Skulduggery Pleasant: Audio Collection Books 1-3: The Faceless Ones Trilogy

Skulduggery Pleasant, Playing with Fire, The Faceless Ones

By: Derek Landy

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

Length: 21 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Books 1, 2 and 3 in the SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT series – known collectively as THE FACELESS ONES TRILOGY, Derek Landy's fantastically imaginative series about our favourite dead detective.

SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT
Stephanie's uncle, Gordon, is a writer of horror fiction. But when he dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that while he may have written horror, it certainly wasn't fiction.

PLAYING WITH FIRE
With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more. At least, that’s what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland.

THE FACELESS ONES
Skulduggery Pleasant and his wonderfully cheeky and inquisitive side kick, Valkyrie, take us through another journey, which promises to be filled with adventure, dark, mysterious meetings, and classically funny moments.

©2020 Derek Landy (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Absolutely Incredible

I loved the story, sound effects, and even the theme music. The only slight downer was some of the voices were too similar, but if I had to make at least 20 voices or more mine would be too. Great Job!!

The voice narrator is amazing

This is a great series, and the narrator is amazing. You can tell from just the characters, and you feel like you can see the whole action play out.

Worth every penny

Fabulous story, original characters and probably one of the wittiest writers I know of. Always get a hood laugh from this series.

love it

enjoyed and loved all three books and can not wait for the next one in series.

Should be a classic!

This series is one of my very favorites, and my kid loved it, he started them at age 11 or 12.

BUT: To start off.. I am going to warn that this is NOT FOR LITTLE KIDS. If you wouldn't let your kid read the last couple books in Harry Potter, (I meant because of the death, danger, and violence, along with the other dark-ish content of the books, I'm not even gonna get into the stupid author and all that), then you DEFINITELY wouldn't let them read this, it's got a good amount of violence, fighting, and bloodshed, with pretty thorough descriptions of such. Not to mention that Valkyrie, the main character, deals with the death and/or betrayal of friends, her life being in danger almost constantly and being surrounded by dark and dangerous people, all starting at the age of 12 or 13 when she discovers this hidden world. The bad guys are really really bad/evil, expect them to act accordingly, and to read about the consequences. They also want to either destroy the world, or bring back the Faceless Ones, (dark gods that would probably destroy the world themselves), and they do not care what it takes to do this, they will murder, threaten, and scheme to get what they want.

So.. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, this is not for little kids, (I mean.. I'm not telling you how to parent, just giving my opinion), it depends on how mature the child is, and whether you think they can handle the violence and themes involved. If you're on the fence about it, either read it first or read it with them.

Now, to finish up, this is why I love this book series:
It's a magical world hidden from society.. which we've seen a million times before, but it's so unique from the hundreds of other fantasy books I've read. And the powers are very different from most fantasy books, very cool and interesting, they all match the characters involved perfectly. Magical tattoos, necromancers, (sometimes on the side of good), that put their powers into certain items to help them fight, each in a unique way, there are teleporters, (and it's the first time I've liked teleporters in a story), people who can run up walls and across ceilings to fight.. many different powers I thought were cool. It's about Skulduggery Pleasant, the skeleton detective, (I thought the idea of a skeleton detective was stupid and until I read these books, TBH, but I immediately loved him. He's funny, in a sarcastic, dry way, but not in a stupid silly way), solving crimes and dealing political intrigue and working to save the world from the psychos, with the main character Valkyrie, and teaching her about that world, trading her and what not. There's a whole cast of characters that you will love, (and unfortunately mourn when some of them die.), all are VERY unique and interesting, and so are the villains, very few forgettable characters. if I had to tell you what these books remind me of, it's hard to describe, but if you're an adult and you like the show Supernatural, along with hidden magical societies, and maybe even a little noir/crime solving.. I think you'll like this. If you read Harry Potter before it was ruined for everyone, and you really liked the whole part with The Society of the Phoenix trying to foil and fight against Voldemort's plans, and you wished it focused more on that part of things.. I think that will scratch that itch and become a new favorite, that's mostly unproblematic, as far as I can tell. I hope I didn't scare you off from letting a tween or teen read this series, I would just go with your gut feeling on whether they can handle it. MAYBE read the book first, maybe you'll like it but decide to read it to them later on down the road? The main characters starts out at 12 or 13, and she ages with each book. it's a fairly long series, so you won't run out of stuff to read for a while. I hope you enjoy it as much as my kid and I have.

The story cuts in and out during the entire reading.

The narrator is great… the recording cuts in and out during the entire reading. I’ve had other books on audible… none of them had this issue.

Down memory lane

it was as thrilling as I remembered it to be. it was also a fun listen

thank audible for giving these a chance

I read the first 3 years back but the 4th was out of reach for reasons out of my control now not only do I have the first 9 in a lovely set I have them here at my fingertips thank you

Great for a multigenerational car ride.

Both adults and kids enjoyed this three book series. We listened to this as a audio book in our car.

A tasty fantasy noir

This series scratches a particular fantasy crime itch that has reared its ugly heart. The only thing that I can’t figure out is whether a series with explosions and Cthulhuian Horrors fits in the adult or youngster category of fiction.