Pillagy: The Complete Trilogy

by Obert Skye

Fifteen-year-old Beck Phillips seems to have a knack for causing mischief in the secluded village of Kingsplot. Beck's antics will keep you laughing out loud and sitting on the edge of your seat and you discover his wonderful world of dragons. PillageWhen Beck travels by train to the secluded village of Kingsplot to live with his wealthy but estranged uncle, Beck discovers some dark family secrets. A buried basement, a forbidden wall, an old book of family history with odd references to. . . dragons? Beck's life is about to be changed forever in this suspenseful tale about the destructive nature of greed and the courage to make things right. Pillage is filled with Mr. Skye's signature humor as well as some very intense moments, including a surprise ending, that will keep readers young and old engrossed and entertained. Choke Beck has spent his time since the dragon pillage of Kingsplot inflating a huge weather balloon inside a tiny building, exploring all the forbidden rooms in the manor, and showing his natural propensity to act first and think later. But, he is a Pillage and dragons are part of his heritage. Try as he might, he can't ignore their obvious lure. Confronted with conflicting stories from adults who claim to know what's best for him, Beck retrieves the last dragon egg in existence and takes it to a mountainside cave to hatch. In this exhilarating sequel to Pillage, Beck must use his natural ingenuity to sort out who can be trusted and who can't, before it's too late. AmbushWhen Beck's personality and behavior begin to change after he makes a fateful, life-altering decision involving—what else?—a dragon egg, there is no one around to stop him from fulfilling his family's destiny set out in The Grim Knot. And as life in Kingsplot moves unwittingly toward the brink of another dragon disaster, Beck finds himself living a life of deception as he hides information from the people who love and care about him the most. In this final episode of the Pillagy series, with the destructive forces of his family heritage running strong and unhindered, Beck must now face the truth and rise to the challenge of stopping the madness or succumb to the draconic chaos he has helped create.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

693 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 19, 2012

About the author

Obert Skye read his first book at age two. He wrote his first story at age four. And he was nearly trampled by a herd of water buffalo at age six. For a short time, he lived on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, where he spent time as a candy-taster. Several years ago, Obert Skye says, he discovered the existence of Foo. Publishing his story as a fictional series was not Obert’s first choice. Nevertheless he is content that the “history” is being told.

Hobbies and other interests: Collecting old maps, water polo, roller coasters.

Reviews

[Calvin Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exciting and hilarious.

I love the wit and humor Obert Skye always imbues into his characters. He has a gift for bringing stories to life. Almost like magic.

[Sean O’Donnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pillagy is an excellent series of books that demonstrates the conflict of character vs. self, written by Obert Skye. Beck Phillips is a 15-year-old boy who goes to live with his eccentric uncle in the secluded town of Kingsplot, and upon arriving, begins to learn of his family’s dark secrets, which includes a buried basement, an odd relationship with plants, and an old book containing the history of his family and dragons. He is a very sarcastic, very relatable character that is a lot of fun to read about. Obert Skye did a fantastic job of giving Beck his sense of humor, and making jokes that can have you laughing out loud in the middle of silent reading. Plenty of literary elements are present in his writing, and it makes reading the book all the more fun.

One of those literary elements is imagery, of which there is a fantastic example on page 472: “Mushroom caps the size of cantaloupes were pushing up from the old below the baseboards and sending out long shoots that sliced through the air like wet spaghetti noodles.” The use of food to describe the surroundings falls in line with the main character’s sense of humor, and makes the scene that much more interesting to read. This kind of imagery is found countless times throughout the book, and it makes every sentence that much more unique. I especially love when the imagery describes something that is completely ridiculous as something even more ridiculous, but it makes more sense that way.

Another of the literary elements that is found in the book is personification. An example of this is found on page 386: “She [Lizzy] looked at me and almost smiled--at least that’s how I perceived it.” One of Beck’s recurring problems in the book is that he gets attached to the dragons. Obert Skye excellently displays this problem by having Beck personificate the dragons, making them almost human to him. This is necessary for the development of one of the themes of the book, greed. The dragons are the source of Beck’s greed, and it pains him when the dragons go bad. It is an interesting detail that the dragons only care about themselves, and this proves to be quite dangerous when Beck tries to ‘tame’ them.

This book series is a fantastic one, and it is not a waste of time to read it. I highly recommend anyone to read it, and seeing how Pillagy is just one big book that has all 3 books, it allows you to read straight from the beginning of the book to the end. Pillagy is the type of book that you pick up, comment on its weight, and then sit down to see what it is all about. Obert Skye is a talented author, whose wit and writing never ceases to amaze me.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked reading the three books together. I think it would have been worse to read them separate. I think it would be great for my kids, but it wasn't detailed enough for me. Too many questions left unanswered.

[Kim Stafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's too childish for my tastes. Tolkien! I'm coming, baby!

[Zach Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. I think it was sort of like the book Fablehaven.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent young adult fiction but pretty thin storyline and characters were pretty one dimensional. Good for a much younger audience.