Mortal Coil (Skulduggery Pleasant - Book 5)

by Derek Landy

Paperback, 2017

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Publication

HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks (2017), 576 pages

Description

A tale of two Caps! An office of dead government agents. A gifted new killer. Two ex-Captain Americas. When a dramatic attempt on the life of Bucky Barnes reunites him with Sam Wilson, the old friends are plunged headlong into a race to uncover the new leader of Hydra before a mass-casualty event announces the terror group's resurgence to the world! The clock is ticking - but who is the Natural, and how did he beat Sam and Bucky so easily? It's a bullet-riddled, window-smashing, table-breaking brawl for it all, and the Hydra Supreme is about to ascend!.

User reviews

LibraryThing member jugglingpaynes
The fifth book of the series, Mortal Coil will not disappoint fans of Skulduggery Pleasant. The book is action-packed, and I found that there were many chapters that demanded I read the next chapter. I enjoyed the nods to Monty Python and The Princess Bride that were cleverly woven into the story,
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the dialogue is as witty as ever, and the characters, both old and new, are well written. Mr Landy ties up some loose ends from book four while creating new havoc for Skulduggery and Valkyrie to face. This book also finds Valkyrie facing some very normal (boy trouble) and not-so-normal (cheating destiny) issues. All in all, this book is a nail-biting, edge of your seat page turner with its fair share of scenes worthy of Tim Burton animation. I admit that I denied the book a full five stars for a purely selfish reason--the ending. It left me wishing Mr Landy would write faster so I can find out what happens next.
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LibraryThing member smg-mjones
i love derek landy's novel collection of Skuldugery pleasent.
The 5th book was really good with the 4th one leaving you staned with an exiting new plot on the main character Stephinie Egelby also know as valkyrie cain knowing that she is know the killing machine of the world.

the one thing i didn't
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like about the book is sometimes when i was reading one sentence then the next sentence was a completly differn't thing going on. Say Skuldugery was fighting someone anyone, then the next sentence Valkaryie is on the toliet. That is just a joke Valkarie does not take a dump in the story.
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LibraryThing member riida
i was going to give this book 4 stars...but by the end of it, i was so upset by the turn of events in the story, i decided to give another half star...i think a series that's able to disturb and stir you after 4 books deserves an extra half star :) dont wanna spoil what got me upset tho...

i must
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say...i will be sad when this series ends. its not Harry Potter, but they're currently my favorite young-adult-though-totally-adult-friendly books at the moment :) i dare say...i enjoyed it more than twilight or the hunger games (and i quite enjoyed those).

Such fun!
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LibraryThing member sageness
Gah. So much explicit gratuitous violence and gore. The series started out as a fun kid's book, but this book mostly just made me queasy. Disability tag for the evil bad guy using a cane and the elderly man getting killed; meanwhile, everyone else who gets critically injured on every third page is
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magicked better (literally). Also, there's criminal assault happening in front of normal people (i.e. muggles) and only the ostensibly stupid girls thinking it at all *bad*.

Also, if you took out all the narrating of the martial arts, the book would be half its present length. Previous books in the series involved a lot more investigation and talking and a lot less fight scene porn. (I never read Fight Club, but I wonder if there are similarities there. I mean, this book has fight scenes like erotic novels have an overabundance of sex scenes.)

But, honestly, do we need to see a 16-year-old girl magically punch a guy's brain out of his head? Really? /o

Book 6 is due out sometime this year and I wonder if it'll pull back on the violence any, or if it'll go full bore End of the World. Still, some of the other plot threads have me hooked, so I guess I'll read it eventually, just to find out how it goes.
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LibraryThing member wickedshizuku
I have to say that this has been a most pleasant read. *giggle* Pardon the pun. This one has been fairly humorous, and I've enjoyed it more than the previous four books. This book Valkyrie has found herself in somewhat of a pickle, and she doesn't know how to come to terms with her mom having a new
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baby.
A few more problems arise as the big baddies concoct new dastardly schemes. I really enjoy Billy Ray's part for some sinful reason. He has me in stitches whenever he's in a scene.
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LibraryThing member hopeevey


Arg! Want next book NOW.
LibraryThing member KarenDuff
I loved this book and couldn't put it down. I have to say for what is supposed to be a childrens book it has a very high body count.
LibraryThing member book_zone
In preparation for writing this review I have just looked back at what I wrote about Dark Days, the previous book in this hugely entertaining series. At the time I really struggled to write a detailed review that did not contain any spoilers, and I'm now having that Groundhog Day feeling. Please do
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not feel let down if this review is not as detailed as some of my others but given the recent backlash on blogs and Twitter about certain nasty reviewers peppering their [b:Mockingjay|7260188|Mockingjay (Hunger Games, #3)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1282388315s/7260188.jpg|8812783] reviews with spoilers I want to be extra careful with this.

This is the thickest Skulduggery Pleasant book so far, weighing in at a hefty 572 pages; Derek Landy has obviously been on something of a writing roll given that Dark Days was released a mere five months ago. I enjoyed Dark Days but I had some reservations about how certain villains could have been developed more and a couple of the scenes seemed slightly superfluous. You will be glad to hear that I have no such criticisms about this book at all - I loved it and I think it has possibly become one of my favourite of the series so far.

Dark Days ended with less of a cliffhanger than its predecessor The Faceless Ones, although the final revelation about Darquesse was more than enough to get Skulduggery fans speculating wildly on fan forums and Facebook. Mortal Coil will not answer all of the questions that have been asked over the last five months, but the plot does have a number of deeply pleasing revelations. However, at the same time it also creates even more questions regarding Valkyrie, Darquesse et al so expect those forums to be buzzing noisily over the next few months as well.

The plot of Dark Days relied partly on the villains' use of a Remnant - a body-snatching wraith-like entity that can take over and use a human body without others realising. In Mortal Coil the Remnants play much more than a cameo role - the plot very much focuses on these creatures as they are released from their prison in the Midnight Hotel with devastating consequences for our team of heroes and the local 'normal' population. Yes.... people die in this book (and not just nameless mortals either), and sometimes pretty nastily, although Derek Landy rarely resorts to giving us graphic descriptions of this as he much prefers his readers to use their imaginations to fill in all the gory details. However, there is one wonderful scene where Valkyrie takes herself off to be 'treated' (any other word would give too much away) and the description of her experience is certainly not for the faint hearted!

Much of this book focuses on how Valkyrie is coming to terms with the revelations at the end of Dark Days, especially with regards to issues of trust. In her mind, despite being very close to Skulduggery, Tanith, Fletcher and the others, she is really not sure she trusts any of them enough to help her in this case. This leads to her putting her life in mortal peril, without any of them aware, and then, just as she feels she is able to confide a little more in her friends along come the Remnants and suddenly no-one knows who can they trust. Once the Remnants appear en masse the reader is kept guessing for the rest of the book as to just who has, or hasn't, been taken over and Derek Landy treats us to more nail biting scene after nail biting scene, some of which had me completely stumped as to how our heroes would escape death, or something worse, and as for the final climactic scene....... you will just have to read it for yourself, but I have a very strong feeling it will shock you.
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LibraryThing member bookbrig
Still a great series, but it's getting bleak. It feels like any victories are tiny and all the bad is extra bad. And have I mentioned how this totally doesn't belong in the J area at our library? Because: GORE. So much of the gore. Great Halloween read, actually.
LibraryThing member mutantpudding
I got very emotionally invested and tense while reading this, which to me means a good book! Im both looking forward to and dreading getting my hands on the next in the series.

Awards

Irish Book Award (Winner — 2010)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2010-09-02

Physical description

576 p.; 7.7 inches

ISBN

9780007326013

Barcode

4281
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