Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy
Skulduggery Pleasant bk 8. HarperCollins, 2013. ISBN:
9780007489220.
(Age: Secondary) As stated on the front cover, 'No one is safe'.
When war is declared between the Sanctuaries, Skulduggery and
Valkyrie need to team up with the remaining Dead Men to protect
against total destruction. Their foes and allies seem to be an ever
changing assortment of characters with good and evil often being
difficult to distinguish from one another. Finally, some of the
characters who seemed merely to act as light relief in previous
titles come to the fore and prove they have another side to their
natures and display some greater depth of character. With Darquesse
set to rise, what does Valkyrie's future hold?
Having read and reviewed the Skulduggery titles from the
beginning, what started out as a humorous (if somewhat black) series
has now become perhaps better suited to secondary readers rather
than primary students. As with the characters in the Harry
Potter books, Valkyrie has aged throughout this series. Now,
with an 18 year old protagonist, Landy has tailored his books to
suit older readers with much violence and bloodshed throughout this
title. True devotees of the series will be distraught at some of the
murder and mayhem which has occurred in this title and may be afraid
for their favourite characters in the final volume. Having skimmed
through many reviews written by fans, many seem to be filled with
dread as to what the outcome of the supposed last book of the series
may be. Personally, I found this to be a tome which was difficult to
get involved with initially (largely due to it containing 600 pages
of text, no longer double spaced or as easily accessible) but which
finally managed to get me involved by the time I'd read a third of
the book. Now, I wish the final book was already complete, just so
that I could read it without having lost the gist of the story
before its release. Skulduggery fans will undoubtedly love
and devour this title as much as they have the previous books.
Jo Schenkel