Hopeless' characterization of them all were spot on and left me quite speechless with a sense of "damn, bro".

Hell Breaks Loose: A prequel from the Sunday Times Hell Breaks Loose: A prequel from the Sunday Times

Revelling in the dark comedy, action set-pieces and unforgettable characters that are a hallmark of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, this standalone novel transports readers to early eighteenth-century Italy where our heroes are forced to save the Lord of the Dark Sorcerers' Waterstones, Books You Need to Read in 2023 Four stars for the conversations, five stars for Ghastly's wonderful POV, three stars for the plot, and four stars for the historical setting.At some point, Skulduggery kind of just said "we have to kill this one guy here AND in the future to make our problem go away. I know this, but you'd never understand it so I won't explain why". That lead to the big problem of "we only have one of these magic knives that can kill him but the magic knife is only magic for one cut" - for the sole reason that there wouldn't be a big problem otherwise, I guess.

Hell Breaks Loose : r/skulduggerypleasant - Reddit Hell Breaks Loose : r/skulduggerypleasant - Reddit

The strongest parts of this story for me were Ghastly and Skulduggery. To really hear things from Ghastly'd perspective after so long was refreshing. We've been owed a book in Ghastly's perspective since LSoDM, and I missed him a lot. I loved getting to know Ghastly better, including the appearance of his mother, Rustica Strife, in all her glory! She was a really charismatic, loving character and her and Ghastly clearly have a great bond, my only complaint would be that we didn't really get to see her legendary skills on the battlefield. It broke my heart to read Rustica and Skulduggery talking and laughing about Ghastly, when in less than twenty years, Vile would be her killer. I really enjoyed Sister Rapture as Ghastly's love interest; we needed a love interest in this book, we really did. Ghastly also proves himself a wonderful and caring friend, especially to Skulduggery, and some of his words hit me so hard. What I personally wanted most from HBL was to see Skulduggery 300 years before we actually meet him. I wanted to see how different he was from the velvet-voiced, suave, intelligent, smooth Detective that we all know and love. Suffice to say, I was not disappointed. Seeing a Skulduggery Pleasant that had only been a skeleton for 13 years, even less time to mages than it might be to us, so incredibly fuelled by a particular kind of anger and desire for revenge I can't begin to articulate, so much so that his friends physically pin him to the ground to stop him from doing something dangerous, was everything to me. When anyone asks who my favourite character in the series is, it seems to be the basic answer to say Skulduggery. But it's the complexity about him that we see more of in HBL that makes Skulduggery my favourite character. This is probably my favourite part of this book. However, the emergence of Lord Vile seventeen years before his five-year-long reign (even though it technically didn't happen in the end) and the revelation that Skulduggery had been practising Necromancy since he was teenager, almost cheapened Vile for me once again. It also makes me think about just how Skulduggery became Vile, especially when Abyssinia arrived on the scene, with the knowledge that Skulduggery "...liked the power too much, and someone like [him] would do terrible things with it." At this point, I just want a comprehensive biography of Skulduggery's life. Valkyrie's appearance in the book was unnecessary, and felt out of place. It was fun seeing the Valkyrie and Skulduggery interact as the dynamic between them is always great, but i think it took away focus from the dynamics between the dead men. Loved the part where Skulduggery went in to save Ravel and was so crazed about the thought of losing his friends that he actually lost it and became Vile. That was intense. And sad.I also don't really like reading about Valkyrie anymore. I think the character's grown to a point where no other magic is necessary, because hey, Valkyrie can do ALL the magic and in-universe rules don't apply to her. That takes almost all tension away, because you can guess that when in doubt, Valkyrie will just discover that she can do another awesome thing (see: time travel, healing herself, being a Sensitive...). When Skulduggery's family had been murdered, Ghastly had lost one of his best friends - as well as the child to whom he had served to uncle with his whole heart. Highlight of the entire story. The insight we get into this wonderful person and great character is awesome. Most readers will have loved Ghastly and been hurt deeply by his sudden and tragic death, so this story helps us get a clearer picture of him. He's just what I'd call a good person and I don't mind a good person's POV at all.

Hell Breaks Loose by Derek Landy | Goodreads

I think people forget that this is a middle-grade series and is meant to be fun. I guess a 12-year-old would love the ride this book provides! I also appreciated some conversations the characters had (e.g., the talk about beauty Ghastly and his mother have) and think it's important for younger people to read them. There is nothing wrong with the book; it's neither stupid (and, thus, looking down at a child's intellect) nor harmful. Being overly critical about a book whose prime demographic is children because you can only consider it through the lens of an adult is quite silly, I would say.

If you made it this far, thank you, and please share your thoughts on this book. As I said earlier, I don't hate HBL at all, it is a million miles ahead of the Grimoire and so that is pretty much all it needs. If I were to sum it up, I would say that the first half reads like a Dead Men war time prequel, and the second half reads like a phase two book with phase one characters. But in spite of everything I have complained about, I did enjoy this book and I think the good outweighs the bad. Have a wonderful day, and happy April.

Hell Breaks Loose Download - OceanofPDF [PDF] [EPUB] Hell Breaks Loose Download - OceanofPDF

Until the End– 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. Last Stand of Dead Men – War has finally come. But it’s not a war between good and evil, or light and dark – it’s a war between Sanctuaries. For too long, the Irish Sanctuary has teetered on the brink of world-ending disaster, and the other Sanctuaries around the world have had enough. Allies turn to enemies, friends turn to foes, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie must team up with the rest of the Dead Men if they’re going to have any chance at all of maintaining the balance of power and getting to the root of a vast conspiracy that has been years in the making. A nice thing for me was that he had a boyfriend, Anselm, that was mentioned and talked about. Their relationship and how it ended just seemed so believable, so truthful. (Not to mention the fact that we love good queer representation.)

Set only 13 years after Skulduggery’s family and wife are murdered and set in Italy, 1700’s, we see Skulduggery in a completely different light than we usually do: he’s darker, brooding and incredibly impulsive. His wit and humour is quite flat, unlike how we first met him all those books ago in the first of the series, which honestly, is a contrast I’m genuinely happy and excited for. 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. Playing with Fire – With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more. At least, that’s what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland. With Baron Vengeous after the deadly armour of Lord Vile, and pretty much everyone out to kill Valkyrie, the daring detective duo face their biggest challenge yet. But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home…?