Book Title: Last Stand of Dead Men
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #8
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #8
Date Started: August 31st 2013
Date Completed: September 4th 2013
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Comedy, Thriller, Romance, Horror, Mystery
Rating: Five stars
Review:
I don't think I've ever been as completely speechless as I was when I first finished this book (and several times during). I still haven't quite come to terms with the twists, and I have no idea where the hell the story is going to go from here. But I know one thing: that was possibly the most awesome thing I have ever read to date. I had high expectations, but the final product didn't even come close - as in it overshot those expectations by...a lot.
Note - there will be a spoiler section in this review because I need to vent these feels.
Last Stand of Dead Men is the beginning of the war. But not a war between good and evil; between mortals and mages; between the good guys and the bad. This is a war between Sanctuaries. Fellow mages turning on each other. The sparks have been there the whole time, but now they've been lit and everyone is getting dragged into it. At the same time, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are desperately trying to find a way to stop Darquesse from rising and destroying the world. But time is running out and even Valkyrie's reflection knows her original copy isn't strong enough to hold back for long.
I've always loved Derek's writing. He's amazing at combining so many different genres and aspects into it. Last Stand of Dead Men did take me longer to read than the other books, because it's not only longer, but the writing is more detailed and sophisticated. I've always said that, as the stories have gone on, Landy has really developed along with them. For example, the earlier books are simpler both in plot and style of writing, but this style has adapted as the target audience (of which I am proud to be a part of) has grown up, as well as the author.
The action is flawlessly told, and amazingly exciting to visualise. I love the description, even though it's reasonably simple - but it's just right to fit into the passages and get the desired affect on the reader. The dialogue is great and everything ties in really well together.
There's a very comedic flare to the narration (on top of the hilarious dialogue running through even the serious moments) that engages the reader very well. You get to know the characters really well form whoever's story a certain chapter follows. Since the story is told in the third person, we don't get direct quotes from the character's mind, but we still get their kind of attitude and perspective though the way Landy does present it.
Where to start with the story? So, so much happened. So, so many twists. I can't even begin to describe how well though-out this book was.
I have to say, I did have a bit of trouble at the start with remembering all the characters and everything that had happened in the previous book. The first couple of chapters didn't make much sense to me, and I ended up skim-reading them again once I had reminded myself of the events of Kingdom of the Wicked. After that, however, everything fell into place and became truly awesome.
I love how much the story developed. The book isn't short, I know. But still, within 600 pages, an astonishing amount occurred. And every part of it had me utterly transfixed. When I got about halfway through, I couldn't put the book down. I lost a lot of valuable sleep over this. But it was worth it.
The twists were legendary. I didn't see them coming until they happened. And then I was literally just staring at the page. Like I said before, I have never been so utterly speechless and clueless before. The brilliant thing was also that it wasn't so completely ridiculous that it couldn't be true. Sometimes twists like the ones in this novel are just too far fetched and they just don't work. But I didn't question the revelations. There also weren't just one or two twists; they were appearing throughout the whole book. You didn't have time to process what happened until something else came up. I was shocked by a most of it - which was great because it meant I was feeling something. I very nearly cried - very nearly.
But some of the events in this book must have been thought of AGES ago. I'm talking second-or-third-book ages ago. I wouldn't have been able to keep quiet about those things for that long! Especially since they're so huge and...huge!
The ending. You couldn't leave it on a bigger cliffhanger. I'm used to the Skulduggery books ending on cliffhangers, but this was just mean. (Somewhere in Ireland, Derek Landy is sitting, grinning at his own evilness.)
One of the things I found really hard to deal with - more at the start, I admit - was the sheer amount of characters. I often mistook some of the smaller people with each other, which confused things a little. However, after the first third, I managed to get to grips with everyone.
I could go on for hours about each character, because there must be literally hundreds, but these are, in my opinion, the best and most important.
Oh Valkyrie. You are such an amazing character. So realistic; conflicted, guilty, selfish, making mistakes all the time. That's what makes her so brilliant; she is in no way a hero. Yet at the same time, she strives for what's important. She saves peoples lives and she wants to do what's right. But she makes mistakes, and good intentions fail her, like they do to so many of us (just, in our cases, not on the saving the world scale).
Skulduggery remains to be a truly amazing mystery. I love the fact, even eight books in, we still don't know him that well. And he's still shrouded in secrets. This is emphasised by the fact that we're never given a chapter following Skulduggery's story. We have one for pretty much everyone else, but Skulduggery is always portrayed through someone else's series of events. It's a great technique, and I'm not sure I ever want to learn everything about Skulduggery. I always love mysterious characters; they're interesting because we don't know everything about them.
If you were to ask me who my favourite character was from this series, I would cheat and say all the Dead Men. Because I think I might have actually fallen in love with them. (Yes. Plural.) The Dead Men alive and participating in this book are: Erkskine Ravel, Ghastly Bespoke, Dexter Vex, Saracen Rue and Anton Shudder. I could write whole essays on each of them, but I'll try and keep it quick. They each have their own certain flare, but all share their love of sarcasm, dark humour, quick wits and disturbing tempers. We've known Ghastly since the first book, and Ravel has been around for a while now. But I really loved seeing Vex, Rue and Shudder more in this book. We've met them before, but they became primary characters in this instalment of the series. It's great to see the legends Skulduggery's been telling Valkyrie for ages in real life - and even more hilarious to hear their own stories.
I was so glad Fletcher came back. Oh I love that boy. He's a complete idiot, and infernally irritating, but he's so good. I felt so sorry for him for what happened, and I don't think he did deserve it. But of course, I was glad it happened, because it was great in the storyline. He's very real to me, because you can see when his emotions are affecting him - and that's quite a lot of the time.
You gotta love Tanith and Billy Ray. They're great. They weren't in the book as much as I'd expect, but then again they did just have a 'novella' (I can't even type that with a serious face) all to themselves. But I think they're a great pair and they always add both humour and drama to the story.
I was very entertained to find Ashione Flare in the story. It was strange, because I was just thinking about the girl she's based on, and if she would ever be involved in the story since she's such good friends with the author. And then the next chapter I read featured her alias. It was strange to say the least. Apart from the fact I know the origin for the character, I really loved Ashione anyway. She's feisty and her inclusion was great.
Where is the Kenny story going? I'm so scared he's going to bring everything tumbling down (or more than it already has, anyway). He's great, and I like the way we get to see a mortal's impression of the magical world. It brings everything into perspective.
The pace was great. I found it a little slow to begin with, but that's because I was reminding myself of what had happened and the beginnings of the war had to be set up before it started. After that, however, it was fast and I couldn't put the book down.
[Spoiler Section - do NOT read if you have not read the book yet, and plan to.]
Darquesse! I have so many questions that need answering. What's going to happen there? Are they going to get Valkyrie back? Is Stephanie going to turn into Valkyrie, and then kill Darquesse? Will Skulduggery turn into Vile to help? What's going to happen? The build up to this part of the plot was so good - especially that chapter where Darquesse has taken over, and Valkyrie getting subdued and basically wiped out. Darquesse genuinely scares me, which is a first. And I think she's just as formidable and dangerous as she's been said to be throughout the last couple of books.
Stephanie. What a stroke of genius. I suspected Valkyrie's reflection was going to have a big part in her downfall, and everything that happens building up to the climax of the last book, but I didn't expect this! I admit, I was uncomfortable with Stephanie almost replacing Valkyrie, once she turned bad. Stephanie almost acts like a microcosm for the war between Sanctuaries: she's tired of being brushed aside and wants to be the important one. And if you think about it, while Valkyrie may be better when it comes to the magical side of things, Stephanie is actually superior when it comes to the mind. She remembers everything; every lessons Skulduggery or anyone else taught her; she remembers little details; she understands things to a different perspective than Valkyrie, but still in a sophisticated way. And Stephanie loves her and Valkyrie's family just as much as her original. So why shouldn't she have a life too? I love the way we're made to question this by Landy. It's awesome, and made me feel guilty about the uneasy feeling I got when Stephanie joined the gang.
I'm not going to say much about the deaths but, as much as it may hurt me, they were so vital to the story. I didn't see the coming, which made it hurt all the more. I actually just stared after Ghastly and Shudder were murdered. I didn't even know it had happened at first. Derek writes like that; so casually. It gives a strange affect of where you're detached, like it's not real. This is amazing because it's what I expect actually witnessing something like that would be.
[End of Spoiler Section.]
I recommend Last Stand of Dead Men to everyone. You MUST read the other books first, but do take into account that the story and writing develops and improves as the story goes on. The first book isn't as sophisticated as this novel - not that there's anything wrong with that - but I don't want people to be put off the books because they think the first instalment is too 'simple'.
But you should definitely go and read the series. It's one of the few stories that makes me laugh out loud, makes me nearly cry, and leaves me speechless. The action is wonderfully done, the characters are practically real and the depth and complexity of the story as it grows is indescribable. Go read. Now. If you're still reading this, then you haven't read it yet. Go.
And finally I leave you with this piece of advice: it's a very bad idea not to take the title seriously.
Image Source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/
91qNcJcVFYL._SL1500_.jpg
I don't think I've ever been as completely speechless as I was when I first finished this book (and several times during). I still haven't quite come to terms with the twists, and I have no idea where the hell the story is going to go from here. But I know one thing: that was possibly the most awesome thing I have ever read to date. I had high expectations, but the final product didn't even come close - as in it overshot those expectations by...a lot.
Note - there will be a spoiler section in this review because I need to vent these feels.
Last Stand of Dead Men is the beginning of the war. But not a war between good and evil; between mortals and mages; between the good guys and the bad. This is a war between Sanctuaries. Fellow mages turning on each other. The sparks have been there the whole time, but now they've been lit and everyone is getting dragged into it. At the same time, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are desperately trying to find a way to stop Darquesse from rising and destroying the world. But time is running out and even Valkyrie's reflection knows her original copy isn't strong enough to hold back for long.
I've always loved Derek's writing. He's amazing at combining so many different genres and aspects into it. Last Stand of Dead Men did take me longer to read than the other books, because it's not only longer, but the writing is more detailed and sophisticated. I've always said that, as the stories have gone on, Landy has really developed along with them. For example, the earlier books are simpler both in plot and style of writing, but this style has adapted as the target audience (of which I am proud to be a part of) has grown up, as well as the author.
The action is flawlessly told, and amazingly exciting to visualise. I love the description, even though it's reasonably simple - but it's just right to fit into the passages and get the desired affect on the reader. The dialogue is great and everything ties in really well together.
There's a very comedic flare to the narration (on top of the hilarious dialogue running through even the serious moments) that engages the reader very well. You get to know the characters really well form whoever's story a certain chapter follows. Since the story is told in the third person, we don't get direct quotes from the character's mind, but we still get their kind of attitude and perspective though the way Landy does present it.
Where to start with the story? So, so much happened. So, so many twists. I can't even begin to describe how well though-out this book was.
I have to say, I did have a bit of trouble at the start with remembering all the characters and everything that had happened in the previous book. The first couple of chapters didn't make much sense to me, and I ended up skim-reading them again once I had reminded myself of the events of Kingdom of the Wicked. After that, however, everything fell into place and became truly awesome.
I love how much the story developed. The book isn't short, I know. But still, within 600 pages, an astonishing amount occurred. And every part of it had me utterly transfixed. When I got about halfway through, I couldn't put the book down. I lost a lot of valuable sleep over this. But it was worth it.
The twists were legendary. I didn't see them coming until they happened. And then I was literally just staring at the page. Like I said before, I have never been so utterly speechless and clueless before. The brilliant thing was also that it wasn't so completely ridiculous that it couldn't be true. Sometimes twists like the ones in this novel are just too far fetched and they just don't work. But I didn't question the revelations. There also weren't just one or two twists; they were appearing throughout the whole book. You didn't have time to process what happened until something else came up. I was shocked by a most of it - which was great because it meant I was feeling something. I very nearly cried - very nearly.
But some of the events in this book must have been thought of AGES ago. I'm talking second-or-third-book ages ago. I wouldn't have been able to keep quiet about those things for that long! Especially since they're so huge and...huge!
The ending. You couldn't leave it on a bigger cliffhanger. I'm used to the Skulduggery books ending on cliffhangers, but this was just mean. (Somewhere in Ireland, Derek Landy is sitting, grinning at his own evilness.)
One of the things I found really hard to deal with - more at the start, I admit - was the sheer amount of characters. I often mistook some of the smaller people with each other, which confused things a little. However, after the first third, I managed to get to grips with everyone.
I could go on for hours about each character, because there must be literally hundreds, but these are, in my opinion, the best and most important.
Oh Valkyrie. You are such an amazing character. So realistic; conflicted, guilty, selfish, making mistakes all the time. That's what makes her so brilliant; she is in no way a hero. Yet at the same time, she strives for what's important. She saves peoples lives and she wants to do what's right. But she makes mistakes, and good intentions fail her, like they do to so many of us (just, in our cases, not on the saving the world scale).
Skulduggery remains to be a truly amazing mystery. I love the fact, even eight books in, we still don't know him that well. And he's still shrouded in secrets. This is emphasised by the fact that we're never given a chapter following Skulduggery's story. We have one for pretty much everyone else, but Skulduggery is always portrayed through someone else's series of events. It's a great technique, and I'm not sure I ever want to learn everything about Skulduggery. I always love mysterious characters; they're interesting because we don't know everything about them.
If you were to ask me who my favourite character was from this series, I would cheat and say all the Dead Men. Because I think I might have actually fallen in love with them. (Yes. Plural.) The Dead Men alive and participating in this book are: Erkskine Ravel, Ghastly Bespoke, Dexter Vex, Saracen Rue and Anton Shudder. I could write whole essays on each of them, but I'll try and keep it quick. They each have their own certain flare, but all share their love of sarcasm, dark humour, quick wits and disturbing tempers. We've known Ghastly since the first book, and Ravel has been around for a while now. But I really loved seeing Vex, Rue and Shudder more in this book. We've met them before, but they became primary characters in this instalment of the series. It's great to see the legends Skulduggery's been telling Valkyrie for ages in real life - and even more hilarious to hear their own stories.
I was so glad Fletcher came back. Oh I love that boy. He's a complete idiot, and infernally irritating, but he's so good. I felt so sorry for him for what happened, and I don't think he did deserve it. But of course, I was glad it happened, because it was great in the storyline. He's very real to me, because you can see when his emotions are affecting him - and that's quite a lot of the time.
You gotta love Tanith and Billy Ray. They're great. They weren't in the book as much as I'd expect, but then again they did just have a 'novella' (I can't even type that with a serious face) all to themselves. But I think they're a great pair and they always add both humour and drama to the story.
I was very entertained to find Ashione Flare in the story. It was strange, because I was just thinking about the girl she's based on, and if she would ever be involved in the story since she's such good friends with the author. And then the next chapter I read featured her alias. It was strange to say the least. Apart from the fact I know the origin for the character, I really loved Ashione anyway. She's feisty and her inclusion was great.
Where is the Kenny story going? I'm so scared he's going to bring everything tumbling down (or more than it already has, anyway). He's great, and I like the way we get to see a mortal's impression of the magical world. It brings everything into perspective.
The pace was great. I found it a little slow to begin with, but that's because I was reminding myself of what had happened and the beginnings of the war had to be set up before it started. After that, however, it was fast and I couldn't put the book down.
[Spoiler Section - do NOT read if you have not read the book yet, and plan to.]
Darquesse! I have so many questions that need answering. What's going to happen there? Are they going to get Valkyrie back? Is Stephanie going to turn into Valkyrie, and then kill Darquesse? Will Skulduggery turn into Vile to help? What's going to happen? The build up to this part of the plot was so good - especially that chapter where Darquesse has taken over, and Valkyrie getting subdued and basically wiped out. Darquesse genuinely scares me, which is a first. And I think she's just as formidable and dangerous as she's been said to be throughout the last couple of books.
Stephanie. What a stroke of genius. I suspected Valkyrie's reflection was going to have a big part in her downfall, and everything that happens building up to the climax of the last book, but I didn't expect this! I admit, I was uncomfortable with Stephanie almost replacing Valkyrie, once she turned bad. Stephanie almost acts like a microcosm for the war between Sanctuaries: she's tired of being brushed aside and wants to be the important one. And if you think about it, while Valkyrie may be better when it comes to the magical side of things, Stephanie is actually superior when it comes to the mind. She remembers everything; every lessons Skulduggery or anyone else taught her; she remembers little details; she understands things to a different perspective than Valkyrie, but still in a sophisticated way. And Stephanie loves her and Valkyrie's family just as much as her original. So why shouldn't she have a life too? I love the way we're made to question this by Landy. It's awesome, and made me feel guilty about the uneasy feeling I got when Stephanie joined the gang.
I'm not going to say much about the deaths but, as much as it may hurt me, they were so vital to the story. I didn't see the coming, which made it hurt all the more. I actually just stared after Ghastly and Shudder were murdered. I didn't even know it had happened at first. Derek writes like that; so casually. It gives a strange affect of where you're detached, like it's not real. This is amazing because it's what I expect actually witnessing something like that would be.
[End of Spoiler Section.]
I recommend Last Stand of Dead Men to everyone. You MUST read the other books first, but do take into account that the story and writing develops and improves as the story goes on. The first book isn't as sophisticated as this novel - not that there's anything wrong with that - but I don't want people to be put off the books because they think the first instalment is too 'simple'.
But you should definitely go and read the series. It's one of the few stories that makes me laugh out loud, makes me nearly cry, and leaves me speechless. The action is wonderfully done, the characters are practically real and the depth and complexity of the story as it grows is indescribable. Go read. Now. If you're still reading this, then you haven't read it yet. Go.
And finally I leave you with this piece of advice: it's a very bad idea not to take the title seriously.
Image Source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/
91qNcJcVFYL._SL1500_.jpg
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