Title: The Lost Art of World Domination
Author: Derek Landy
In: Armageddon Outta Here (Derek Landy)
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #1.5
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Crime, Dark fantasy, Easy reading, Paranormal fantasy
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: You were asking all those questions.

It isn’t easy to take over the world. First you need the scheme. Then you need the muscle. Then you need to come up with a system for ruling six billion people and keeping them fron revolting. It takes a certain kind of man to take over the world. Scaramouch Van Dreg, however, is not that man. But he has one thing going for him. He has his arch enemy, Skulduggery Pleasant, chained in his dungeon, and the only person who is coming to save him is the skeleton detective’s 13 year old sidekick. What could possibly go wrong?

This is a Skulduggery Pleasant story that I was expecting. Funny, witty and adorable. It also involved a villain that had no idea what he was doing, a detective that was kind of clueless about what said villain was doing and a poor rescue from his sidekick. Honestly, this was just a cute and funny side story between Skulduggery Pleasant and Playing with Fire.

There is an inherent flaw for the plan of world domination – it hinges on a small insect. Which is easily crushed. The contempt with which the plan for world domination is foiled would be sad, if it wasn’t for the conversations that proceeded it. And the fact that he wasn’t the aimed for villain. And that even Valkyrie had no idea who he was… alright, it was sad… but in a very funny, pathetic way.

Image source: Skulduggery Pleasant Wiki