Dead or Alive
core novel 2021 Skulduggery Pleasant
Record
| First published | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.36 (4,177 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780008386290 |
| Internal chronology | 14 |
Synopsis
Dead or Alive, the fourteenth novel, finds the magical world facing an existential threat as unknown forces search for the Child of the Faceless Ones, a figure prophesied to bring about the return of the Faceless Ones to rule over humankind, with billions of lives at stake. Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain confront a terrible dilemma over whether to assassinate the sorcerer Damocles Creed as a last resort to avert the catastrophe, a choice that forces Valkyrie to decide what kind of person she wants to be. Meanwhile the magical city of Roarhaven is gripped by civil unrest, with protests and the threat of riots adding political instability to the looming crisis, while the younger sorcerer Omen Darkly and his circle navigate their own personal challenges and a school festival against this darkening backdrop.
Where it sits
- Universe: Skulduggery Pleasant
- Series: The Skulduggery Pleasant main sequence core; position 14 of 18 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Derek Landy
Notes
- From the series record (The Skulduggery Pleasant main sequence): The main numbered sequence concluded with A Soul Full of Shadows (2026); several companion novellas and short-story collections in the same setting exist but are not catalogued in this admission.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Skulduggery Pleasant main sequence: position 14 of 18: previous Seasons of War (2020) · next Until the End (2022)
Sources
- FantasticFiction: Derek Landy, Skulduggery Pleasant
- https://www.skulduggerypleasant.co.uk/books/dead-or-alive/
- https://skulduggery.fandom.com/wiki/Skulduggery_Pleasant:_Dead_or_Alive
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