Skulduggery Pleasant

Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgley is tired of her boring and miserable life. But when her uncle dies and a mysterious man breaks into her recently inherited mansion and tries to kill her, she is saved by a humorous, arrogant, elementally magical, 400-year-old detective that goes by the name of Skulduggery Pleasant, who just so happens to be a walking, talking skeleton, and she is pulled with him to a secret world of danger, murder and magic. Later in the book, taking the new name of Valkyrie Cain, Stephanie partners up with Skulduggery to solve her uncle's murder meeting many types of people and creatures along the way, to prevent the devious Nefarian Serpine from obtaining the Sceptre of Ancients, a mystical weapon that can slay even the strongest of gods. The Sceptre is a powerful weapon which can be used to defeat and overcome the world and theoretically bring back the Faceless Ones.

Baron Vengeous, one of Mevolent's Three Generals, has escaped from prison, and he has big plans for the Grotesquery, a dark creature created from the remains of some of the most deadly creatures to ever walk the earth. Most worryingly of all, it had the torso of a Faceless One, one of the dark gods that ruled the earth eons ago, and Baron plans to use this to bring back the rest of the Faceless Ones, so they may resume their reign of tyranny and torture, and to help him with this endeavour he has an army of vampires at his disposal. This will be Skulduggery and Valkyrie's toughest battle yet.

As a number of teleporters are mysteriously murdered Valkyrie and Skulduggery learn that it is quickly linked to a fanatical cult named the Diablerie, who worship horrific Dark gods known as the Faceless Ones, as they attempt to open a portal with the goal of returning the Faceless Ones to the world. With the assistance of a cocky young teleporter, Fletcher Renn, Valkyrie and Skulduggery have very little time to track down a mysterious man named Batu, stop the Diablerie, and prevent the Faceless ones from returning to earth, because if they don't, the world will burn. This one will have deadly consequences.

Following the events of The Faceless Ones, Valkyrie has tracked down Skulduggery's original skull, with which she can open another portal to the home dimension of the Faceless Ones and rescue Skulduggery. However, things do not go exactly as planned as Skulduggery has become unhinged thanks to his experiences with the Faceless Ones, but it is quickly revealed that they have much bigger problems to worry about: The Revengers Club, a group of criminals and murderers (and Scapegrace), who are out for revenge against those who wronged them in the way they know best: mass murder. And if that wasn't enough to deal with, sensitives all around the globe are having visions of a new threat, one that will bring the world to its knees: Darquesse.

Between the shocking revelation, for its real name, a near-mortal creature for which the Sensers had horrific apocalyptic visions in which it turns the world into a charred lifeless shell, a hotbed of at least 2,000 vicious souls with shadows known as Remnants that turn their hosts into murders of psychopaths without remorse and a prophecy that could turn her into Darquesse, a messiah of necromancers who believe it will be their salvation, Valkyrie Cain has something to worry about. And this time she does not come out completely victorious.

The Death Bringer has finally arrived, and she has brought with her an eagerness to end the world as we know it, and initiate the Passage, a secretive ritual which necromancers refuse to explain to the rest of the magical community, only that it will 'tear down the barriers between life and death'. But when the horrific truth behind the Passage is revealed, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are caught up in a hectic race against time to save half of the world's population from an untimely death, a race that will have both Skulduggery and Valkyrie facing their inner demons.

Mortals all throughout the world are inexplicably obtaining magical powers, and the trail seems to lead to Argeddion, a pacifistic, almost god like being, who, with the knowledge of his true name, hopes to bring magic to the masses, and lift the world into a new era of enlightenment and peace. The only problem with his seemingly idyllic plan: many of his test subjects are running wild, drunk on their newfound power, and are slaughtering innocent people and on the verge of exposing magic to the world. All of this poses a credible challenge to Skulduggery and Valkyrie. They also have the Supreme Council to deal with, an allied group of sanctuaries trying to convince the Irish to hand over control after the recent series of catastrophes. To make things worse, Valkyrie starts having uncontrollable trans-dimensional jaunts to a world controlled by sorcerers, where mortals live in terror and Mevolent still lives.

The war between sanctuaries of the magical world that everyone has been expecting has finally come, with the Supreme Council making a desperate grab for the complete control of the cradle of magic, sparking a brutal war that will turn friend into enemy, and ally to foe. But even as the Dead Men make their final stand for their country and their freedom, there is another war raging, inside Valkyrie Cain herself, and it is much more important. Because if she loses, Darquesse will rise, the world will burn, and everyone she knows and loves will perish.

The final book of the first series. The War of the Sanctuaries has been won, but it was not without its casualties. Rogue supercharged sorcerers from the battle of Roarhaven are running loose. Following Valkyrie's becoming of Darquesse, Skulduggery Pleasant must use any and all means to track down and stop Darquesse and hopefully free Valkyrie before she turns the world into a charred, lifeless cinder. And so he draws together a team of soldiers, monster hunters, killers, criminals, and Valkyrie's own murderous and sentient reflection.

A lot has changed. Roarhaven is now a magical city, where sorcerers can live openly. Valkyrie Cain has been out of action for years, recovering from the war against her alter-ego Darquesse, which nearly destroyed her and everyone else. Some things never change, though: bad people still want to do bad things, and Skulduggery Pleasant is still there to stop them. When Skulduggery learns of a plot to resurrect a terrifying evil, he persuades Valkyrie to join him for just 24 hours. But they need someone else on their team, someone inconspicuous, someone who can go undercover: Omen Darkly, a student at the new Corrival Academy, a school for the magically gifted.

Valkyrie has struggled to keep her family safe ever since she became a sorcerer, while she battled alongside Skulduggery and returned victorious every time. However, a killer kidnaps Alice, her little sister, to force Valkyrie into a final battle. Valkyrie is joined by Skulduggery and Omen Darkly, to find Alice within twelve hours, before it's too late.[18]

Reeling from the aftermath of Alice's kidnapping, Valkyrie and Skulduggery have their hands full with new violent visions of the future, while Valkyrie works tirelessly to find her sister's soul, conspiracies in the American government, and tracking down old enemies while facing newer, greater threats than ever. With the King of the Darklands on the rise, and the Anti-sanctuary moving into their endgame, it will take Valkyrie, Skulduggery, the Darkly brothers, and all the allies they can muster to face what lies in store. If new secrets and revelations don't tear them apart first.

War was coming. To avert catastrophe, Skulduggery was sent on a secret mission that took him away from everything he knew, to Dimension X. It was there that Valkyrie had to fight the hardest against the enemies who wanted her dead. It was only by crawling through darkness that she was able to once again stand in the light in another dimension. Skulduggery found that Mevolent's dimension was overrun by zombie like people who were infected by a disease called Draugar.

Seasons of War released on 2 April 2020, and is the first novel in the final trilogy of the second series.[4][19][20]

In June 2011 Landy posted on his blog that he would be writing a short story about Skulduggery called The End of the World.[21] It was released in late February 2012 to coincide with World Book Day 2012. The Australian release of this novella came with an additional short story titled Just Another Friday Night. Deleted scenes from Skulduggery Pleasant were included. It is set a few months after Death Bringer. It was included in the 2014's short story collection.

A novella featuring Tanith Low was published in 2013. The cover and title were released on 7 December 2012 after several delays. Landy stated it was his favourite book cover ever. It was released on 28 March 2013 in the U.K & Ireland and 1 April in some other countries. The novella follows Tanith Low and Billy-Ray Sanguine as they form a team of villains, outcasts and monsters in order to collect the God-killer weapons, so that they may never be used against Darquesse, whilst Dexter Vex has recruited a team to collect the weapons with the exact opposite in mind: he wants to stockpile the weapons in order to be used against Darquesse. It's a good day to be a bad guy....

Armageddon Outta Here is a collection of all the previous short stories and novellas published in the series along with 3 new short stories, 1 new novella and a sample chapter from the final book.[22] It was released on 3 July 2014.[23] The order below represents chronological order, as they as listed in the collection, as opposed to their original publication date.[24][25]

• Across a Dark Plain: 1861: The Dead Men traversed South Dakota on the hunt for their target, Nefarian Serpine.
• The Horror Writers' Halloween Ball: 1986: Gordon Edgley and Skulduggery Pleasant attend the party of the enigmatic Sebastian Fawkes.
• The Lost Art of World Domination: Set after Skulduggery Pleasant, Scaramouch Van Dreg manages to capture Skulduggery Pleasant. Originally included in Skulduggery Pleasant.
• Gold, Babies and the Brothers Muldoon: Set after Playing with Fire, The Muldoons kidnap babies and hold them to ransom. Originally included in Playing with Fire.
• The Slightly Ignominious End to the Legend of Black Annis: Set after The Faceless Ones, Tanith Low encounters Black Annis for the first time. Originally included in The Faceless Ones.
• Friday Night Fights: Sometime before Dark Days, The story of how Valkyrie Cain and Caelan met each other.
• Myosotis Terra: Set after Dark Days, Skulduggery and Valkyrie search for Myosotis Terra. As part of a competition, a short story was written in 2011 with the winning entry featuring as a character. Some European editions of Mortal Coil contained this story. It was re-released in the tour edition of the 2012 Australian tour edition.
• The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous: Set after Mortal Coil, Geoffrey Scrutinous and Skulduggery Pleasant search for Elwood Satchel. Originally included in Mortal Coil.
• Just Another Friday Night: Sometime before Death Bringer, Tane Aiavao and Hayley Skirmish meet with a cursed family.
• The End of the World: Set after Death Bringer, Skulduggery and Valkyrie attempt to solve a mystery surrounding Deacon Maybury, Ryan and the Doomsday Machine.
• Trick or Treat: Sometime before The Maleficent Seven, Tanith and Billy-Ray Sanguine continue their quest to destroy the God-Killers. In October 2011, Derek Landy posted a Halloween special on his blog, a short story featuring Tanith Low and Billy-Ray Sanguine, titled Trick or Treat.[26] It is a prelude to The Maleficent Seven as it deals with the God-Killer weapons.
• Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon: Set after Kingdom of the Wicked, A haunted house is investigated.
• The Button: Set after Theatre of Shadows: Skulduggery and Valkyrie attempt to avert the cause of the world's destruction. Derek Landy announced on 14 December 2012 that from 21 to 22 December, a short story relating to the Mayan 2012 apocalypse theory would be available on his blog, titled The Button. It was eventually included in the short story collection.[27]

The paperback (29 January 2015) contains three more short stories:

• Death and Texas: Set between Friday Night Fights and Dark Days.
• Theatre of Shadows: Set between Get Thee Behind Me, Bubba Moon and The Maleficent Seven.
• Eyes of the Beholder: Set between The Maleficent Seven and The Button.

An additional short story was later published to the Skulduggery Pleasant website in 2018: Going Once, Going Twice: Set between Dark Days and Mortal Coil.[28]

On 20 March 2020 Landy started posting a choose-your-adventure-type story to Twitter.[29] It ended on 1 April 2020.[30] It had readers vote in a poll at the end of each day he posted the tweets to decide something in the story.

The story follows Valkyrie and Skulduggery going to America to investigate a witch. It introduces the concept of "Horts", essentially people outside of the fictional universe who consume entertainment (that is actually real in the fictional world) and have choices as to what happens.