Published by HarperCollins Children's Books for World Book Day 2012
Skulduggery and Valkyrie are back, in an exclusive World Book Day novelette, set after the momentous events of Death Bringer…
Hey, punks! Skulduggery and Valkyrie are about to make your day…
15-year-old Ryan is running away from home, looking for escape and adventure. But unfortunately, sometimes people DO get what they wish for. Ryan hasn’t gone far before he is set upon by a bunch of scary, nihilistic punk-sorcerers who need him to set off a doomsday device that will destroy the planet and everyone on it. Fun!
Riding to the rescue, however, is a certain skeleton detective and his teenage partner/combat accessory. Now Skulduggery and Valkyrie only have a few hours to figure out what's going on, while saving Ryan and – incidentally – the whole world.
And all that time, the punk-sorcerors are closing in…
Hey, punks! Skulduggery and Valkyrie are about to make your day…
15-year-old Ryan is running away from home, looking for escape and adventure. But unfortunately, sometimes people DO get what they wish for. Ryan hasn’t gone far before he is set upon by a bunch of scary, nihilistic punk-sorcerers who need him to set off a doomsday device that will destroy the planet and everyone on it. Fun!
Riding to the rescue, however, is a certain skeleton detective and his teenage partner/combat accessory. Now Skulduggery and Valkyrie only have a few hours to figure out what's going on, while saving Ryan and – incidentally – the whole world.
And all that time, the punk-sorcerors are closing in…
♥♥♥♥♥
I have been following the Skulduggery Pleasant series loyally since I was 11 years old, and it was first introduced to me by my best friend. This novella was especially written for World Book Day 2012, which was on 1st March. On World Book Day in the UK and Ireland, young readers get the chance to obtain various short stories for £1 to help encourage reading.
First of all, this short story has no relation to the current Skulduggery plot and does not develop it further. Nevertheless, Derek Landy wrote us a small piece of awesome for World Book Day.
This story revolves around a 15-year-old boy called Ryan, who's going through a rough patch in his life. Suddenly, he's thrown into the magical world by a hideous twist of fate and Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective and his 17-year-old sidekick, Valkyrie Cain, come to the rescue. A peculiar adventure ensues! The story is filled with wit, humour, and of course, lots of butt-kicking. Derek even managed to throw in a twist (he's good at doing that) which I didn't see coming. There's also some romance in there, and it makes the ending sad but sweet.
This was a fantastic novella which I throughly enjoyed, and I laughed throughout the entire thing. This is why Derek Landy is one of my most favourite authors, and this book will be a welcome addition to my Skulduggery collection!
5 stars
