Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones [Paperback]

Derek Landy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 29, 2010 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Skulduggery Pleasant

Valkyrie screamed, sprinting toward Skulduggery.

He looked up and reached out to her, but it was too late. . . .

If you've read the other Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy (and you really should have read them by now), you've seen it all before: Some bad guy wants to bring about the end of the world, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie fight valiantly to stop it from happening. A few people get hurt, sure, but everything's all right in the end.

Well, not this time.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—This story picks up where Playing with Fire (HarperCollins, 2008) leaves off. The skeleton detective and his 14-year-old sidekick, Valkyrie, have uncovered an evil plot to allow the Faceless Ones through a portal into our world, which will surely bring about the destruction of life as we know it. Banished from the department and branded a dangerous character, Skulduggery is not allowed to work the case, but he is able to uncover enough information to put the pieces together. The plot contains many twists and double crosses as dubious characters factor into the mystery. In the end, sacrifices are made and Valkyrie is faced with a difficult decision. This third installment has enough action to keep casual or new readers interested in what happens next. Kids who have outgrown Lemony Snicket will enjoy the series.—Karen Hoth, Manatee Elementary School, Fort Myers, FL END --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Praise for Skulduggery Pleasant (HB) Hugely enjoyable -- a thrill-a-minute adventure.' Jonathan Stroud 'It's exciting, pacy, nicely handled and fun. I sincerely hope Landy revisits these characters.' Philip Ardagh, Guardian 'A gripping debut.' Phil Hogan, Observer 'Skulduggery Pleasant serves up a thoroughly satisfying blend of humour, magic and adventure. Once you've met Stephanie and Skullduggery, you'll be clamouring for a sequel.' Rick Riordan "A remarkably accomplished debut with wonderful dialogue." Robert Dunbar, Irish Times "[Landy's] fight scenes are perfectly pitched. His characters are exceptionally well drawn and delightfully colourful! Reading [this book] is like riding a rollercoaster." Irish Independent "Landy's witty style will win him fans of all ages! With writing of this standard, a rattling plot and definite potential for cross-over appeal, it's a good job Harry's [Potter] resigning before he's forcibly retired." Irish Mail on Sunday "Humour and magic combine in this thrilling adventure." Waterstone's Books Quarterly "!people in the book world are raving about this book." Glasgow Herald "It's pacy, it's funny, it's irreverent. The relationship between Skulduggery and Stephanie is tremendously strong. Stephanie is a splendid character -- blunt, logical and outspoken! We enjoyed Skkulduggery Pleasant. Muchly. Roll on volume two!" The Book Bag "A rip-roaring adventure." Irish Sunday Independent "Full of black humour, super powers, mysteries, murder and mayhem." Carousel --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition (June 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061240931
• ISBN-13: 978-0061240935
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #169,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Derek Landy lives near Dublin. Before writing his children's story about a sharply-dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. "I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave," he says, "or she would be if she were dead."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good and exciting, October 12, 2010

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones (Paperback)

Skulduggery Pleasant The Faceless Ones fits in well with the other books and is just as good. It is easy to pick up the story and characters so don't worry if you haven't read the other books.

This book is a little bit scary but good for an 8 year old or older I think. It is a very exciting and enjoyable.

You will like this book if you like adventure, magic and action.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is no other place where you can get a dry sense of humor, sarcastic bantering, and a host of original characters, December 28, 2009

By 

KidsReads (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones (Hardcover)

After defeating endless vampires, demons and bad guys, you would think that Skulduggery Pleasant and his assistant, Valkyrie Cain, would be ready for a break. Although blacklisted by the Sanctuary, Skulduggery and Valkyrie still seem to be in the thick of all matters paranormal and unusual. You didn't expect them to sit at home and just watch the world come to an end, did you?

After inspecting the crime scene of a teleporter's murder, four more teleporters show up dead and the trend is utterly disturbing. Not only are teleporters extremely hard to catch and/or kill, all of them have been murdered in the same gruesome way. Skulduggery and Valkyrie launch into an investigation that turns up even more alarming information. Someone named Batu is killing off teleporters to narrow down the population to one...and that one teleporter will be used to open the gateway to the world of the Faceless Ones.

Of course, there are numerous issues to complicate matters. Finding a teleporter is never easy, and confining them to one location is even trickier. Batu also has drummed up support and created "The Diablerie," a problematic group of assassins who will stop at nothing to make sure that the gateway is opened. The Sanctuary isn't exactly being helpful, seeing as their head detective, Remus Crux, gets confused easily about who the real bad guys are. It also doesn't help that a spy is hidden in the Sanctuary passing along crucial information to the Diablerie.

In the midst of all these issues, Valkyrie Cain is struggling with some problems of her own. Newly 14, Valkyrie has grown over the past year and her protective outer gear is no longer fitting. Her reflection is doing well keeping up appearances at home and school, but her reflection also received her first kiss from a boy, and Valkyrie is disappointed to find the whole experience devoid of emotion. Perhaps she is most uncomfortable with the fact that everyone keeps telling her she needs to live a normal teenage life, one that is not fraught with danger and an untimely death. It looks as though her nightly excursions may finally be catching up with her.

However, Valkyrie's personal problems will have to wait for another day as the threat of the Faceless Ones is very real and very dangerous. If you've read the previous installments in this series, then you know that there is an epic battle, a couple of deaths, and some bruises and broken bones. In the end, though, there are smiles all around as yet another disaster is averted. Not to give anything away, readers, but don't plan on smiling at the end of this one.

I've always thought that the Skulduggery books have long been underappreciated. Sure, it's fun to have wizards, witches, magic, blah, blah, blah, but there is no other place where you can get a dry sense of humor, sarcastic bantering, and a host of original characters that cause readers to shed tears from so much laughing. Quick wit is hard to come by these days, and if you read too fast, you're going to miss all the little gems inserted craftily into the story. I, for one, can't wait to see what Derek Landy has up his sleeve next.

--- Reviewed by Benjamin Boche ([e-mail])

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoying the Series with my Son, September 8, 2009

By 

Happy Reader (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones (Hardcover)

The Skulduggery Pleasant series is for older kids, probably most exciting for the 10-12 age range. But I'm a mom, and I read this before passing it on to my son. (He was working on another book.) One thing I like about this series, which I like about the Harry Potter books, too, is that genuinely bad things happen to people. Though. since the world of magic and monsters isn't real, the young reader is removed from the violence being "real".

But the battle between good and evil is desperate and the bad guys are really bad and there's plenty of people who sit in the middle unintentionally making trouble (Think Fudge in Harry Potter) or whose side is really up for grabs (Think Snape). There's also a lot of humor in the Skulduggery series.

The Skulduggery books, at least through this 3rd book, do not have the touches of philosophy that you see in Harry Potter, though. If Derek Landy added a little more of the big questions to his stories, a little more of the morality tales, I think this series could turn into really exceptional books. Right now, they are, on balance, more simple fun.

But sometimes the writing is downright excellent. Near the end of "The Faceless Ones", Landy describes a Faceless One as it enters our world. His description is amazing, I could see this creature in all it's awful beauty. More writing like that, and he'll have a classic. He's not there, yet, though.

Recommended as fun reading.