Skulduggery Pleasant 6: Death Bringer

by Derek Landy

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Publication

HarperCollins Publishers (2011), 608 pages

Description

The Necromancers no longer need Valkyrie to be their Death Bringer, and that's a good thing. The catch? They don't need her any more because they've found their Death Bringer already, the person who will dissolve the doors between life and death. And that's a very, very bad thing ...

User reviews

LibraryThing member jugglingpaynes
It's amazing the amount of violence in this, the latest of the Skulduggery Pleasant series. It could easily be renamed Valkyrie Gets Beaten Up Repeatedly. But Derek Landy also brings in his wonderful witty dialogue which keeps me returning book after book, even though I have to import them from the
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U.K. (Books 4-6 are not currently available in the U.S.) This book also brings up interesting philosophical discussions of life and death, as well as the good and evil that exists in us all. Great book. I can't wait for the next installment!
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LibraryThing member 6h.library
The most heart pounding book in the Skulduggery pleasant series because it has revealing secrets and intense action with every page.
LibraryThing member potterwholockian
* Spoiler Alert*

When I found out that Skulduggery was Lord Vile I just could not believe it.. such a big twist that I did not see it coming.

MY FAVE IN THE SERIES..

can't wait for book 7- kingdom of the wicked
LibraryThing member book_zone
I have spent some time agonising over how to write this review without giving away any spoilers, and the only thing I can think of is to make it shorter than most of my reviews. There is just so much happening in this book that it is nigh impossible to say much at all about the story without giving
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something away that may spoil the book for the few die-hard fans out there who have not yet read it. I will do my utmost however, although if you have not yet read Mortal Coil, the fifth book in the series, then I suggest you navigate away from this page now.

Mortal Coil was an incredibly dark book, and as I mentioned in my review last year, one of my favourite in the series so far. There were so many great revelations, and the climactic scenes had me gasping for breath, especially regarding the fate of one of my favourite characters, Tanith Low. However, Death Bringer may have just usurped Mortal Coil and could now be my favourite book in the series, although the complete absence of Tanith from the story was a slight disappointment. So what makes it so good? I think the best way of doing this without giving away spoilers is in list form, so in no particular order:

The dialogue. It's brilliant, and there seems to be so much more of it in this book. In fact, I think the increased dialogue between Sulduggery and Valkyrie is possibly the main contributing factor to the book's length. Derek Landy has created so many great characters, but what makes them stand out so much is the banter between them, and especially between his two main protagonists. It is consistently funny, occasionally poignant, and shows the deep bond that has grown between these two over the course of their adventures together.

The action. There are some amazing action scenes in this book, and they are some of the best we have seen from the author. There was one scene where I suddenly started choking as I had not realised that I had been holding my breath and my lungs need to breath suddenly caught up with my brain's fixation on the story I was reading.

More character development. Some of Landy's characters have remained pretty much on the sidelines of the main plot so far in the series, and although ever present we still do not know a great deal about them. One such characters is China Sorrows, and in Death Bringer we find out a great deal more about her history, and it is far from being good.

More revelations. I don't think I am particularly stupid so I hope I wasn't the only one who did not see one particular revelation about Skulduggery coming. In fact, I was so surprised that I think my brain went into shut down, and I spent a good five minutes just staring at the page in shock.

I've saved the best until last..... Valkyrie and Skulduggery. There will be moments in this book when you may actually find yourself disliking these two, and Val in particular. It is easy to forget that she is just a teenager, and yet she has achieved so much and seen so many horrors at such a young age. What kind of effect would that have on a teenager? In Death Bringer we really start to find out. We see her ego, her selfishness, her betrayal of trust, her moodiness - at times she becomes a thoroughly unlikeable young lady, and the story is all the better for it.

Another great addition to the Skulduggery series, and it continues to be one of my favourite series around at the moment. It is just a pity that we will probably have to wait another year for Book Seven in the series. However, SP fans, make sure you hit the book stores in March 2012 as Derek Landy is contributing a Skulduggery Pleasant novelette for World Book Day, called The End of the World. This book will be set after the events of Death Bringer, but whether Tanith will feature I do not know. Whatever the outcome, I have a feeling that she will feature quite heavily in Skulduggery Pleasant Book Seven, and I am sure it won't be good for Valkyrie or Skulduggery.
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LibraryThing member MarkTJones
Sadly Death Bringer was same old same old for me. It also suffered from a bad case of bloat, as if it was just being spun out, filling time before the final book. A good, vicious editor should have taken a machete to it. This line sums it up, "She stopped and screamed, but didn't let herself
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pause."

On the plus side there's still some of the characteristic banter and a good deal of mickey taking out of Twilight. Just could have done with a more interesting plot.
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LibraryThing member riida
too many plots and sub-plots they're almost bursting through the seams...much slower pacing than the earlier books in the series...a lot of philosophizing involved, almost as if the book is trying to project a more mature persona...

...and then derek landy pulls the rug from under your feet and
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starts throwing everything at you! six books in and skulduggery pleasant's and valkyrie cain's world is still as chaotic, witty, and un-apolgetically fun as when i first discovered it. a favorite among my guilty pleasures :)
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LibraryThing member sageness
The last quarter of this was good, but otherwise it had horrible pacing problems. It's still an insane festival of gratuitous violence, some of which was pretty scary, but at least she's an exceedingly mature sixteen in this book. She's a far cry from the innocent 12-year-old she was in Book One,
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and whom I really liked. This book had a few scenes where the humor really succeeded, although most of them fell really flat.

Specific to the audiobook, at least there were no inappropriate American accents this time, but instead we got totally random Eastern European and French accents. It continues to be annoying that Skulduggery is voiced as a slightly Irish Batman.

Still and all, I dig the 'verse and the relationships within it.
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LibraryThing member hopeevey
I knew I'd enjoy this book, but did not at all expect to be so totally blown away. Mr. Landy is not at all resting on his laurels as this series progresses.

This installment, like the rest of the series, has outstanding depth, beautiful character development, and nearly non-stop action. My nephew,
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who refuses to read anything that doesn't grab and hold his craving for excitement, loves this series almost as much as I do.

I should write to Mr. Landy to thank him for letting me sneak some people and feelings into my nephew's action-packing reading preferences :)
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LibraryThing member mutantpudding
Im having far too many feelings.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2011-09-01

Physical description

608 p.; 6.02 inches

ISBN

000732605X / 9780007326051

Barcode

1071
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