• Skulduggery Pleasant

  • Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 1
  • By: Derek Landy
  • Narrated by: Rupert Degas
  • Series: Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 1
  • Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Release date: 04-16-07
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 (107 ratings)

Regular price: $9.05

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Publisher's Summary

Stephanie's uncle Gordon is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that, while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction. Pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, Stephanie finds help from an unusual source, the wisecracking skeleton of a dead wizard. When all hell breaks loose, it's lucky for Skulduggery that he's already dead. Though he's about to discover that being a skeleton doesn't stop you from being tortured, if the torturer is determined enough. And if there's anything Skulduggery hates, it's torture. Will evil win the day? Will Stephanie and Skulduggery stop bickering long enough to stop it? One thing's for sure: evil won't know what's hit it.
©2007 Derek Landy (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London, UK
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Critic Reviews

"The balance between humour and danger is well handled in Derek Landy's fun, fast-paced fantasy." (The Guardian)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
4 out of 5 stars
By Sumit G. on 08-25-07

Dark Magic & a talking skeleton

The novel is a good novel, albeit it starts off a bit slowly and predictively. But once it gets off, it is quite interesting, with Skullduggery Pleasant providing a lot of smart remarks and replies. It almost feels like you are reading a movie script rather than a novel with the amount of action involved.
On the good side, it has quite a few twists and turns, and the writer has used a lot of formulae (but not often used ones). The only criticism is that, it uses about the "true name" and "taken name" concept which has been mentioned in quite a few novels, whether it is Eragon series or Barthemeus the djinn's serries.

Apart from that, its a good read if you like Buffy the Vampire slayer type stuff (with a bit more humour and wit).

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3 of 3 people found this review helpful

5 out of 5 stars
By edel on 07-08-12

Skullduggery Pleasant

Would you consider the audio edition of Skulduggery Pleasant to be better than the print version?

Yes I do. Having all the characters played out with individual voices make the story come alive .

What did you like best about this story?

My favourite part was all the witty one liners, they were very funny and I did laugh listening to them. The arguments between Skullduggery and Stephanie were also hilarious.

What about Rupert Degas’s performance did you like?

He was excellent. His voice was perfect for Skullduggery.. It had the right amount of sarcasm and experience.. It was easy to imagine him as the older wiser person in their friendship. His voice could be very creepy at times which set the scene on more then one occasion. At other times his voice was very droll. Perfect for who he was playing. I was not sure at the beginning if I would like a man reading the parts of Stephanie but it really worked!, he was great at it.After a while I forgot that it was a man reading female voices.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh. The banter between the two main characters was played out very well and I would easily buy more books in the series just from listening to this book.

Any additional comments?

A wonderful series for the young or the young at heart who like adventure and bad guys that get what is coming to them.

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2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By Jonathan on 11-23-10

From an impluse buy to a firm favourite

Picked this up on a whim and have been so impressed by it that I've now bought all the others in the series. There are elements of Potter, Dresden and Artimis Fowl but only in the very losest terms....there is a young hero, magic is involved and it's based in Ireland. The rest is all Landy's own and feels it.

The world is realised beautifully with the old device of a magic world hiding behind or 'real' one given a more believable feel than the fantasical Potter. The characters are each distinct from each other and you'll grow to love the banter between Stephanie and Skulduggery with some proper laugh out loud moments - none of the dialogue feels forced or there for pure plot line purposes. A very natural feel is evident throughout.

Special mention must be made for the narration by Rupert Degas which is probably the best I've ever heard in an audio book. He manages to convey the warmth and humour wonderfully and his pacing and style allows the listener to conjure up the images perfectly.

Suffice to say that if you'd bought the phyiscal book it would now have it's own honoured place on your favourite shelf.

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13 of 13 people found this review helpful

5 out of 5 stars
By Joanne on 06-20-11

The most entertaining and funny book in this genre

My 12 year old son recommended this to me and the whole series to date is the best I've read/heard in this genre - there are proper laugh out loud moments (not something I normally do), the plot is good but the best thing for me was the witty and wry banter between skulduggery and stephanie. The narrator is the best I've ever heard too - in a league of his own (and it was such a shame in the last book when he changed) . I can't wait for the next one in the series.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By Lisa Buckingham on 07-03-16

Love the Humor

I started listening to this based purely on Rupert Degas narrating then someone told me it was a kids book. Regardless I loved it. The humor is very dry and it was well written and Rupert is so gifted, I listen to him narrate a phone book. Good light listen.

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1 of 1 people found this review helpful

5 out of 5 stars
By Anonymous User on 07-10-18

I absolutely adore this book

Out of all of the books I think this is the funniest. I have no idea why ai find it so funny. It just is, I completely agree with Stephanie I could listen to Skullduggery’s voice all day.

I have only gotten up to Kingdom of The Wicked and then stopped after I got to Carol’s chapter cause I know sje ends up dying. I have a very much loved copy of Playing With Fire.

I absolutely love the blurb on the back of the frist book. Its the best. This was a wonderful book and I love it and will very likely read it many more times in the future.

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