Seasons of War by Derek Landy is the 13th book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, and a reread for me along with the Dead Famous Readalong. If you want to see my original review, click here, if you just wanna see my reread thoughts then scroll on!
This read was what I like to call a helluva ride. We had SO much in here. We have different dimensions, Tanith joining up with the Dead Men, Val dealing with her PTSD in multiple awful ways and being forced into good ones, and Omen being adorkable as always.
I loved being in the alternate dimension through this book. It let Landy play with bringing back characters and playing out alternative events without screwing with the established timeline, as well as letting us see how the characters would react to things after they’ve had time to grow and develop compared to their younger selves earlier on in the series.
Our protagonist, Valkyrie Cain, has been through a lot by this point. She’s been battling monsters and getting in magical fights since she was 12 years old, and what I love about Landy is that he’s had this impact her. She’s not just brushed it off and gotten on with things. Or at least, that only lasts for the duration of the battle. After that? Well she has a normal reaction. Meaning severe trauma and PTSD. And she tries to deal with it on her own, that goes about as well as you’d expect. I love that Landy addresses this, he includes it in the narrative and has it impact how she reacts in other battles and situations, and that’s just so rarely seen from our badass characters.
I also really enjoyed the portrayal of Darquesse after the events of the last book (look this is damn difficult to do without spoilers by book 13). The day to day thoughts and concerns of those who worship her brought some much needed levity to the book and did a great job of breaking up the more serious scenes.
Omen, as always, was so lovely to read from. He started out so desperate to have adventures and ended up having the same reaction most of us probably would: dear god get me out of here. But at the same time he’s such an adorable bean that he doesn’t want to leave people in trouble. He also immediately thinks the best of people, and in relation to a certain someone (no really, unless you’ve read it I can’t say) I think he’s making a mistake. But I guess we’ll see.
On CAWPILE I rated this reread: Characters: 10, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 8, Plot: 8, Intrigue: 7, Logic: 7, and Enjoyment: 9 which gives an overall score of 8.14 and a 4.5* rating.
I’m super excited to delve into my reread of the penultimate Skulduggery novel and I’m so excited and nervous for the final book! Ironically this is actually publishing on the day of the last books release (Until the End, out 14th April 2022) and I most likely have been reading that book all day! Even when I maybe should’ve been at work! Have you been keeping up to date with the series? Let me know your thoughts!
Highlight here for trigger warnings: death, war, murder, violence, grief, PTSD[end].
Abi of Pellinor 