Skulduggery Pleasant:Last Stand Of Dead Men

             The novel that i read is Skulduggery Pleasant:Last Stand Of Dead Men,the eight and the penultimate book of the Skulduggery Pleasant series by author:Derek Landy. The main character in this story is Valkyrie Cain. This thrilling yet hilarious series is about a normal teenage girl who is bored with her uneventful life in Ireland. Approached by a skeleton detective with the name of Skulduggery, Stephanie Edgley takes the name of Valkyrie Cain and join him on his fighting-against-evil-forces-threatening-the-world job.The central story arc concerns Valkyrie,Skulduggery along with others to fight against evil forces and Valkyrie internal struggle of keeping her darkness alter ego with the name of Darquess, the evil sorcerer that would destroy the world,within her.

In the eight book,Skulduggery Pleasant:Last Stand Of Dead Men,war has finally come.But this war is not between good and bad,but is between Sanctuaries. Sanctuaries are organizations that enforce the magical laws.Because of the rivalry,particularly against the Irish Sanctuary,and how it has many time teetered on the brink of world destruction,the other Sanctuaries have had enough.They other Sanctuaries decided to amalgamate to take over the Irish Sanctuary. Little did they know that they will be facing another enemy,which is the Warlocks,whom seeking revenge against the true mastermind that orchestrated the war and killing their kind,Erskine Ravel,and the surprising appearance of Darquess. But,Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery had other things to say.

The main character Valkyrie Cain was shown to be stubborn, exceptionally mature, and independent girl,who often ignore orders.But,she too has many wonderful feature and some bad attribution. One of the many impressive traits that Valkyrie have is courage.Despite other Sanctuaries collaboration against them,she boldly team up with The Dead Men to retaliate against them.She along with The Dead Men had traveled to the English Sanctuary to obtain the Engineer's memory,despite the Sanctuary is heavy guarded and protected by countless Cleavers and sorcerer.Her courage was shown again during the war with the Sanctuaries.Although there are many highly train sorcerers and powerful adepts,Valkyrie valiantly use both her elemental magic and necromancy to fight them.

She has proved to have immense determination to keep her darkness within despite her dark,alter ego would not give up in taking control over her.This has been shown during the rescue of Fletcher from the Bride Of Blood Tears.During her battle between the Bride Of Blood Tears,she had been injured severely and deprived from hope.But she persistently prevent herself from letting Darquess take over her.She continue to confront the Brides while Skulduggery save Fletcher.But in the end,just as she was at the brink of death,she give in to Darquess and she take over Valkyrie.

It also has been noted on various occasion that she can be very witty and sarcastic,frequently joking in life-or-death situation.She is also caring and loving for her friends and family,wanting to protect them from the evil forces and Darquess.

As Valkyrie Cain,she is determine,caring,yet stubborn girl.But when she is Darquess,her personality undergoes a dark,twisted transformation.As Darquess,she is cruel and malicious.During the war with the Warlocks,Darquess arrived in the battle and easily wipe out the Warlocks with ease.She is devoid from remorse from her actions and always seeking opponents that can challenge her.However,she is not inherently evil-simply cold,uncaring and above all,curious in regards to her abilities and their limits.She is willing to ally herself with those who would usually be opposed to her,valuing self-preservation above all else.

In a nutshell,Valkyrie is a good,caring,witty and kindhearted girl.Although she has some dark personalities especially when she is Darquess,Her boon outweigh its bane.

Fong Kar Wai
4 Cergas
25th January 2014