Derek Landy Books In Order

Publication Order of Skulduggery Pleasant Books

Publication Order of Demon Road Books

Publication Order of Black Order Graphic Novel Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Skulduggery Pleasant Graphic Novel Books

Publication Order of Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Derek Landy is one of the well recognized Irish author, who is known for writing young adult, horror, thriller, mystery, and children’s fantasy books. He is particularly famous for writing his bestselling young adult book series called Skulduggery Pleasant. Apart from being a popular author, he is also a well known screenwriter. Initially, he began his career as a screenwriter and wrote a couple of screenplays, both of which have been adapted into movies titled Boy Eats Girl and Dead Bodies. The latter has won the IFTA Award whereas the former has also been nominated for the same award and has actor Samantha Mumba in the lead role. Author Landy himself received a nomination in the category of the Best Script for IFTA Award. After writing 2 scripts, he got frustrated with the filmmaking’s collaborative process and decided to move on to write the Skulduggery series. Its first novel, Skulduggery Pleasant was published by the publishers at Harper Collins. The publishing company paid a sum total of 1.8 million pounds for obtaining the publishing rights of the book. In the year 2007, author Landy signed a 1 million USD deal with the Warner Bros to give the right to adapt the series. The production had chosen the author himself to do the adaptation. However, during the making of the film, the original script was constantly modified and rewritten. This made him unhappy and resulted in him buying the rights back. As of now, author Landy is working with the Clash of Titans’ producers to develop a script. He is fond of the works of Joss Whedon, particularly the Buffy – the Vampire Slayer.

Author Landy is also a fan of the His Dark Materials novel series written by Philip Pullman. He also likes Doctor Who and Gilmore Girls. Based on the 10th doctor from the Doctor Who series, Landy penned down a short story. It was intended to be written as a part of the collection of short stories for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the show. This short story was released by the Puffin publication in 2013 and was titled as ‘The Mystery of Haunted Cottage’. Author Landy was born on October 23, 1974 in Skerries, Lusk, near Dublin, Ireland. He completed his high school education from the Drogheda Grammar High School. Following this, Landy attended the Ballyfermont College for a short period of time and learned animation. He has achieved a black belt in karate in the Kenpo style. Before obtaining his literary contract from Harper Collins, author Landy used to work on the vegetable farm of his parents. Over the course of his writing career, Landy has received many positive reviews from the critics all over the world. One of the reviewers named Sarah Webb, from the Irish Independent, wrote that his debut book taut, fantastically visual, and is full of many zippy dialogues. In 2008, author Landy was awarded with the Children’s Book Prize by Red House. Three of his books have received the Irish Book Award in the years 2009, 2010, and 2013. Along with all these achievements, the first book his best known series has also been voted as the best Irish book of the decade in 2010.

The Skulduggery Pleasant series written by author Derek Landy is comprised of a total of 10 novels and 8 novellas, making a total of 18 books. All these books were released between the years 2007 and 2014, with the 10th expected to be released soon in 2017. Author Landy has described the central characters in all the books as Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain. As the series progresses, other important characters get added along with these two primary ones. The first book, titled Skulduggery Pleasant, was released by HarperCollins in 2007. Landy has set the plot in Ireland. This fantasy story opens by introducing Skulduggery Pleasant as a skeleton. Every now and then he keeps losing his head. Being long dead, he is a skeleton and a mage who dodged from getting buried in order to safeguard the world from an old evil. For defeating the evil, he requires the help of a partner, who turns out to be a 12 year old girl called Stephanie. She teams up with Skulduggery to fight a battle against the evil forces who try to acquire her dead uncle’s prized possession, the Ancients’ Sceptre. It is believed that the Ancients were nice people, who belonged to an extinct race from the earth’s initial days. The Sceptre is the most powerful weapon of the Ancients. This weapon in destroying anything and killing anyone. With the help of Sceptre, the good guys used to banish the bad ones, the evils called Faceless Ones. As the these evils are planning to make a comeback by getting hold of the Sceptre, no one except Skulduggery and Stephanie believe in their existence. So they decide to go in search of the weapon on their own. Along their journey, they beat vampires, fend minions, as well as deal with other difficulties to succeed in their mission.

Another well known novel written in this series by author Landy is entitled ‘Dark Days’. The Harper Collins published it in 2010. At the start of the book, Skulduggery Pleasant is once again introduced as a detective, warrior, and sorcerer. He gets lost in a portal and has evil gods to give him company. The parallel dimension in which he gets sucked is ruled by the evils belonging to Faceless Ones. Valkyrie thinks that if his bones have not been turned into dust, there is a chance that he has been driven out of the mind or gone insane due to the horror faced from the ancient evil gods. She also that there is no plan or official rescue mission approved by the Sanctuary to save Skulduggery, but she has hopes that she will save him somehow. However, the problem with saving him is that even if he comes back, he might not have much left in him. Later, Valkyrie learns that there is a villainous gang trying to destroy the Sanctuary. Also, some powerful men want her dead. Along with these problems, she also comes to know that a sorcerer called Darquesse has plans to destroy the world and all the living beings in it. As Skulduggery Pleasant is long gone, all the hopes of the world lie with Valkyrie only. She feels that the weight of the whole world has come to her shoulder and her hands hold its fate. Valkyrie begins to feel that these are indeed the dark days. She knows that only Skulduggery can help her to solve all these problems. So, she sets on the mission of getting him back from the parallel dimension all alone.