Until the End

Skulduggery Pleasant #15

by Derek Landy

The second cycle of the internationally bestselling Skulduggery Pleasant series comes to a thrilling end. You are not ready…



The Faceless Ones have returned to our universe. The bad guys have won.


With the end of everything just days away – and no longer able to rely on Valkyrie Cain – Skulduggery must make allies of enemies if he's going to stand any chance of saving what's left of the world. And just when things are looking their bleakest, they manage to get even worse, with Omen Darkly suddenly having to step up when his brother, the Chosen One, falls.


There's a lot going on. Most of it is bad. Sorry about that.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Magic, Adventure, LGBT

647 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2022

About the author

Derek 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.

Reviews

[jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read: derek landy wrote „For my sake I wouldn’t change a thing. For your sake? I‘d change everything.“; the perfect line to end it all, perfectly summarising all emotions and nostalgia this series invokes, twisting the knife as deep as he could.

only to ruin it all by making phase iii.

past me is a hopeless romantic. this is a three star read at best (but i don’t change ratings on rereads)


- - -

fuck you, landy

i can't believe he did this to me. again. AGAIN. FUCKING AGAIN

when i said "Phase III, when?" i wasn't actually being serious, like? seriously? again? how often is he going to make me go through this? saying that it's the last book and then it isn't? landy really out there making me experience the five stages of grief every couple years, and for what. "Skulduggery Pleasant will return" my ass, i threw my e-reader across the room


anyway.

five stars for this scene and this scene alone:

"If none of that was a thing," she interrupted. "If you could go back right and, like, stop me from ever getting involved, knowing what lay ahead of me, would you do it?"
Skulduggery focused on the road ahead for a few seconds. "For my sake, I wouldn't change a thing," he said. "For your sake? I'd change everything."

just stab me next time, okay



all i feel is dread

[Samudra · Rating 5 out of 5]

if val and skulduggery die, i will not hesitate to scream the world down.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars

HOLY SH*T !

…HOLY SH*T. HOLY SH*T. HO-LY SH*TTTTTT !

THIS. WAS. EPIICCCCCC !!!

So many twists & turns… so many TRULY SHOCKING surprise reveals! SKULDUGGERY FANS, THIS BEYOND DOES NOT DISAPPOINT!

I CANNOT WAIT for S3 OMFG!

Breathe, Ashley, Breathe…

Absolutely cannot wait to re-read through the audio ver in July!!!!!!

__________________

COPY DIRECT FROM IRELAND— SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVED !!!

HERE WE GOOOOOO! 💀🤷🏻‍♀️🖤

__________________
CAN. NOT. WAIT.

(Also honest to God choked up that this is the end 🥺)

[chantalsbookstuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the hell Derek??? How can you end it like that???
I love this series, its witty, full of nonsense and utterly hilarious. I loved how all the books came together. Without giving anything away, I think Omen is my favorite character and the way he stood up in the end was amazing.

This series is great for young and old. If you haven't tried it yet, do it soon!

[Moonie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sat and thought about this one for two weeks instead of doing my usual immediate heavy sarcasm fest. Let’s say a 2.5. I absolutely *could* round up to three, but ... I won’t!

Honestly, I really did enjoy the first half and felt like it was shaping up to be one of the better phase 2 books. But Derek ran out of time - something very well documented on Twitter - which delayed the book as a result. I wish it got delayed longer because another 2-3 months could have made a world of difference. There’s a reveal in here that my friends and I guessed years ago, back around Bedlam, that was so rushed and sloppily unveiled I didn’t even get any joy/satisfaction out of it, and a scene following that would have me bawling my eyes out had it been more drawn out and well paced had me going “oh. ... okay?”

Dear Mr. Derek Landy’s editor, aka Nick Lake: are you okay? are you being held against your will? for seven years, you edited skulduggery pleasant books very well. typos were infrequent and usually very minor. sentences did not repeat. 30 pages of the print book did not skip in the page numbers. Continuity errors did not occur, aside from Valkyrie’s age which honestly I don’t really blame you for not noticing.

but then phase 2 happened, and there’s 5-10 errors a book, and I’m kind of considering a wellness check. is it lack of time? do you not care? i am assuming you don’t actually read Derek’s Twitter (fair), but are you aware he switched Carol and Crystal’s names in Seasons of War and dozens of fans pointed it out to him, so it got changed forever the paperback? ... are you aware that despite that, it HAPPENED AGAIN IN THIS ONE???

Most concerning of all, you said this “might be the best Skulduggery book”. was this for ego stroking, or have you recently suffered a concussion and forgot that Death Bringer exists? (.... and TDOTL and KOTW and DD and LSODM and TFO and MC and PWF and—)

It is exhausting to read this book because I feel like the rushed pace and slapdash editing really makes it impossible to examine it based on the actual story. idk! idk. I had fun! that counts for something! but these books *need* more time. and more people reading the drafts! In ye olden days of Phase 1, Derek’s best friend read every book before publication and fans eagerly awaited the tweet or blogpost saying she had finished. She didn’t mince words and would explicitly tell Derek what she didn’t like (she was on record as disliking the zombies and convincing Derek to alter the scene between China and Fletcher in DD.) Derek says she hasn’t done that for phase 2.... and I wonder if now being surrounded like yes men like his editor is hurting his creative process.


Make Skulduggery Pleasant great again, I guess.

(the Tyler subplot was the most useless set of new character POV chapters he has ever written and that is SAYING SOMETHING.)

[Feyre · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Because I love you."
"And I love you."
"Until the end."

If this had been meant to be the end of the series, it would have been perfect. But it is nooooot! 😍😍😍
This book started off with a little less banter than I would have liked but it came back. I love how Derek Landy let everything come together so seamlessly. Every storyline, every end connected to a great finale. That ended with the promise that Skulduggery will be back. And by the time I'm typing this (more than a year and a half after reading it), there's already been a graphic novel released and a whole new trilogy announced. So, you're reading a very happy fangirl.
I could point out everything I loved about this but I don't want to write spoilers here (other than: more stories to come!!) so I'll just keep it short: I laughed, I cried, I had my mind blown, I cursed. I want to go back to the start and reread the whole series - tbr be damned. It's witty, it's full of magic, adventure, friendship and I can't help but love it.

[Katie.dorny · Rating 5 out of 5]

…*sits in stunned silence at THAT ending*

Incredible, I loved it. I mean, I’ve loved them all.

[El · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rep: bi main characters, sapphic love interest, f/f relationship (very minor plot point), genderfluid side character, Black side characters

This was not a good book.

If this review feels like a disjointed mess, then at least it matches the book that it’s a review of. I’ll discussing specific plot points after a certain point, but I’ll make it clear when that’s about to begin.

First, this book did have its silver linings. There were points where the humour hit well and had me smiling or laughing. The action was well written, just as it has been since the very beginning of the series, and was always easy to follow and made sense. This is the first book in which the character of Never was bearable, and I liked seeing Omen’s character arc of coming of age and growing in confidence culminate in this book. Valkyrie’s relationship with her family is always lovely. At no point was I bored while reading.

Something that I like about Phase Two as a whole, which is especially present in this book, is the commentary on the premise of the very start of the series. This series begins with Skulduggery taking on a 12 year old girl as his magical detective partner. The very first book has a scene where that girl falls off a building, and her life only gets more dangerous from there. The main characters don’t really question this for the entirety of Phase One because that’s the premise of the series. Phase Two takes a look back at that premise and points out how hugely irresponsible, to put it mildly, this was of Skulduggery, and the knowledge that this was irresponsible is very present in this book. Valkyrie is determined not to make the same mistake with Omen or Alice as Skulduggery did with her.

Also, platonic ‘I love you’s are so underrated and underused and I want to see more of them in everything.

Onto the not so good stuff.

Once again Landy has to make it clear to the audience that he’s been paying attention to current events! Just like how the refugee crisis stopped being majorly relevant in this series when it came out of the news cycle, the previous book’s half hearted attempt to examine police brutality was no longer a factor in this one. It was on to pandemic parallels now! However, the way that he was using the phrase ‘in these uncertain times’, as well as other phrases and concepts that draw parallels with the reality of the last two years, made me suspicious about Landy’s opinions of mask requirements. To be clear about my stance, mask requirements are a good thing and have undoubtedly saved lives. I haven’t been keeping a close eye on Landy’s social media because I have better things to do with my time, but based on this book alone I’m getting anti-masker vibes, and that’s yikes. Maybe it was unintentional on his part, but you can’t take the beginning of a parallel and not expect your reader to see it through to the end.

This book was packed with so many plots and so many points of view that it was straight up difficult to follow. When I think back to the final book of Phase One, or even just the sixth book of Phase One, everything was much tighter and had been set up much more effectively than anything had been here. Even just from the first 100 pages I got the distinct sense that Landy had realised that he’d reached the final book of Phase Two, panicked about how much he’d wanted to include that he hadn’t managed to yet, and shoved as much in all at once as he possibly could. During Phase One I could tell you how all the elements slotted together and about all the side characters, because everything fit in a way that made sense and all the side characters were unique, interesting, and relevant to what was going on. Gun to my head, I cannot do that with Phase Two, or even with just this book alone. I’ve read every single book in this series, I have a good memory, and I don’t know who half these people are, why I should be caring about them, or what’s going on.

A big issue that’s been appearing more and more as the series goes on is the dialogue. Phase one was full of snark and banter, yes, but it wasn’t a constant barrage and it didn’t come from all sides. Skul and Val would have their banter with each other, and some other characters would sometimes have their moments, but it wasn’t all of the dialogue all of the time. Each character had their own distinct voices and personalities and they all felt like different people. In this book pretty much everyone came across as being exactly the same. This is probably why Never was bearable in this book actually, because they didn’t sound like themself anymore, but sounded just like everyone else. I’d have preferred it if I’d still disliked them, because then at least they’d have been a distinct character of their own instead of just being part of the crowd in Omen’s chapters. As it was they may as well have not been there at all.

Valkyrie has a bad habit of monologuing, and these monologues are the main (read: only) way we know anything about how she feels about Militsa. Everything has to grind to a halt multiple times so that Valkyrie can tell Militsa (and the reader) in great detail exactly how she feels, and then Militsa exits stage left and isn’t present for anything else in the book, and I think Landy is under the impression that this is good representation? It’s not. Back in Phase One we actually got to see the development of Valkyrie’s relationships, and actually got to see her and her partners spending time together. She didn’t need to stop and tell the reader how she felt about Fletcher or Caelan because Fletcher and Caelan were characters who were relevant to the plot and who actually interacted with Valkyrie and with people other than Valkyrie. Militsa’s barely in this book, and she doesn’t exist beyond Valkyrie, so everything has to stop a couple of times so that Valkyrie can profess her love and Militsa can react to her declaration before she disappears from the story again. It’s just not convincing, and Val’s relationships with men being handled better than her relationship with a woman is not appreciated. Her relationship with Caelan being handled better than this is especially not appreciated, considering what that relationship was like. The way Val and Militsa’s first few meetings were handled way back when was really good. What changed, Landy? Did you get bored?

There was also at least one instance where the wrong character name was used at the start of a scene, which made the rest of the scene very confusing, so a final proofread from an editor or beta reader would’ve been helpful.

Spoilers from here.

I was rooting for Valkyrie’s death for the first half of the book. This isn’t necessarily a positive or negative statement, and I think the decision to write her in this way was a genuinely interesting one. It just made for a strange reading experience to be wanting the main character of the whole series dead for such a long time.

The handling of the Sebastian time travel plotline was so close to being great! It still would’ve been weird as hell that he ended up effectively raising Darquesse, but having Omen do what he’d been considering doing for over a book and changing his name and then taking on an impossible task in the hope of saving the world would’ve been very neat! This also would’ve incorporated two things that are like crack to me: well executed time travel plots, and the narration switching what name it calls a character when their sense of self or the information that the pov character has changes. For an example of this latter thing done well, see book three of the All For The Game series. When Omen says he’s changing his name to Sebastian Tao, we’re in Valkyrie’s pov, and the narration switches from calling him Omen to calling him Sebastian. So far so great. She calls him Omen in dialogue, which is understandable because the change just happened and she’s under a lot of stress due to the room they’re in being literally the only thing left of the universe. But then the narration calls him Omen again. And then the Sebastian we’ve been following all Phase Two runs in and declares that he wants to be Omen again, actually. So what exactly was the point of that except hiding from the audience that the mysterious plague doctor was Omen all along? Genuinely, I was so close to loving this reveal, but its final execution snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If Omen had stayed as Sebastian Tao, and Auger had gone on to change his name to [something] Tao, thereby preserving a link in his name with his brother but symbolically cutting ties from the toxicity of their parents and family legacy, it would’ve been so good! It would’ve had an important message to the kids reading this series that if your parents don’t have your best interests at heart then you’re not obligated to stick with them and put up with them all your life. But no. He’s gotta go back to being Omen Darkly. Because of reasons.

Diversity win! The unhinged reanimated skeleton is bisexual! That whole scene was wild, and contained what I’m sure is a Supernatural reference. This series has never been shy about referencing other media, and the references are always done in a way that the reader doesn’t miss out on anything if they don’t catch the reference, so I’m not complaining about there being a reference as it’s in keeping with the rest of the series. But I’m very sure that calling possessed people ‘meatsuits’ is a distinctly Supernatural thing, and it’s generally a derogatory way of referring to people who are specifically possessed by demons (if they’re possessed by an angel they’re referred to as vessels, and ghost possession doesn’t happen often or permanently enough for the people they possess to have a collective name), so seeing Skulduggery and Valkyrie refer to the person Skulduggery was briefly possessing in this way was. Well it sure was something. And it doesn’t cast Skulduggery in a particularly positive light, nor does it cast anyone who was aware of the situation in a positive light either due to their lack of concern for the person being possessed, and these are apparently the good guys we’re meant to be rooting for. Also, this scene equated sexual attraction with physical arousal. These are not the same things. Landy’s really trying to tell us that the skeleton’s never wanted to fuck someone since he died, and it’s only when he’s in a flesh and blood body that he suddenly realises how hot people are? Sorry, but I don’t buy it. Sure, he’d be unused to controlling the reactions of his body, but attraction and arousal are not the same thing and I really don’t like that they were treated as if they are. But hey, he called Nefarian Serpine attractive, and that alone is amazing.

If I had a nickel every time a story ended with a character making a huge alteration to the world, ascending to Godhood as a direct result of this, and having a short amount of time with the main character(s) to decompress and explain a bit about what they’ve done and what the world’s going to look like now, before disappearing into their new role, then I’d have three nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened three times. Of the three times I’ve seen this happen, this was the shittiest version of it. Naming the other two instances where I’ve seen this would spoil their respective endings, so I’m not going to do that, but this didn’t come anywhere close to hitting as hard as the other two did. This is probably because, in the other two, the character that becomes a God or Godlike figure is a main character whose point of view we’ve been following, and we can see exactly how they got to that point. Darquesse swooping in after a prolonged absence like ‘yeah so I took a screenshot of the universe’ before vanishing again is vastly disappointing in comparison. Especially as I really liked Kes, and I’d still had the tiniest speck of hope that Darquesse would be like Kes after absorbing her, and that she would be a major character in what’s supposed to be a final book. No dice.

What in the soap opera was that family tree. Put it back.

The possibility of Omen having a crush on Never was completely dropped, as was any hint of the relationship between Never and Auger. It’s like none of it ever happened. This wasn’t a storyline I was overly invested in, but it not getting a single mention at all was weird. I’ve been a teenager, and I’m pretty sure that if someone I was kinda seeing turned into a monster and disappeared I’d be somewhat upset about it in a way that’s distinct from how anyone else was affected by it. This links back in with Never not really being their own character in this book, because if they had then this would’ve had to have been addressed.

It’s mentioned that Omen has a girlfriend at the end of the book. It isn’t mentioned what her name is, or how they met, or anything about her. Just that she exists. Omen’s girlfriend can join Skulduggery’s deceased wife and child in no-name limbo as they are props for the male leads first and their own people second. Seriously, Landy. Give them names. It won’t take long.

[Note added later: Y'all. I do understand that the reader is supposed to think that his girlfriend is the mortal girl he had a crush on a few books back. But that isn't actually said here, and they weren't a couple at the beginning of the book, so the interpretation that the nameless girlfriend is literally anyone else is equally as valid. That's the issue here. There are no excuses for a 'blurry wife'.]

The thing about a certain death in Phase One is that, while heartbreaking, it’s a genuinely good and strong moment in the series and the overall story is stronger for it. I adore Ghastly, okay? I do. But his death is a key turning point and a major reveal and a significant tone shift and the series simply wouldn’t be as good without it. I’ve read fanfic where Ghastly lives, I think it’s great, but I categorically do not think the series itself would be better following his death with him alive. His death has meaning on a meta and narrative level. So you can imagine how the last line of this book pissed me off. Not to mention how the page across lets the reader know that it isn’t over after all, and that there’s going to be more books. I thought this was it. I thought I was done. I spent the whole last third feeling suspicious because there was too much going on to be wrapped up in a satisfying way in the pages that were left, but I thought this just meant that things were going to be wrapped up unsatisfyingly. This might be worse.

So, yeah. Congrats and thank you if you made it this far, I know this was a lot of words. Morbid curiosity’s going to make me keep reading, so I guess I’ll see you next year.


CW: violence, gun violence, on page death, imprisonment, possession

[reaction immediately upon finishing book]
landy i am begging you to stop. full review to come because i need to rant but it’s 1am right now and i also need to sleep

[Fernando Freire · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the last few Skulduggery books I have thought the same thing: Derek wants out of this universe. And that's totally ok. I have no idea when did he start writing these characters, but he probably didn't imagine he would still be here 20 years later. So for the last books he has been tiding up every loose end to finish this great series with a bang. But those books felt rushed, with too many storylines and great events every hundred pages or so. Remember alternate Mavolent? He was barely a footnote in that book. The same for the end of Vile(s).

This book had the same feel. It's a good hilarious book, don't get me wrong, but why did we have to deal with Skulduggery's siblings, the 20, the president and also about other 10 different plots? Each one of those deserved at least half a book and here they were all unimportant and dispensable. On top of that, if this wasn't the last book, why the rush? Why hurry if there are still books to come? That last line changed everything. I don't mind more books, that's actually what I wish we had got instead of the last 3. This one alone could have been a trilogy.

[Arunimaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so scared to read this for very obvious reasons and also a little bit because I read the last book in 2021 and god, I barely remember anything. It's just there are so many characters
̿’̿’\̵͇̿̿\З=( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)=Ε/̵͇̿̿/’̿̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ ̿ ̿̿

*****
4.75 stars

An absolute unit of crazy plot lines zigzagging all the way through the end and a good amount of delicious humour thrown in.

Love this series to death.

RTC.

[Madeeha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screaming Crying Throwing Up
The plot is so intricate
Ghastly
Sebastian
Derek mist have been high or something istg
Do we get told who nuncle is though
I love it
A fitting conclusion
AND GHASTLY

OMG WAS REREADING THE OTHER BOOKS AN REALISED THAT THE UNIVERSE BIT WHERE IT IS REMADE AND STUFF IS IN PREVIOUS DEDICATIONS
WTF DEREK

[Siona Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This honestly was the best book of Era 2. Omen finally isn’t too cringe to read about lol, and the characters didn’t feel quite as flanderized (especially after the first quarter/third of the book, it really picks up from there). I kind of guessed the ending with the universe being remade, although I thought Val and Darquese would merge to do it or something. I honestly didn’t see Omen being the Plague Doctor, but I did kind of figure out the Plague Doctor was a time traveler. Definitely liked this book so much better than the previous one, and I’m actually kinda looking forward to the next subseries. I really really really hope Derek makes it a little more adult focused, but I’m sure it’ll have Alice as a main focus with out this one ended. Oh, I also was lowkey hoping that the Faceless Ones being good guys was actually true, or like that some of them were good given that they have been villains before. So that kinda sucked that it ended up being just like a physic connection thing with Valkyrie. But oh well.

And F U C K chapter 120

[Emerald Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy mother of divine.
He made me cry again...

[Sebastian Castellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Childhood nostalgia is the only reason i give this series the time of the day.

[Cora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear, if anyone other than Creed dies... >:(

Edit:
Had a dream that Mevolent was the Child of the Ancients, and wasn't sure whether to be amazed or horrified at my imagination.
~~~~~
Ah, the end of an era. That was one hell of an ending, and I'm really not sure how I want to feel about it. On one hand, there weren't as many epic moments/emotional confessions as I expected/wanted there to be, but on the other hand - GHASTLY'S ALIVE. Everyone survived, and I for one, am delighted.
However, I really wanted to see Darquesse appear earlier on to kick the crap out of the Faceless Ones, but her actions at the end really delighted me. Because, c'mon, she's literally god. She remade the universe. From her very first appearance in Mortal Coil to this one, I wasn't expecting such a grand conclusion to her story. That said, I really wish she and Valkyrie got longer to talk - because in some way, she still is Valkyrie. I wonder how Valkyrie feels about her pseudo-self being the creator of their universe.
The other reveals, namely, Solace's parentage, weren't really dealt with as well, but oh well. A lot of people saw it coming, and that entire plotline was a bit of a mess.
Also, people are complaining about Omen being "revealed" as Sebastian through a typo earlier on, but I'm pretty sure that was intentional. Because by that point, it was made plenty obvious to the reader who he was.
It wasn't as dramatic or emotional as I thought it would be, but Landy handled it decently. I'm not sure how I feel about "Skulduggery Pleasant will return", but provided the timeskip isn't too long, and Val and Skulduggery are still together (and there are Ghanith moments), I'm getting my hands on those future books.
I have more to say, but the fact that Skulduggery canonically drooled over found Serpine attractive made up for the whole thing. Kind of.

[PastelGothPower · Rating 5 out of 5]

I KNEW THIS WASN'T THE END


OMG OMG OMG GHASTLY'S BACK HE'S BACK HE'S BACK HE'S BACK!!!! I'M LITERALLY CRYING RIGHT NOW! A lot of character deaths have hit me hard over the course of this series, but the worst was probably Ghastly. But I don't have to be sad about that anymore!

I believe I speak for all of us when I say...

THANK YOU DEREK!

[Megan Castelino · Rating 5 out of 5]

best. ending. ever.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 3 out of 5]

Скълдъгъри Плезънт е с Валкирия до самия край: https://knigolandia.info/do-samiya-krai/

Този път удържах поне година с поредното „спирам да чета Дерек Ланди!“, което ме владееше като настроение след четиринайсетата част, „Жив или мъртъв“. Книгата си излезе, знаех, че е последната от втората поредица, подозирах и накъде ще продължат нещата, но пък и бях наясно, че точно с този автор винаги ще има изненади, в продължение на толкова години той го доказваше пак и пак. И така, в крайна сметка се пречупих, взех „Скълдъгъри Плезънт 14. До самия край“ и се впуснах във второто последно приключение след първото последно, „Смъртта на светлината“, която по особено впечатляващ начин приключи основната сюжетна арка. Всичко след нея е пак мащабно и възмагично, но… различно, това постоянно бъркане я в други измерения, я в бъдещето, за да се привнасят нови действащи лица, политическата коректност и отгласите от реални събития понякога бяха добре сложени, понякога просто стояха като кръпки. Но… в крайна сметка човек жадува за завършек, за отговори и за продължаване напред.

Artline Studios
https://knigolandia.info/do-samiya-krai/

[Mark Doherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about the wrapping up of phase two. The first 50 pages of until the end were extremely tedious. So much so, that I ended up reading less and less for a number of days. The final instalment has all the action and characters that the previous instalments had. There was a lot of nostalgic call backs throughout which I did enjoy. But for me the same reservation’s resurfaces again. Until the end marks the fifteenth entry of the main series (excluding entries like The Maleficent seven.) The series should have ended with the ninth entry. The first nine of the series were phenomenal and each entry added something new and excited. Book nine gave the series a good ending and in my opinion the series should have been left there. Phase two was quite misleading in my opinion. Originally I thought Omen Darkly was going to be the main character with Skulduggery and Valkyrie playing very minor roles. But that did not end up being the case. For those who have read all the other works in the series. I would still recommend them to read this one, until the end was still entertaining. But none of the second phase were on par with phase one. The last sentence in until the end, left a sour taste in my mouth and in my opinion ruins both phase one and phase two. If the series is to continue, I doubt I will be back for the next instalment. The Skulduggery series is running out of steam fast and it feels like they are only being made because sales are good. When you think of shows like Dark and Breaking Bad. They had a great run from beginning to end. The showrunners for those shows were running out of ideas and they made the right decision to end the show on a high rather than continue only for the quality to diminish.

[Tills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obsessed. Fully obsessed. So much happened that I would never have predicted, I was caught off guard a dozen times, and it carried on the Derek Landy tradition of being a book that I wanted to throw out the window multiple times. I can’t wait to be able to discuss it with people once they’ve finished it

[Alex Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowza
This was probably the most confusing book I've read so many things going on at once I didn't know which was the main story and the side plot but never the less it was incredible so many twists and so many turns Derek you are an artist in line with Picasso! Plus this isn't actually the end even better!!!

[andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't express how much I enjoy this series. While reading this novel, I cried a lot. Despite the fact that the series is meant to be ending, I expect to see more books in the future. The book's ending was stunning, and I shed many happy tears.

[Courtney (courtneyandherbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[JVT · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was the most absurd bullshit I've ever read.

And I love it.

Landy's usual way of starting random plotlines, a convoluted mess of bullshit, was once again very entertaining to read.
And contrary to the earlier books, the ending wasn't predictable; no, contrary to that, it caught me by surprise, as I had expected Landy to kill everyone off in some stupid nuclear event.

So let's start with the various plotlines eh?

- The obsidian plotline seemed very annoying at first, because the biggest concern was obviously the Faceless Ones, and the monsters they unleashed on the Earth. The way Obsidian completely ended the universe, wasn't really surprising, as Darquesse had done it before in phase 1, and it was just like what I had expected; an ending where all characters were killed off, in some worldwide apocalypse.
- Now, the Martin Flannery plot was very entertaining to read. Landy's interpretations and opinions of the former president of the U.S. was clearly traced back in the character of President Flanary, and his best moment was gloating over beating Skulduggery Pleasant, the unbeatable skeleton detective. Also, when he was being put in his place by Perfirious (or something like that), was a very satisfying scene.
- The way he built up the Corrival Academy's authoritarian environment was boring to read, as it was predictable that the students would revolt, and the principal toppled. Nothing interesting to be honest, though it did change Omen's character, as he developed leadership skills, and he realized that he can be much more, if only he has more confidence and a higher self-esteem. Never, Axelia, and Kase following his lead, and showing their confidence in Omen, really developed his character from the shy, failing student, to the leader Auger once was.
- Speaking of Omen, another (shocking!) revelation was made, as it turned out Omen wasn't only Omen, but happened to be Sebastian Tao as well! I really liked this sudden turn of events, as it finally explains why Landy constantly moved back to the Sebastian plotline, which at first, didn't really seem to be important. The Darquesse Society mostly made the impression of being made up by sadists who like to see the world burn, puppets who want to follow a powerful being (in their case Darquesse), and lost people, who are searching for a meaning in life (looking at you Bennet). So the Darquesse society and Sebastian finally getting a purpose in the end, really satisfied me. It once again shows how Omen's character develops, as he reasserts himself, and becomes the leader of the group, helping Darquesse return from some other dimension, nursing her to health, and it also showed him developing paternal feelings, as he took the father role and cared for Darquesse. Ultimately, I think the Sebastian / Omen plotline is probably the best one in phase 2.
- Another Omen plotline was his and Crepuscular Vies. Crepuscular turns out to be a grandson of Skulduggery, who happens to have f*cked China, and why is everyone suddenly so horny?? Anyway, putting this aside, I think Omen once again asserting himself, showing he doesn't need Valkyrie, Skulduggery or Crepuscular, is a very nice way of developing his character.
- The Tyler plotline was interesting to see, as it shows the reader the world from the perspective of a mortal, non-magical teenager, and the reader may realize that the world is better off with magic and mortals separated. Tyler's father being a Flannery supporter is an entertaining portrayal of the average GOP-voter, and the stickers on his bumper really made the finishing touch.
- I had hoped there would be more scenes with Skulduggery's siblings, as they seem like very intelligent fellows, with the same sarcastic and stupid humour as Skulduggery does. Peccant being Skulduggery's brother surprised me, but I guess Landy will just make up new stuff as he goes along.
- The whole plot of the family trees was the most absurd stuff I've ever read. Gog Magog being Skulduggery's father, who happened to have 9 siblings, and Skulduggery making a child with China, resulting in the birth of Abyssinia, who then got 21 FUCKING CHILDREN with Caison, resulting in the birth of 'The Hosts' and Crepuscular Vies, was ridiculous. Who the hell births 21 kids??? The only reason I can think of, is child benefits, and I'm pretty sure that didn't exist when the children were birthed. Landy, please don't do this again.
- The whole plot of Creed being the bad guy was completely made redundant when Valkyrie took the lead. For a little bit, when he had the Nexus helmet, he was once again a relevant character, which was then completely undone by the fact that both Valkyrie and Obsidian killed the Faceless Ones in an anticlimatic ending, as the Faceless Ones just merged into this little spark. And I was waiting for the spark to do something, only for them to be trapped by Darquesse, and not doing anything. So that was definitely anti-climatic.
- The Nefarian Serpine investigation felt completely irrelevant. I'd hoped that the investigation would somehow merge into the main plotline, but it didn't. The only good thing that came out of this plotline, was the growing a whole body from a single hand, that made me laugh. But besides that, it felt completely irrelevant, and it just annoyed me.

Ultimately, I think Landy has his eyes fixed on Omen, as he plans for Omen to become a new lead character. Being in his last year (or something like that), he will probably graduate from Corrival soon, and face the wide world. As he has developed new fighting, leading, and investigation skills, he could potentially become a new detective / arbiter, like Valkyrie. The anti-climatic ending of the Faceless ones, and the whole 'I-want-to-be-better-than-skulduggery' mindset of Crepuscular Vies, made it clear that it wasn't about Crepuscular, or about The Faceless Ones. Obviously Skulduggery and Valkyrie once again had the main roles, but the other plotlines really prepared Omen for the role of a detective, as he grew to become an independent person.

I'm sure I have missed / forgotten some plotlines, but that probably means they weren't relevant enough for me to remember them.
I think this messy and convoluted book, both amazes and annoys me, as Landy manages to play 4D chess, and at the same time, he introduces plotlines and characters who don't have any relevancy to the plot at all.
Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I give it a 4/5

[Chelsea Yilmaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda disappointed in this new series for a few reasons.. I felt like this book was a massive let down and seasons of war. You get two powerful people who can’t be stopped yet they get screwed over and no consequences. Darquesse got screwed over majorly in book 9 and came back and did nothing about it? No world ending, nothing. Mavolent just froze himself to death with his wife in seasons of war yet he was suppose to be powerful?! Also Martin Flanery??? Who wants to read about politics? His whole character reminded me of Trump & who wants to read about him?? Also where was the banter in this book? The near death banter Valkyrie and Skulduggery do? The fight scenes, it was storyline after storyline, a different character each chapter. I thought for sure Valkyrie or Skulduggery would die because of the title but nope. It just felt flat and I’m so disappointed. And also where is Scapegrace, Thrasher and Clarabella in all of this? My three favourite people.

[Bekka · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most perfect ending I could think of for this series - so many things get tied up, so many reveals and plot twists, and so many emotions! And that final line... that final line was incredible!
My god, I felt like crying at the end of this. Derek Landy, once again, proved why he is one of my favourite authors of all time, with this book.
TW for death, end of the world/apocalypse situations, war, murder, blood, bombs, mentions of torture, missing limbs, threats of being skinned alive, horror elements.

[Tanya Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. So, so very, very, brilliantly good.
Sharp dialogue, laugh out loud exchanges, moving, shed a few tears moments... plot, plot and yet more plot... it's all there and it's all brilliant.
Also Omen is the best now and forever more!
Only tiny criticism - there's so much going on and often referencing some small but crucial thing or conversation that happened chapters (or books) ago so it can be difficult to keep track and I had to keep re checking things to remind myself.
I'm really glad there's going to be more Skulduggery!

[Jade Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, Derek's great at writing last books. I had the goofiest smile finishing this. I don't by any means think it's my new fave Skulduggery book like I did with 9, but I think it might be my fave of this series. It was so exciting! (Though one or two plot points were slightly difficult to digest.) Can't wait to see what he does next!!!

[Hollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this book in a matter of hours and I absolutely loved it to pieces. Some of the twists left me utterly utterly stunned and the ending…. No spoilers but Derek Landy is an absolutely incredible author and everyone needs to read this book ASAP

[Mariam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book felt like a slap to the face and was an insult to phase one.