125. Playing With Fire by Derek Landy, read by Rupert Degas
Publication: Harper Audio (2008), Audiobook, 6h57min
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Action/Adventure, YA
Rating: 
Read: May ?-June 1, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary from Amazon:
Meet Skulduggery Pleasant:
Ace Detective…Snappy Dresser…Razor – tongued Wit…Crackerjack Sorcerer…and Walking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton…
…as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented 12-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.
The end of the world? Over his dead body.
Review
I read the first Skulduggery Pleasant book way back in September 2008, before I even started this blog, but I still remember how frickin’ awesome that audiobook was. It’s what introduced me to Rupert Degas, one of my favorite narrators (despite that unfortunate Cirque du Freak incident). It’s what introduced me to Derek Landy, who writes great movies as well as books. And it’s what introduced me to the wonderful world of Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain (aka Stephanie Edgley), my two new favorite paranormal detectives. I like them even better than Harry Dresden! Though maybe that’s because they aren’t woobies. (Well, maybe Skulduggery is a woobie. Just a bit.)
It took me so long to get around to this second book because I was, uh, kind of saving it. But now that the fourth book has come out, and the fifth book is coming out soon, I can let myself go ahead and catch up! And I had a lot of fun catching up in this book, lemme tell ya.
It does start off kind of slow, which is weird because it starts off with a chase/fight scene and you’d think that wouldn’t be slow, but it is. Kind of. I must have listened to the first five minutes at least four times before I actually had the patience to continue onward– maybe it’s better in the paper version. Dunno. But, after the first revving up of the “real” plot, the rest of the book doesn’t slow down for one second! I think there’s more fight scenes and action sequences in here than even in a Die Hard movie, and that’s a pretty big accomplishment.
It’s not all action, however (though action plays a big part). There’s some interesting character things, mostly concerning Valkyrie, who’s been ignoring her non-magic life in favor of the magic one. This means she’s been missing out on things like hanging out with her parents, her first kiss, talking to her friends, etc. It also means she doesn’t have to go to school or do homework, which is pretty awesome, but, personally, I thought she was going a little overboard with the “ignore everything but my magic studies” stuff. It’s important to have balance, especially when you’re young, and luckily Valkyrie starts to figure that out, with help from her friends and family.
One thing I really like about this series is that Valkyrie is so independent. Skulduggery may be her teacher and her boss, but she doesn’t overly depend on him to get her out of sticky situations (though he’s good at doing that). She’s learned how to fight for herself in this book, which is a considerable step up from the last book when she was basically helpless every step of the way. She’s getting really good at magic and physically fighting, and though she can’t beat every baddie she can at least outsmart most of them, and that’s pretty nifty.
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