Playing with Fire

Skeleton-sleuth Skulduggery Pleasant and his 13-year-old partner-in-mystery, Valkyrie Cain, are back to save the world for a second time. This time they face a diverse cast of villains--from a sorcerer rated "11 on the 10-point Evil Villain Scale" to a battalion of vampires. Rupert Degas uniquely characterizes each villain, creating chills with gravelly and whispery voices. Degas's flippant, quick delivery of witty lines brings to life Skulduggery's friendly, hip manner, which is counterpointed with a flatness that only barely covers his core of coldness and a hint of protective fondness for Valkyrie. Degas doesn't flag in his narration of the nonstop action. He keeps up with chases, fights, rescues, and high-speed dialogue and without a pause gives credibility to the characters and their relationships. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

July 1, 2008
Gr 5-9-In this sequel to "Skulduggery Pleasant" (HarperCollins, 2007), 13-year-old Valkyrie Cain and her mentor, the living skeleton detective, are faced with the return of the evil Baron Vengeous, who has been freed from prison. Vengeous is trying to reanimate the Grotesquery, a monster made up of pieces of a variety of evil creatures. If his scheme is successful, the Faceless Ones, "the terrible dark gods, exiled from this world," will return. Faced with treachery within the ranks of good magicians, Valkyrie and Skulduggery must rely on their own Elemental magical powers and a few trusted allies to confront Vengeous's magic and helpers, such as the vampire Dusk and Billy-Ray Sanguine, who has the ability to tunnel underground. One magical action sequence follows another as Valkyrie must find the courage to face what seem to be insurmountable foes. Humorous conversations between Valkyrie and Skulduggery add flavor to this generally dark and often-violent novel, as does the girl's appreciation of the dichotomy between her evil-fighting life and that of a quiet student lived by her reflection while she's off saving the world. Fans of the first book will particularly enjoy the new schemes and evil creatures found here. While the back-and-forth between Skulduggery and Vengeous's forces repeats a few too many times, readers looking for a mix of magic and action will find it here."Beth L. Meister, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, WI"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

patricky - This book is the second book of the Skulduggery Pleasant series and in this book, Valkyrie (Stephanie) and Skulduggery are trying to stop Baron Vengeous from being dark evil gods back to the world. While reading this book, there are parts where it's funny and there are parts where its sad, and I liked how the author wrote the conversations of the characters. I also liked how the author made the book unpredictable and added surprising events, so when I was reading the book, I didn't expect those events or endings. I think Valkyrie is like the character Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series because in the beginning Harry doesn't know a lot of magic but still manages to defeat Voldemort or his minions several times, and even though Valkyrie isn't very powerful, she still beats Baron Vengeous and Dusk by outwitting and tricking them. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed the first book Skulduggery Pleasant and would rate it 5/5 stars.