Hi fans - I have got a copy of the Grimoire. But I might be a bit behind on recent novels (have read the first 13 or 14 books + the Tanith Low one). What novels in the series should I definitely read before reading the Grimoire?
Remember how bitter I got that they commissioned Todor Hristov (the grimoire comic artist) to draw the archivists, characters pretty much no one cares about, while the actual important characters all got juvenile drawings that were very clearly aimed at children?
Palaverous | Rux | Mordant | Gamel [source]
Since I feel like it would make sense that the pictures of the archivists will end up in the updated Grimoire, how much you wanna bet that the new archivist, Mulligrub, is gonna get a picture too?
[source]
I know it's not gonna happen, but I would kill to have the comic book artist draw all character portraits, especially those of the nasty boys. Yeah, I'm still bitter-
god fucking damn it man I was so excited for it. spoilers under cut. also big rant under cut. coming out of my cage and Im not doing just fine
so first of all........ wouldn’t it have been better for them to, like, wait til the series was finished to publish a comprehensive guide to it than do it just after the second to last book?? I get that it’s probs for a reason, like linked to the corruption of the sanctuary at this current time etc etc and it’s supposed to have a “””mysterious ending””” but like, it just feels like it would’ve been better to wait an extra year and have more time to put into making it not a piece of trash and then it could have all of the content from all the books instead of just ending right before the last one? am I being dumb? and also may I re-emphasise that if they’d had an extra year to work on it, IT MIGHT NOT BE SUCH FUCKING TRASH? like seriously did this fucking thing even have an editor like did anyone even read it before publishing it. felt like I was doing a goddamn proofreading test for a job application picking out the flaws and inconsistencies. booooooo
also, genuinely disappointed at the lack of character profiles/portraits etc. the artwork is great and all and every respect to the artists who did it, but they just.... were not the kind of in-depth character portraits I wanted. I wanted pics with heights, fun facts, quotes, descriptions, etc. I wanted Valkyrie Cain at 26 with her tattoos and her girlfriend and her dog, and omen and auger and never to be more than just random blurs of children in my mind, and tanith and ravel and just. wanted more art. more art pls. all the art. I wanted definitions of words, descriptions of magic disciplines we don’t know a lot about, details about witch covens like the brides and other sanctuaries and stuff... not books 1-14 recapped with a slight commentary.
like, I have read and re-read every book in this series at least six times, I KNOW what happens and I don’t need a recap of every single goddamn event in every single goddamn book. If I wanted to find something out from a book, I'd simply re-read it instead of spending money on a new book that basically just recaps everything we already know. and if this was the purpose of the grimoire in the first place, then I reiterate: why not just WAIT til the last book was out so you could recap them all at once??
trying not to be negative about this series any more so ummmmm on a positive note, the comic was very very good and I hope we get more stuff like this in future. despite the ultra low rise 00s jeans. and a lot of the art was great and I really enjoyed hearing some characters’ commentary on certain events. basically, if I hadn’t been expecting something completely different and hadn't gotten my hopes up for this completely different thing, I probably would have been very happy when I received the grimoire and will probably warm to it in the future. for now, tho, just pretty disappointed and wishing it had been done a little differently.
okay i've had a headache for the last three days that doesn't seem to be going anywhere so i doubt anything will be coming if this but. skug's dad's name just sounds like the noise you'd make when sucking dick and i want to write a cursed x reader w this concept.
You know another thing that annoys me about the Grimoire? We saw a Gist that had taken over its host, right? So seeing as the Gist was always depicted as completely invincible before, I assumed that once it asserted control, it would be a nigh-unstoppable Jitter Girl-type monster, but Skulduggery and Valkyrie literally just beat it up. Disappointing.
Huh, I didn't notice that before.
Personally I interpreted the gist as less of a completely unstoppable force, but only as very hard to kill and very dangerous BC it just goes completely feral until it's put down tbh. So less on a jitter girls power level and more like a werewolf with rabbies. THB I kinda didn't expect that B-Movie horror-villain dialog tho lmao
But now that you mention it and after a reread of the comic (I'm still in awe over how good the art is) you're right.
If I remember correctly, Anton Shudder's gist managed to fight off Vile, a literal killing machine wielding a dead man death magic, yet the gist in the comic pretty much goes down after getting hit twice with a shovel by Valkyrie.
Maybe Anton's gist was stronger BC he was a more powerful mage? Or perhaps the lingering emotions of a freshly consumed host plays a role? Like, Anton and his gist were throwing their everything at Vile to protect himself and his friends, while in the comic the host was actively trying to not let it out shortly before getting consumed and his lingering influences and wish to protect Skul and Val from himself was still holding the gist back?
On a meta level I understand that the fight couldn't drag out further BC they only had the budget for 12 pages, but Landy could have at least provided an in-vers explanation as to why the gist was so easy to beat on the following pages were the Grimoire returns into a written format :/
You know what would have been cool? Seeing them break the gist's bones and seeing them snap back into place, seeing them moving beneath it's skin. Or when Val hits it in the face with the shovel, the head does a 180° turn and is starring and grinning at Val with it's horribly twisted and broken neck, but instead of falling dead to the floor it moves it's head, untwisting it's neck, it's choked chuckle being accompanied by the cracking and crunching of bones. Just, gorey healing >:3c
Make it an actual lore book instead of a recap book. That's it.
You're welcome.
Just kidding. The long version is below the cut.
Add a table of contents. I can’t believe I have to write this. They didn’t even do the bare minimum to make this a pleasant reading experience.
Cut the 'In Memoriam' stuff. If you have a small budget use it for the characters people actually care about.
Remove the book summaries. These summaries are for normie fans that don't by extra stuff like lore books. Just place it in form of a recap before the first chapter of each book like every other book series that doesn't view their readers as walking wallets does it. I've read the reviews other people gave and most fans that were interested in the Grimoire have read the books multiple times already and don't need a recap.
Stop worrying about spoiling people. Believe me, the people interested in buying the Grimoire probably ALL know more about canon than Landy does.
Add the character profiles. Pretty sure that's what people were looking most forward to tbh. I saw so much interest in the Grimoire die once it got announced they would be cut. People want to know more about the characters, especially of their favourites, so be sure to include them.
Add maps. Honestly this is a borderline thing for me. Some books (especially fantasy books) add them for free on the inside of the cover and this would work especially well for phase 2. A map of New Roarhaven for Resurrection, Midnight and Bedlam and a map of the Leibniz Dimension for SoW. Perhaps even a map of Irland but like a 'Secret Map of Ireland' typ thing with all magical locations drawn in. Buuuuut the map thing is uncommon enough that it could be extra content and put into the Grimoire without looking like a cheap money-grab.
Dedicate a chapter each to the most important character’s, locations and objects. Each should include descriptions/history/trivia and illustrations. The maps could be added to the locations part.
Perhaps also dedicate a chapter to magical history. Including but not limited to the 300 Year War, history of the Faceless Church and more lore regarding the Unnamed.
Add a bestiary. Honestly, one of my personal things about fantasy worlds are the creatures. And I’ve seen a lot of people (me among them) who expected the Grimoire to be more like the Bestiaries from Spiderwicks, Spooks and/or Dragonology.
Remove the “Age of the Maggot” story. Yes, this includes the comic. Since the story is pretty much self-contained I think it would be better off being its own novella. Tbh I don’t like the lore added here at all and all that info-dumbing, but the comic is just too damn good (the art, the dialog was cringe) and it’s the sole reason I wouldn’t want to kick the entire segment in the trash, pour gasoline over and throw a match in. The sole reason.
Remove the Skulduggery backstory part. You made him the son of the God of the Apocalypse? Really? No name for the wife, not even a gender for the child, but THIS is what we are fucking getting? Ya for fucking real??
Stop calling it a Grimoire. No one is impressed by this 'ooooh you're making an evil god stronger my reading this book' crap and fortunately cutting that part out would also cut out the already flimsy reason to call this a Grimoire in the first place.
Don't hire child-book artists. The core fanbase of this series aren't 8 year olds, contrary to the believe of the marketing team at HarperCollins. Not anymore at least. The hardcore fans are people that grew up with these books. They are around Val's age now thus most people I've seen aren't happy with the art. No disrespect to the artist, but we aren't kids so art very clearly aimed at children isn't appealing to us. Hire artists with a more mature art style that actually fits the tone of the series. You could do that for the comic, so why not for the rest of the art?
Stay consistent with the art style and (more importantly!) character designs!! I would advise hiring one artist or one artist for each segment (character art, location art, creature art, art for the most important objects, maps). That would make the book more coherent in itself and make it feel less like a patchwork project. Importantly: the art style should fit the aesthetic of the SP series. Ngl the comic artist for the Grimoire, Todor Hristov, has proven his art style perfect for the series tho of course there are a few other artists I have in mind I wouldn’t mind illustrating a SP lore (book) at all~<3
Change the cover. The current one looks cool on a T-Shirt or mug, but it doesn’t really fit the lore-book vibe. I was thinking more about a cover along the lines of “Dragonology”, “League of Legends: Realms of Runeterra” or the “World of Warcraft: Chroniques”.
Semi live-blogging my reaction to the preview of the Grimoire (pages 1-42, which cuts off in the middle of the summary of book 1).
Highlights include butchering the occult, the Cthulhu mythos, and the name of the ‘Sceptre of the Ancients’ black crystal changing from ‘hirranian crystal’ in DoA to ‘katahedral crystal’ in the Grimoire.
Foreword. Is he really straight up trying to shift the blame on his editors while staying in character?? As if this mess isn't his fuck up too.
In case it wasn't clear enough that even the fucking lore-book/compendium revolves around Skulduggery, the intro makes it more than clear lmao. Also, the character writing the intro is such a mood and probably mockingly based on Tumblr-
So far the beginning letter, the forward and the introductions are just wordy versions of this meme
Like, Landy, his editors, everybody involved in this book, they know this is a burning dumpster fire and you can't well me otherwise xD if it wasn't so sad it would be funny.
In real life 'witch' is a gender neutral term actually. Nice going reinforcing common misconceptions.
...did he make 'warlock' the male version of 'witch'? wat
he keeps flip-flopping between the Faceless Ones being fuckable and being unfuckable sTOp bEInG a CoWARD, LanDY-
this part is from the 'Book of Tears' so at least this confirms the Faceless worshippers are monster fuckers-
*"Short of an an enemy", I assume (p.23)
I feel like the 'second bloodline' is Skulduggery's family? Bc saying it was cut short in the war seems too specific to not be a character we are meant to know and I wouldn’t be surprised if Landy forgot Skul’s older brother is alive now.
A separate post about Sera having FO blood is gonna follow soon .3.
I straight up can’t tell if he’s trying to make this Lovecraftian or if this is meant to be a parody of the Cthulhu Mythos.
ya really be introducing an entirely new faction and cult of people(/species?) that have never shown up in the main books before? Really?
flesh 👏 out 👏 the 👏 shit 👏 ya👏 already 👏 got 👏 first
I wanted a chapter on witches and their magic and not a short definition gdi
Skulduggery only realised the brooch was the key while he was imprisoned by Nef
(this is while Valkyrie and CO. free Skul from Nef’s dungeon; book 1, chapter 17, page 93)
This would be the perfect spot to add an illustration of the sigil (and the incantation).
In DoA (chapter 105, page 487) the crystal was called ‘hirranian crystal’ and not ‘katathedral crystal’.
“little Valkyrie” lmao what the fuck, where did this cringe come from all of the sudden?? Her first name was inspired by Wagners “The Ride of the Valkyries”. How did he fuck up this badly??
(chapter 10, page 32)
Here he just corrected his own mistake from earlier but didn’t remove the earlier part??
The part about ‘why would Edgley leave the key with a woman he barely liked’ should be moved down here to keep events in chronological order.
