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| Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked | |
| Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked | |
| Author | Derek Landy |
| Cover Artist | Tom Percival |
| Date Published | 24 July 2012 (Australia, hardback),
30 August 2012 (worldwide, hardback), 28 February 2013 (paperback) |
| Date Set In | April/May 2012 |
| Publisher | HaperCollins |
| No. of pages | 607 |
| ISBN | 978-0007480227 |
| Publication Order | |
| Preceded by Death Bringer |
Followed by Last Stand of Dead Men |
Skulduggery Pleasant: Kingdom of the Wicked[1] is the seventh book in the series, the title of which was announced to the public in March 2012. It was released in September 2012, and will begin the final trilogy of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, the Darquesse trilogy.[2] Derek Landy announced on his blog that he has finished the book and that the book has around 134,729 words.[3][4] The cover was released on Friday, 25 May.[5] The first chapter was released early, linked on the official website.[6] Kingdom of the Wicked was officially released in Australia on the 24th of July in 2012.
Synopsis
Plot
This section is currently unfinished. Please be patient.
The book begins with four teenagers on a roof called Kitana, Doran, Elsie and Sean. They previously had normal lives, but suddenly developed magical powers and are practising the newly found powers on the rooftop. They are soon found by a sorcerer called Patrick Xebec, who tries to report them to the Irish Sanctuary, however, not wanting the 'magical police' to find them, Doran and Kitana murder him.
The four are not the only mortals to gain magical powers overnight though. Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain are tasked with finding and bringing in these mortals, witnessing several unnerving events such as a man who is able to fly and a werewolf, which has been extinct since the 19th century. The werewolf, a man called Ed Stynes tells Skulduggery that he was given the powers in a dream by a man called Argeddion. To make matters worse, Quintin Strom and Bernard Sult representing the Supreme Council pressure the Irish Sanctuary into accepting 'help', after several crises that put the world at risk. While this is occurring, Eliza Scorn requests the help of Christophe Nocturnal, the leader of the American Church of the Faceless, to mix the American church with the Irish church. He replies that as the American church is much bigger, the Irish church must instead be merged into the American one.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie research the location of Argeddion. They meet Greta Dapple a woman who Argeddion used to date, and she tells them that Argeddion used to be called Walden D'Essai. He was a pacifist whose greatest wish was to discover his True Name. After discovering it was Argeddion, he talked about and event called The Summer of Light approaching, however he soon disappeared. Asking the Irish Elders for help, they find that Walden D'Essai was handed over to detective Tyren Lament, who was tasked with making sure that Argeddion never used his power. Deciding to find Silas Nadir, a serial killer arrested by Tyren Lament, Skulduggery and Valkyrie travel to Hammer Lane Gaol run by warden Delafonte Mien
Silas Nadir was a person who has the ability to travel to different universes, and he was one of the last people to be arrested by Tyren Lament so they hope to question him about Lament's work. Mien states that Hammer Lane gaol has had no prison breaks since he took charge because he created a foolproof security system that involved shifting the prison through eight different dimensions every second, meaning that any escapee would be torn to shreds. After inquiring about Silas Nadir, Mien nervously states that Nadir died of a heart attack years ago. Skulduggery eventually works out that Nadir is still alive, and that Mien is trying to say that Nadir is dead because he is being used to shift the prison through the dimensions.
After a prison riot occurs, Valkyrie is separated and is forced to run alone to the basement through the hordes. After almost being killed by a man called Hutchinson, she manages to stab him and crawl on, leaving him to be killed by the prisoners. Finding the basement, she and Skulduggery come across Silas Nadir strapped to a machine which is making the prison travel through different dimensions. After unhooking him, he attacks Valkyrie and grabs her arm, but they arrest him and question him. After he gives them names of Lament's group, who coincidentally are all missing, presumed dead. Silas is promptly re-arrested.
Soon after, Valkyrie is attacked by an old lady in a coffee shop, but Tanith Low intervenes and kills the woman, informing Valkyrie that she and Billy-Ray Sanguine have returned from the USA and that the woman was sent by Christophe Nocturnal. After finding a murder victim, Michael Delaney, Skulduggery and Valkyrie return to the Sanctuary. Valkyrie sees Christophe Nocturnal trying to run from a Cleaver but the people of Roahaven beat him up and the Cleaver arrests him. Skulduggery realises that Lament and his group aren't dead, but guarding Argeddion so that he doesn't use his powers. Skulduggery works out that in order to transport something big enough to contain Argeddion, they will have to have used a freight company, most likely the company owned by Arthur Dagan. Remembering Dagan from the previous year, they decide that Valkyrie should talk to his son, Hansard Kray, and ask for information.
After boarding a train and speaking to Hansard, Valkyrie learns that Tyren Lament and his team had some cargo delivered to a location in the Alps, where Skulduggery and Valkyrie decide to set off to. Meanwhile, Eliza Scorn has enlisted the help of Tanith Low and orders her to murder Christophe Nocturnal in his cell, so all the people from his Church of the Faceless can be dissolved into hers. Tanith swiftly kills him and takes her leave. Later, after visiting Patrick Xebec's wife, Valkyrie starts to feel her arm hurt in the place Silas Nadir grabbed her. She is then 'shunted' into another dimension, with different surroundings. Everyone he wears brown and is scared of talking to others. Valkyrie sees sensitives patrolling the road, surrounded by Cleavers dressed in red. A man nearby tells her that the sensitives are called Sense-Wardens, and the Cleavers are Redhoods. Valkyrie and the man are then attacked by Redhoods,with Valkyrie mentally attacking the Sense-Wardens and escaping, but the man is killed. Running along the rooftops, she meets Alexander Remit, a Teleporter who attempts to arrest her. She fights him off but is re-shunted back into her original universe but not before she hears Remit say that Mevolent rules this dimension. Meanwhile Scapegrace and Thrasher meet with Clarabelle. She is so relieved to see them as she thought that the White Cleaver had killed them. They go to the Dr. Nye who agrees to help them for a price.
Scapegrace had put the White Cleaver back together and offered that. Nye accepts and takes the White Cleaver's corpse to be its assistant. Meanwhile Ghastly makes some special clothing items for Valkyrie as Skulduggery and Valkyrie are jumping from an aeroplane into the Alps. After Valkyrie and Skulduggery fight a Yeti they find Kalvin. He runs away but they catch up with him. He tells them where Lament is and that he will not be pleased to see them. Lament does not allow them to see Argeddion. Then they meet a blond haired girl named Lenka. She is so excited and hugs Valkyrie madly. In the morning she had a nice breakfast with Lenka. She leaves Lenka and meets up with Lament with Skulduggery. He agrees to show them Argeddion.They find that the prison he is contained in, the Cube when powered by the Accelerator could imprison Darquesse if she is released again, and they hatch a plan to contain Darquesse in the Accelerator.
Meanwhile, Doran, Kitana, Sean and Elsie go to Doran's house and find Doran's older brother, Tommy, and Doran kills him for being a bully to him. Seeing that their immense power is causing them to have a change of thoughts, Elsie leaves the others because she would rather be at home with her family then hanging with her friends. After the murder, Valkyrie and Geoffrey Scrutinous question Doran about the murder and Valkyrie suspects he is involved with Tommy's death. When they follow Doran to a coffee shop, Skulduggery follows him in. Not long after, Skulduggery is shot through the front window inside and Kitana blasts the car Valkyrie is in, and when Skulduggery tries to shoot them, the bullets ricochet off a shield they just learned to make. Skulduggery and Valkyrie try to run but Kitana shoots a blast of energy at Skulduggery, and he collapses. Mad, Valkyrie attempts to stop them, but she fails and they break her lungs and ribs but she is saved by Skulduggery. They escape but Valkyrie loses her jacket in the fight to Katana.
Chapter List
| Chapter list | |
|---|---|
| Number | Title |
| ~ | Prologue |
| 1 | The Butterfly and the Wolf [7] |
| 2 | The Werewolf Of Dublin |
| 3 | Councils Meet |
| 4 | Eliza |
| 5 | Early Night |
| 6 | Back In The Sanctuary |
| 7 | The Story Of Walden D'Essi |
| 8 | Gaol Time |
| 9 | Hunted |
| 10 | Nadir |
| 11 | Scenes From A Coffee Shop |
| 12 | The Bedrock Of Investigation |
| 13 | Manipulations |
| 14 | Kray |
| 15 | Killing Chris |
| 16 | The Other Here |
| 17 | Keeping The Demon Down |
| 18 | Jar With A View |
| 19 | Jumping From Airplanes |
| 20 | Lament's Sorcerers |
| 21 | Argeddion |
| 22 | Conversations With My Killer |
| 23 | The Plot |
| 24 | Searching The Sanctuary |
| 25 | The Inevitable Return Of Fletcher Renn |
| 26 | Poor Tommy Purcell |
| 27 | Mayhem |
| 28 | Her Secret Agenda |
| 29 | All Becomes Clear |
| 30 | The Experiment |
| 31 | Carol |
| 32 | Strangers In A Strange Land |
| 33 | The Man In Black |
| 34 | Inside The City |
| 35 | Chipping Away |
| 36 | The Old Man In Chains |
| 37 | The Debrief |
| 38 | Two Against Three |
| 39 | Forced Hands |
| 40 | Old Friends |
| 41 | Their Guide |
| 42 | Collecting The Results |
| 43 | 18 Mount Temple Place |
| 44 | The Way In |
| 45 | The Perfect Body |
| 46 | The Problems With Mortals |
| 47 | Into The Palace |
| 48 | Katina's Quandary |
| 49 | The Deal |
| 50 | Super Charged |
| 51 | Argeddion Falls |
| 52 | Fearful Symmetry |
| 53 | A Little Bit Of War |
| 54 | Head Over Heels |
| 55 | A Happy Ending |
| ~ | Epilogue |
Character List
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Trivia
- It was nominated for Senior Irish Children's book award in 2012.
References
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