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Skulduggery Pleasant #16.7
A Small Matter of Impending Catastrophe
The book version of the thrilling and innovative second Skulduggery Pleasant podcast
In 1962, three sorcerers converged to do battle in a hidden chamber near a disused platform in the London Underground. Prophecy foretold that the victor would hold the very fate of humanity in their hands. Since then… nothing.
Now, the people who are trying to find out exactly what happened all those years ago are being murdered – there is a killer coming after them, a killer with a plan – and their only hope for survival lies with Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain.
Because when the end of the world comes knocking, our first line of defence must always be sarcasm.
Unstoppable, withering sarcasm.
In 1962, three sorcerers converged to do battle in a hidden chamber near a disused platform in the London Underground. Prophecy foretold that the victor would hold the very fate of humanity in their hands. Since then… nothing.
Now, the people who are trying to find out exactly what happened all those years ago are being murdered – there is a killer coming after them, a killer with a plan – and their only hope for survival lies with Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain.
Because when the end of the world comes knocking, our first line of defence must always be sarcasm.
Unstoppable, withering sarcasm.
244 pages, Paperback
Published October 23, 2025
16 people are currently reading
159 people want to read
About the author
Derek Landy
258 books5,316 followersDerek Landy is an Irish writer and screenwriter. In addition to the bestselling children's/YA series of Skulduggery Pleasant books, a supernatural mystery series starring Skulduggery Pleasant, a skeleton detective, and Valkyrie Cain, a young female magician, he has written two screenplays that have been made into films: the IFTA award winning "Dead Bodies" and the IFTA nominated "Boy Eats Girl". Landy himself was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script.
He doesn’t like to brag about all the awards he’s won, such as the Irish Book of the Decade, or the Red House in the UK, or all the other awards that he humbly displays on his mantelpiece. He is also far too modest to mention things like the first book being a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, but would like to extend an invitation to Oprah to pop around one day for tea, in thanks for selecting his book for the Oprah’s Book Club Kids Reading List.
Derek plays too many video games, reads too many comics, and watches too many movies. He lives in Ireland with too many cats. Occasionally he talks to real people, but only when he absolutely has to.
He doesn’t like to brag about all the awards he’s won, such as the Irish Book of the Decade, or the Red House in the UK, or all the other awards that he humbly displays on his mantelpiece. He is also far too modest to mention things like the first book being a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, but would like to extend an invitation to Oprah to pop around one day for tea, in thanks for selecting his book for the Oprah’s Book Club Kids Reading List.
Derek plays too many video games, reads too many comics, and watches too many movies. He lives in Ireland with too many cats. Occasionally he talks to real people, but only when he absolutely has to.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
October 23, 2025
a few weeks ago my therapist asked me about my favourite book growing up and how i think it affected me as a person to which i was like, “Skulduggery Pleasant. Influenced my entire personality and most unfortunately my sense of humour.” to which she was like “Do you wish you were more like Skulduggery.” which i felt was too intimate to get into and i refuse to be psychoanalysed like that.
mostly boring podcast. i laughed out loud every five minutes though cause i’m hopeless and honestly, i cannot imagine a better duo than skul and val. god, they’re so annoying. i wish i was both of them.
mostly boring podcast. i laughed out loud every five minutes though cause i’m hopeless and honestly, i cannot imagine a better duo than skul and val. god, they’re so annoying. i wish i was both of them.
December 20, 2025
or The Importance of Clarifying the Hypothetical Delivery of the Heinous Comment You Want to Make at a Crime Scene
October 26, 2025
he has a gun, she's cranky lmfao
December 27, 2025
The story was a lot of fun to read through and depended heavily on conversations and sarcasm. Personally, I feel like the first nine books were balanced better in terms of the amount of sarcasm and serious moments. These books that kind of stand on their own are a fun step outside of the main series. But I do miss the vibe from the first nine books of the main series.
March 24, 2026
i love these books, they are always so silly
October 29, 2025
osvaldo is like the worst ever
November 7, 2025
Yet again I don’t know what this man is trying to do.
Novel based off of the podcast? Podcast inspired by the novel? Either way this….could have been better.
Haven’t listened to it, honestly won’t, but unfortunately read it.
Again, like in my review for the last “podcast book” this should have been a transcript of the podcast. Not…him trying to write a book. Which is what it is.
You get more of;
-Everyone being obnoxiously dumber than Skulduggery and Valkyrie
-Run on conversations that state the same topic multiple times
-A CONSTANT reminder of what happened in the last arc of the story (I swear every book he rights there’s usually two scenes where a character brings up the whole Valkyrie/Darq killing everyone and a universe reset. That has nothing to do with this story can we please not have it mention yet AGAIN.)
-Valkyrie hitting on at least one girl blatantly even though she has a girlfriend. It’s getting over used in every book and needs to stop.
Now the story? Basically a guys Alexa goes evil and tries to end the world. I kid you not. Oh and the echo stone (said “Alexa”) is the horrible connection from the podcast to book that over explains settings. Yes, this is a handy tool in for the podcast because one of the characters is visually impaired (which is over explained multiple times) and would work well with setting a scene. However in a book? We have the scene described by Skulduggery/Valkyrie then re-explained by the echo stone…….why?
This book can be skipped. In fact I highly recommend it.
Novel based off of the podcast? Podcast inspired by the novel? Either way this….could have been better.
Haven’t listened to it, honestly won’t, but unfortunately read it.
Again, like in my review for the last “podcast book” this should have been a transcript of the podcast. Not…him trying to write a book. Which is what it is.
You get more of;
-Everyone being obnoxiously dumber than Skulduggery and Valkyrie
-Run on conversations that state the same topic multiple times
-A CONSTANT reminder of what happened in the last arc of the story (I swear every book he rights there’s usually two scenes where a character brings up the whole Valkyrie/Darq killing everyone and a universe reset. That has nothing to do with this story can we please not have it mention yet AGAIN.)
-Valkyrie hitting on at least one girl blatantly even though she has a girlfriend. It’s getting over used in every book and needs to stop.
Now the story? Basically a guys Alexa goes evil and tries to end the world. I kid you not. Oh and the echo stone (said “Alexa”) is the horrible connection from the podcast to book that over explains settings. Yes, this is a handy tool in for the podcast because one of the characters is visually impaired (which is over explained multiple times) and would work well with setting a scene. However in a book? We have the scene described by Skulduggery/Valkyrie then re-explained by the echo stone…….why?
This book can be skipped. In fact I highly recommend it.
December 18, 2025
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
These audiobook/podcasts are great and I'm really pleased they're clearly doing well enough to make more of them - but they don't really translate into novels. While taking the full advantage of a sound-based medium, using music to solve puzzles and showcasing a low-vision character in strokes of genius, the charm of its performance is mostly lost in translation.
Without space for Derek's token action sequences and environmental storytelling, you end up with a lot of new information shared very quickly in these novella-style stories. I've found it harder to connect with the characters as most of their personality exists in long conversations (minus the voice acting) on the page, and the pure and simple mystery genre misses out on some of the cross-boundary flairs of the main series.
Despite my lower-than-usual rating of the book, I really do enjoy the audio productions and think the episodic podcast style works really nicely. The sound designers, directors and actors all do a fantastic job of bringing Derek's unique humour to life and I'm excited to see what new stories they'll do with it - I would love them to develop into multi-part stories with proper character arcs, as that seems to be the missing ingredient holding it back.
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
These audiobook/podcasts are great and I'm really pleased they're clearly doing well enough to make more of them - but they don't really translate into novels. While taking the full advantage of a sound-based medium, using music to solve puzzles and showcasing a low-vision character in strokes of genius, the charm of its performance is mostly lost in translation.
Without space for Derek's token action sequences and environmental storytelling, you end up with a lot of new information shared very quickly in these novella-style stories. I've found it harder to connect with the characters as most of their personality exists in long conversations (minus the voice acting) on the page, and the pure and simple mystery genre misses out on some of the cross-boundary flairs of the main series.
Despite my lower-than-usual rating of the book, I really do enjoy the audio productions and think the episodic podcast style works really nicely. The sound designers, directors and actors all do a fantastic job of bringing Derek's unique humour to life and I'm excited to see what new stories they'll do with it - I would love them to develop into multi-part stories with proper character arcs, as that seems to be the missing ingredient holding it back.
March 18, 2026
Hi again! Yes, another Skulduggery review for you. Last of which I posted, two days ago 🫠. Anyway, my insane reading habits aren’t relevant to this review, so let’s get to it.
You might be wondering why I’ve rated it a four instead of a five, like I normally do. Don’t get me wrong, this book was good, but it was missing something that essentially shouldn’t have been. They never took the Chosen Ones out of the psychic trance and decided which one would hold the fate of humanity in their hands. I mean at the end, they just said nope, we don’t know what’s gonna happen, let’s just keep them like that. I mean, that would have made it a lot more exciting.
But otherwise, it was good, and funny (obviously).
I would do my favourite quotes and stuff but I think that some whole pages were really funny. But I’m just gonna say that in general I loved it when Skulduggery and Valkyrie were talking about the ugly baby lol.
I do like it though, plus it’s a signed edition, so why wouldn’t I think of it as like a precious keepsake.
Gonna start book 17 later!
Bye for now!
Isla xx 💕
You might be wondering why I’ve rated it a four instead of a five, like I normally do. Don’t get me wrong, this book was good, but it was missing something that essentially shouldn’t have been. They never took the Chosen Ones out of the psychic trance and decided which one would hold the fate of humanity in their hands. I mean at the end, they just said nope, we don’t know what’s gonna happen, let’s just keep them like that. I mean, that would have made it a lot more exciting.
But otherwise, it was good, and funny (obviously).
I would do my favourite quotes and stuff but I think that some whole pages were really funny. But I’m just gonna say that in general I loved it when Skulduggery and Valkyrie were talking about the ugly baby lol.
I do like it though, plus it’s a signed edition, so why wouldn’t I think of it as like a precious keepsake.
Gonna start book 17 later!
Bye for now!
Isla xx 💕
March 18, 2026
'Skulduggery Pleasant: A Small Matter of Impending Catastrophe' by Derek Landy.
Love this series of books. Particularly love these little novellas inbetween. This book had me laughing out loud. I was a big fan of the characters Osvaldo and Madigan, I hope they make a reappearance in another book.
if you're a fan of fantasy books with a lot of sarcastic humour then give this series a read.
In 1962, three sorcerers converged to do battle in a hidden chamber near a disused platform in the London Underground. Prophecy foretold that the victor would hold the very fate of humanity in their hands. Since then... nothing.
Now, the people who are trying to find out exactly what happened all those years ago are being murdered – there is a killer coming after them, a killer with a plan – and their only hope for survival lies with Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain.
Because when the end of the world comes knocking, our first line of defence must always be sarcasm.
Unstoppable, withering sarcasm.
Love this series of books. Particularly love these little novellas inbetween. This book had me laughing out loud. I was a big fan of the characters Osvaldo and Madigan, I hope they make a reappearance in another book.
if you're a fan of fantasy books with a lot of sarcastic humour then give this series a read.
In 1962, three sorcerers converged to do battle in a hidden chamber near a disused platform in the London Underground. Prophecy foretold that the victor would hold the very fate of humanity in their hands. Since then... nothing.
Now, the people who are trying to find out exactly what happened all those years ago are being murdered – there is a killer coming after them, a killer with a plan – and their only hope for survival lies with Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain.
Because when the end of the world comes knocking, our first line of defence must always be sarcasm.
Unstoppable, withering sarcasm.
November 26, 2025
"Your lives will be duller without me"
La novelización de la segunda ficción sonora de Skulduggery Pleasant abraza el diálogo rápido e inteligente, el toma y daca fugaz de chistes que se despliegan durante páginas y, aún así, es capaz de darnos un caso divertido que va abriendo boca a la nueva novela numerada que llegará en apenas unos meses.
¿Funciona como novela? Un poco. ¿Está clarísimo que estás leyendo una novelización de un guion? Totalmente. ¿Me la he gozado? Como una bestia.
Hay una escena en la que cuatro magos en una cafetería empiezan a criticar a un bebé diciendo que es feo, la madre se ofende y les pide explicaciones y al final acaba interviniendo el padre del niño para decir que, efectivamente, el bebé es un poco feo.
La novelización de la segunda ficción sonora de Skulduggery Pleasant abraza el diálogo rápido e inteligente, el toma y daca fugaz de chistes que se despliegan durante páginas y, aún así, es capaz de darnos un caso divertido que va abriendo boca a la nueva novela numerada que llegará en apenas unos meses.
¿Funciona como novela? Un poco. ¿Está clarísimo que estás leyendo una novelización de un guion? Totalmente. ¿Me la he gozado? Como una bestia.
Hay una escena en la que cuatro magos en una cafetería empiezan a criticar a un bebé diciendo que es feo, la madre se ofende y les pide explicaciones y al final acaba interviniendo el padre del niño para decir que, efectivamente, el bebé es un poco feo.
February 24, 2026
So much better than the first audio drama! Skip “The Haunted House on Hollow Hill” and go straight to “A Small Matter of Impending Catastrophe”.
The narrators do a stellar job. What a riveting performance!
I like the plot even though it is very fast-paced.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie sound like themselves again. I enjoyed the banter. Very amusing!
Some aspects are strange and off putting. Overall, the book is too short and insubstantial to cross from 4 star to 5 star territory. But it is a pleasant listen which I would recommend to anyone who likes mystery, adventure and comedy.
The narrators do a stellar job. What a riveting performance!
I like the plot even though it is very fast-paced.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie sound like themselves again. I enjoyed the banter. Very amusing!
Some aspects are strange and off putting. Overall, the book is too short and insubstantial to cross from 4 star to 5 star territory. But it is a pleasant listen which I would recommend to anyone who likes mystery, adventure and comedy.
October 21, 2025
I listened to the podcast for the first six chapters, and then read the book for chapter seven because it wasn’t included for some reason? But despite that, all the voice acting was great, as usual! I really like this more one shot adventures, and the story for this one was pretty interesting! I did start to find Ozvaldo pretty annoying by the end, but Exposition was really cool, a the humour was on point as always - really fun quick read!
December 8, 2025
I like the format of these ones, with Skulduggery and Valkyrie whizzing through the lives of a gaggle of eccentric side characters we never have to worry about seeing again. I am curious as to when exactly this takes place given the shock-horror ending of the previous main book, but I’m sure he has or is going to tweet about it.
November 27, 2025
While not the worst novel I've ever read, it's easily one of the most irritating.
The characters will not. Stop. TALKING. And most of the dialogue is little more than quips that go on far too long.
The characters will not. Stop. TALKING. And most of the dialogue is little more than quips that go on far too long.
December 15, 2025
Si j'ai tout bien compris, ce roman est l'adaptation d'un podcast donc il est composé à 90% de dialogues... MAIS les dialogues de Derek Landy, entre humour absurde, sarcasmes et cynisme, sont tout ce qui fait, pour moi tout le plaisir de lire Skulduggery Pleasant
Ipso facto, gros kiff !
Ipso facto, gros kiff !
January 3, 2026
Another short story from the world of Skulduggery Pleasant, called in to solve the mysterious death of a low level sorcerer they find a string of connected events and an item that could end the world.
Short but packs its usual punch.
Short but packs its usual punch.
January 23, 2026
There’s only a number of times when the “end of the world” plot gets stale. Unfortunately, this is one of those times.
Still a hardcore SP fan though, I adore these characters and the world, but this one was a huge miss for me.
Still a hardcore SP fan though, I adore these characters and the world, but this one was a huge miss for me.
February 13, 2026
Skulduggery is totally my comfort series which I’ve been reading since I was 14🥰
Not my favourite spin off. Had the usual sarcastic, dry humour which made me chuckle often. Knocked off a couple stars due to a couple plot inconsistencies, and osvaldo being annoying af
Not my favourite spin off. Had the usual sarcastic, dry humour which made me chuckle often. Knocked off a couple stars due to a couple plot inconsistencies, and osvaldo being annoying af
March 6, 2026
Well, also ich weiß echt nicht, wo ich anfangen soll. Dieses Ende!
Anyway, eine Bullshit-Unterhaltung nach der nächsten; Derek Landy ist ja für solche Szenen sehr bekannt. Ist schon funny, aber es waren halt echt sau viele Bullshit-Unterhaltungen. Definitiv zu viel für meinen Geschmack.
Anyway, eine Bullshit-Unterhaltung nach der nächsten; Derek Landy ist ja für solche Szenen sehr bekannt. Ist schon funny, aber es waren halt echt sau viele Bullshit-Unterhaltungen. Definitiv zu viel für meinen Geschmack.
November 7, 2025
Good little Skulduggery Pleasant boost
November 7, 2025
osvaldo is irritating but a unique character. I did guess the villain this time. it was obvious.
November 12, 2025
Well this was fun.
November 16, 2025
Enjoyable, not as enjoyable as the main world stories, I miss the other characters too much but still entertaining, still funny and as always a good read
November 21, 2025
4.5 stars i thought it was really fun
November 23, 2025
3.75 stars
December 10, 2025
This one is a bit repetitive in sections and a bit too silly for me with some of the conversations but I've been reading this series for years and I still enjoy the characters and stories.
December 10, 2025
“Derek, you’ve never written a character with poor eyesight.”
“Huh, you’re right”
*Proceeds to write a blind character who is a conspiracy theory nutjob*
“Huh, you’re right”
*Proceeds to write a blind character who is a conspiracy theory nutjob*
December 10, 2025
This was a funny short story. It was a fun read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews