the Valkyrie Cain sequel book series three years later.
As the new series begins, Valkyrie is still recovering from her conflict with her alter-ego Darquesse, which nearly destroyed her and everyone else. When Skulduggery learns of a conspiracy to resurrect a frightening evil, he convinces Valkyrie to join him for only 24 hours in a new mission, and they are joined by a new character named Omen Darkly.
They then are plunged into a series of adventures, including having to rescue the soul of Alice, Valkyrie's younger sister.
By the time the penultimate book in the sequel series, titled Dead or Alive , was released last year, the stakes have been raised in a final, desperate search for Alice, the Child of the Faceless Ones, who is destined to bring back humankind's old overlords.
Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain find themselves forced to consider assassinating the villain Damocles Creed. With riots and revolutions looming in the magical city of Roarhaven, Valkyrie must choose between becoming the hero who risks all of her for a noble cause and the killer who sacrifices her own soul for the fate of humanity.
The Valkyrie Cain series finally ended last year with the aptly titled Until The End , which sees the return of the Faceless Ones to our universe.
With the end of the world just days away and no longer able to rely on Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery must forge allies out of foes if he is to save what's left of the globe. And just when things appear to be getting worse, Omen Darkly is forced to stand up when his brother, the Chosen One, vanishes.
However, this is not really the end of the Skulduggery Pleasant saga. In October, series author Landy announced that he was working on a “one-off prequel” officially titled Skulduggery Pleasant: Hell Breaks Loose , which will be released this April. The plot focuses on an enraged Skulduggery, 13 years after being killed and resurrected as a living skeleton, and the Dead Menhunting down Serpine and Vengeous, the Generals of Mevolent.
