Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days

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Dark Days
Skulduggery Pleasant Dark Days book cover.jpg
Author Derek Landy
Cover artistTom Percival
Country Flag of Ireland.svg Ireland
LanguageEnglish
Series Skulduggery Pleasant
Genre Fantasy novel, detective novel, comedy novel, adventure novel
Publisher HarperCollins
Publication date
1 April 2010
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages415 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN 0-00-73471-62 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC 668251759
Preceded by The Faceless Ones (2009) 
Followed by Mortal Coil (2010) 

Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days is a young adult and fantasy novel written by Irish playwright Derek Landy, published in April 2010. It is the fourth of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and sequel to The Faceless Ones .

Contents

The story follows sorcerer-detective Valkyrie Cain as she attempts to track down the original skull of her mentor, Skulduggery Pleasant, and rescue him from the world of the Faceless Ones. A team of previously significant villains returns, joining forces to get their revenge upon the pair. The book did not see release in the US and Canada until 2018. [1] HarperCollins Audio also publishes the unabridged CD sets of the books read by Rupert Degas.

Plot summary

Valkyrie Cain and her friends have been searching for Skulduggery's skull for almost a year, during which time Valkyrie has been learning necromancy, a magic frowned upon by the other elemental magic users.

Villain Dreylan Scarab is released from prison and creates the 'Revengers' Club' with several villains from the previous books.

Valkyrie tracks down Skulduggery's skull and uses her necromancy powers to steal it from its new owner, Sanctuary detective Davina Marr. Valkyrie and her friends then use the skull to rescue Skulduggery from the realm he was trapped in.

While investigating the Revengers' Club, Valkyrie and Skulduggery are shown a vision of the future in which a woman called Darquesse destroys the world. At home, Valkyrie's parents tell her that her mother is pregnant. Meanwhile, the Revengers’ Club infiltrates the Sanctuary to steal a bomb.

With the help of Myron Stray - a man whose life was ruined when his True Name was revealed - Valkyrie and Skulduggery find the villains' lair and retrieve the bomb. However, the Revengers' Club has made a duplicate of the bomb, and reveal their plot to blow up a stadium and kill thousands of people. Valkyrie and her friends race to the stadium and Fletcher manages to teleport the duplicate bomb to the ocean, where it explodes safely. The Sanctuary arrests some of the Revengers' Club, but are then betrayed by Davina Marr, who uses Myron's True Name to force him to blow up the Sanctuary with the original bomb.

The story ends with Valkyrie dreaming of an earlier adventure in which she glimpsed the Book of Names, and realises she's known her True Name all along: Darquesse.

Characters

Valkyrie Cain

Skulduggery Pleasant

Fletcher Renn

Fletcher Renn is Valkyrie's boyfriend, as well as the last known teleporter.

Dreylan Scarab

Dreylan Scarab is a powerful sorcerer and assassin, who seeks revenge after being framed for murder.

The Revengers' Club

The Revengers' Club is led by Dreylan Scarab, with the goal of destroying the Sanctuary.

Reviews

Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days has opened to largely positive reviews by critics.

Landy has a talent for balancing his stories with just the right amount of light and dark, but as the title suggests, things are heading down the path of darkness. Dark Days indeed. [2]

This series has always been a lot of fun. Pleasant’s dry humor is spot-on and unlike the Harry Potter series (which also famously involves a child who learns about the magical world and his place in it), this is a little more grim from the get-go. [3]
It contains all of the Derek Landy trademarks that we have come to love so much - great characters, both good and evil; tense action scenes that will have your heart beating so fast you will think it is about to explode; great dialogue laced with the scintillating banter that we have to come love so much; and, of course, many many moments of spine-tingling horror. [4]
Dark Days moves towards a grittier, darker, perhaps more character driven story that will be enjoyed by teens and preteens alike. Derek Landy’s magical world continues to widen its boarders, and nearly every book seems to improve on the last. [5]
This is smart, funny, contemporary fantasy that’s up there with the best, easily as good as the books of Cassandra Clare or Eoin Colfer. [6]

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Derek Landy is an Irish author and screenwriter, best known for the Skulduggery Pleasant and Demon Road book series. Since 2018, he has also written numerous comic book series at Marvel Comics.

<i>Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire</i>

Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire is a young adult and fantasy novel written by Irish playwright Derek Landy, published in April 2008. It is the second of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and sequel to the novel of the same name.

<i>Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones</i>

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<i>Skulduggery Pleasant</i> Irish young adult novel series

Skulduggery Pleasant is a series of dark fantasy novels written by Irish author Derek Landy. Tom Percival is the series' illustrator. The books revolve around the adventures of fledgling detective Valkyrie Cain and her mentor Skulduggery Pleasant, along with other friends and allies. The central story concerns Valkyrie's struggle to stop evil forces threatening the world and her internal struggle to resist the darkness within.

<i>Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil</i>

Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil is a young adult fantasy novel written by Irish playwright Derek Landy and published in September 2010. It is the fifth of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and the sequel to Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days, marking the first time two novels in the series had been released in one year.

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Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked is young adult and fantasy novel written by Irish playwright Derek Landy, published in July 2012. It is the seventh of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and sequel to Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer. The story follows sorcerer-detectives Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant as they investigate a group of people who have suddenly developed magic powers.

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Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light is young adult and fantasy novel written by Irish author Derek Landy, published in August 2014. It is the ninth and final of the first Skulduggery Pleasant series and follows to Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men.

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