Inara: You don't have to die alone. Mal: Everybody dies alone.

'Out Of Gas'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Steph L. - Oct 17, 2011 11:18:23 am PDT #16671 of 28333
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Why are the 4th and 5th Skulduggery Pleasant books not only not at my library, but NOT IN THIS COUNTRY? What kind of bullshit is this, people?

And the 6th. Welcome to my obsessive, willing-to-pay-shipping-from-the-UK, bookfiend ways. (And 4, 5, and 6 are the ones that get nice and dark.)

I just got through the chapter with Grouse's "you realize that it's problematic that you solve everything with violence, right?" speech, which I'm glad got pointed out.

Awww, Kenspeckle is THE MAN. He's so curmudgeonly and so awesome. And he's right about the violence; no matter how clever Skulduggery is, it always comes down to a punch in the face.


DebetEsse - Oct 17, 2011 11:21:47 am PDT #16672 of 28333
Woe to the fucking wicked.

Woe! Woe that I am a poor grad student!

So, do you think, in Landy's head, it's more that people choose names that suit them already or grow into their chosen names?


Steph L. - Oct 17, 2011 11:34:11 am PDT #16673 of 28333
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

So, do you think, in Landy's head, it's more that people choose names that suit them already or grow into their chosen names?

I don't know. I mean, Ghastly Bespoke was born all scarred, so -- Ghastly. But he didn't become a tailor (Bespoke), one presumes, until he was an adult. And Skulduggery -- was that his chosen name when he was alive? I assume yes, but -- hello, self-fulfilling prophecy! Also, he's not pleasant. I mean, he's a suave motherfucker, and witty, etc. But he's not a nice man. Uh, skeleton.

I think, really, that the first book wasn't intended to be the first in a series (the first edition of the first book is just named Skulduggery Pleasant, without The Scepter of the Ancients tacked on). And so the names were just meant to be apt but amusing, and not really anything deeper than that.

So I think there's been some retcon that's had to happen as it became a series, which has mostly worked. (One of the Things in Book 6 is a retcon, and I still can't decide how I feel about it.)


DebetEsse - Oct 17, 2011 11:38:35 am PDT #16674 of 28333
Woe to the fucking wicked.

the first edition of the first book is just named Skulduggery Pleasant, without The Scepter of the Ancients tacked on

This is the edition that the library has. I had to consciously parse "oh, they must have pulled a Raiders" when I came across the New Improved Title.

One of the Things in Book 6 i

Taunty McTaunterpants


Steph L. - Oct 17, 2011 11:44:55 am PDT #16675 of 28333
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Taunty McTaunterpants

Hey, I just want people to get there so I can flail about it with other people!


Connie Neil - Oct 17, 2011 1:04:10 pm PDT #16676 of 28333
brillig

Are you telling me you're trying to get me hooked on a series where I can't even get to half of the books?

not only not at my library, but NOT IN THIS COUNTRY?

NOT ON!


Steph L. - Oct 17, 2011 1:38:38 pm PDT #16677 of 28333
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Are you telling me you're trying to get me hooked on a series where I can't even get to half of the books?

Not from the library, no. Amazon UK has them, though. Don't know what the Kindle/Nook prices are, though.


Ginger - Oct 17, 2011 2:00:35 pm PDT #16678 of 28333
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

National Book Foundation takes one foot out of mouth and inserts the other one, asking the author mistakenly named as a National Book Award for Young People's Literature finalist to withdraw [link]


Pix - Oct 17, 2011 4:49:59 pm PDT #16679 of 28333
The status is NOT quo.

I did buy books 4 and 5 from the UK and pay for shipping. I don’t have book 6 yet, but oh yes, I will be buying it.


Typo Boy - Oct 17, 2011 5:47:14 pm PDT #16680 of 28333
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

Are these available in Canada? Cause sometimes that is a way to get UK books before US publication without paying overseas shipping.