The penultimate instalment of Derek Landy's hit teen fantasy series has landed- can it restore the franchise's strength in its hour of need?Last time a new main addition to the Skulduggery Pleasant saga emerged, Derek Landy's mastery of wit, humour and teen-orientated action appeared to falter for a moment. In Kingdom of the Wicked, the initial events of the final trilogy were represented in a convoluted and cumbersome manner, the novel's running time extremely excessive in terms of the rather simple narrative it needed to convey. Landy needed to regain the momentum and charm of the series' earlier instalments in order to restore the faith of this reviewer, and it transpires that in the case of Last Stand of Dead Men, the Irish scribe has done just that.
Last Stand's plot picks up from where its predecessor clumsily left off in its climax, with magic restored primarily to its rightful place and a rogue reflection of Valkyrie Cain on the loose in the midst of the growing shroud of Darquesse. Were Landy incapable of recapping these key (yet initially mishandled) moments as events kick off, then the eighth adventure would be considerably less accessible, but he accomplishes this unenviable feat with ease in the opening chapters of the text. The manner in which further developments transpire is thankfully handled with more finesse and confidence than in Kingdom. Whereas before the reader may have been left wondering exactly what had occurred in the previous chapter, to do so here would be to imply that they had simply skim-read that section, since the number of instances in which the progression of the narrative is disjointed or complex are significantly reduced in Landy's latest effort.
Moreover, the central characterisations are pitched with a greater sense of faithfulness towards their initial incarnations. Kingdom's Skulduggery and Valkyrie lacked the banter, the oft-hilarious rapport that became such a hit with the series' followers in Playing With Fire, Dark Days and the like, yet Last Stand evades this shortcoming by presenting those two constructs with setpieces akin to Landy's earlier works, the brilliantly fantastical action serving as a glorious platter of opportunities for the pair of detectives to have a laugh along with the reader. In an era of teen fiction where predictable romances (a la Twilight) and bizarre, borderline-apathetic revivals of classic fantastical creatures (again, a la Twilight) govern popularity, attention has been drawn too far from the inert charm and comedic edge this genre possesses at its core. Undoubtedly, Skulduggery's helm recaptures those elements here, even in spite of the fact that the more morbid and foreboding sections of his storyline threaten to dominate the tone of the piece.
That's not to say that Last Stand stumbles in executing its serious and violent moments, either, more that the aforementioned instances of darker content can feel awkwardly juxtaposed with the novel's comic relief segments at time. The reign of Valkyrie's world-shattering alter ego is unquestionably drawing ever closer as the War of the Sanctuaries continues, the former particular element of the franchise's ongoing narrative rarely forgotten thanks to protagonists and antagonists alike bringing it up on frequent intervals. Perhaps there's no richly satisfying balance to ever be struck here, yet the balance was maintained in an arguably more efficient manner in the series' early days than it has been in recent instalments. Even if this penultimate outing can't recapture that lost simultaneous dramatic and comedic power, though, it's not for want of its creator attempting to do so throughout.
When Kingdom of the Wicked reached its climax it had a strange, powerfully dissatisfying effect on this reviewer and other readers for the majority. It's safe to say that such a lacking resolution has not been echoed with Last Stand of Dead Men, a text which signals a perfectly timed return to form for the Skulduggery Pleasant series ahead of its finale next September. Derek Landy will never be recalled as the next great British author of the 21st Century, yet any fans of his works who know the author to a sufficient extent will confirm that he's not aiming to be as such. The scribe's intentions are far more noble in the case of Skulduggery- pure, unrelenting entertainment for his vast array of followers, a trait of the franchise which has been restored to great effect.
4/5
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