Last Stand of Dead Men - Derek Landy Review

Blurb: War has finally come. Not between good and evil, but between Sanctuaries, and if Skulduggery and Valkyrie are to stop it they must team up with the rest of the dead men.

At the same time, war rages within Valkyrie herself, as Darquesse is on the verge of rising.

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #8. See my review of   #7, Kingdom of the Wicked, here. 

I waited SO long to buy this one (no, seriously - months after its release date) and while that meant I had to hide from spoilers for way too long, I'm glad. This way I only have four months to wait until Skulduggery Pleasant #9, The Dying of the Light, comes out! (There had better be a signing near me. The joys of living in the same country as the author). 

And before we get started, what a snarky little author he is. 

 Would you guess from that picture how much he likes to torture both his characters and his readers? 

(If not, you're about to find out). Probable spoilers for the early books, but none for Death Bringer or Kingdom of the Wicked (unless you're telepathic). 

The plotlines covered in LSODM are (1) Darquesse (2) War between the Sanctuaries (3) Fletcher (4) Scapegrace and Thrasher (5) the Warlocks (6) the Reflection (7) the Dead Men. That is a hell of a lot of plotlines, Derek. 

(1) As you may know, I love reading about Darquesse. She's just so much fun (especially against Lord Vile). It's like ... wish-fulfilment, in a twisted way. Vicariously being a nigh-indestructible, insanely powerful, teenage girl. (I am one of these things. Guess which one). Her plotline gets pretty dark here - we're constantly aware of Darquesse's presence in Val's mind - and it loses a lot of the Skulduggery-Valkyrie banter. But such is war.

(2) Basically, the Supreme Council (all the other sanctuaries) is at war with the Irish, African and Australian Sanctuaries (the Cradles of Magic stick together). In all the other books we tended to have Skul and Val fighting a single enemy/small group of people who want to, like, take over the world or something. It's manageable, you know? This time they're fighting against their own sorcerers ... and it's really harsh. Difficult to read, I mean. There are no holds barred, lots of casualties. AND TREACHERY GODDAMNIT. 

(3) Fletcher gets more screen time in this book (man, am I happy about that). He's put in plenty of danger and I'll say no more about that. But at least (minor spoiler) a certain Myra is out of the picture. God, I hated her. Val may be a horrible person, but FALKYRIE. 

(4) Scapegrace and Thrasher ... how I love these guys. I'm pretty sure they're immortal by now. They've been humans, an incompetent Killer Supreme, zombies, disembodied heads, gender-swapped and now the Dark and Stormy Knight and the Village Idiot. Derek just seems to keep riffing on the abundant comic relief they provide. Strangely enough, we also feel for them (when we're not laughing at Scapegrace). Well played, Mr. Landy.

(5) I can't say too much about the Warlocks without spoiling but they're really powerful, very angry and present a huge damn threat. (Which is awful for the good guys because come on, don't they have enough on their plates already?).

(6) The Reflection was involved  in the HUGE MASSIVE SHOCK ending of Kingdom of the Wicked, and now she's back with an even larger role. (Note I said 'she', not 'it'). She calls herself Stephanie and sees herself as a distinct person. While Valkyrie ... does some stuff... during the last part of the book, the story is told from her point of view. I didn't really like that, actually. It felt kind of discordant to be bonding with her. 

(7) The Dead Men thing completely broke my heart. I cried. Seriously. At one point, I genuinely cried. There's something that happens halfway through (hint: it involves treachery) and, while I was left in a state of shock by the actual event, what really got me was the other Dead Men's reactions to it. Also, what a twist. I can't decide whether I love or hate Derek right now. 

I think what struck me most in this was how much foreshadowing Derek has done. I re-read #3, the Faceless Ones, recently, and the Reflection stuff was hinted at there. (Also the golden eyes thing. You got us good there, Derek. How dare you.)

Off to cry. 

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Just finished Geek Girl #1 by Holly Smale (not in my usual genre but I really enjoyed it), so that'll be reviewed soon enough. Also, I'm finishing my book's second draft today, woo! And I have an exciting Angry Robot book to start reading on Netgalley, so I'm looking forward to that. 

Darquesse VS Lord Vile

Both Darquesse and Lord Vile will be done in more detail later this month but this post focuses on their chances against each other in a rematch.

First, a quick recap of Lord Vile and Darquesse. Stop reading now if you haven't read Death Bringer and intend to - Spoilers Ahead.

Darquesse is Valkyrie's true name. She comes out if Valkyrie's life is in danger or if she is being possessed by a Remnant, although Darquesse stops her from being fully possessed. Darquesse appears three times, once at the end of Motal Coil and twice in Death Bringer, when Valkyrie is against the Jitter Girls and at the end in the epic fight against Lord Vile. She can heal herself easily and seems to be using raw magic, perhaps that of the Ancients.

Lord Vile is who Skulduggery became when Serpine killed his wife and child. When he came back to life he donned armour, took a new name and joined the Necromancers. He was astonishingly talented and progressed quickly through the Necromancer ranks until he suddenly lost all interest in being their Death Bringer and went off to be a mass murderer, as you do. He came to his senses five years later but unfortunately killed multitudes of people before this, including 'whole battlefields' and Ghastly's mother (Hmmm, I wonder what will happen if Ghastly finds out?).

The two have only had one fight so far, at the end of Death Bringer so I'm really expecting a  rematch. It shows how much power they have between them that they left O' Connell Street in such a state and lived to tell the tale. In my opinion the clash was just a showcase of their talents. We were shown that they both find flying easy, that Lord Vile's armour is extremely effective (Darquesse's force that would have crushed boulders), that Darquesse has the ability to recover from would-be fatal injuries and that she can choose not to feel pain.

Something that Lord Vile should be careful of is the fact that Darquesse said (in Death Bringer) that she is only getting stronger with time. Also, while Lord Vile is all hatred and sadness and evil etc etc, it seems like Darquesse is just trying out her powers and that it's all just one big game to her. I wonder what will happen when she starts taking someone seriously? Dun dun dun...

Next post, comparisons between Harry Potter and Skulduggery Pleasant in anticipation of next month's Harry Potter section. Until then..