Seasons of War

Book Title: Seasons of War

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #13

Date Started: April 1st 2020

Date Completed: April 5th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Thriller, Horror, Action, Mystery

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Seasons of War, number 13 (thirteen!) in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, i.e. perhaps my most loved book series of childhood and my teenage years. It's got a tough act to follow, but it didn't disappoint. This has definitely been my favourite instalment in the sequel series so far; it's a bit like reading all those stories Skulduggery and the others would tell Val about the 'old days'. It was always so wistful, mysterious, and adventurous, and now we get to live through it - albeit, in an updated context. I loved that open-world feel, this real sense of a slow epic in a war the characters had to steadfastly, nobly live through.

But it has to be said: it's so nice to have hope again. We're starting to see Valkyrie and other characters defeat their demons and start up again after some really gruelling stuff in the last few books. I always liked the fact that this sequel series follows the consequences of everything Val went through as a teenager, and a really important part of that is showing that she can survive and find a way to live with the after-effects too (which she was definitely struggling with a few books ago).

As well, it was so good getting to see old friends again. Even if Derek just uses it as a way to torture us by putting them in terrible situations. Honestly, this felt like the first book I wasn't sitting there going 'where's Tanith? You mentioned Dexter, when are we going to see him? What about this other character from the original series, are they going to turn up at any point?' While it's no fault of Derek's, I have been distracted from the story in the past few instalments with the excitement that I might get to see an old friend again. I felt like that need was satisfied this time around.

My one observation that doesn't click is that there are just too many subplots. A lot of them were introduced earlier in the series, but aren't relevant anymore, or have been left unfinished, but they're still in the story, I guess to be consistent. I appreciate that more than them being abandoned, especially since stories are unruly things that will change unexpectedly, but it is sometimes a bit strange. Didn't Tanith want to kill China for an unknown reason? Wasn't the US president super important? Wasn't the Omen-Auger stuff supposed to be the main focus at one point? In all fairness, a lot of them have influenced the main story, but there's some which I feel like could've been wrapped up in the last book or even held back until they became important again.

The elephant in the room is does it feel like the original series? Does it have the same magic? And, honestly, the answer is no. It's darker, crueller, more twisted like it's grown up with a lot of us that were reading these books when we were kids. And though I can't help but go into these books with the original series at the back of my mind, I don't think it's a bad thing that it's different - it's just different. And, at the end of the day, it still leaves me waiting for more, and that's the important thing.