#echo stone

Have you ever noticed how Derek Landy managed to kill off so many people’s favourite characters twice? Like, Gordon Edgley died in the first sentence of the first book and we all just shrugged like “Yeah, so some dude died. We don’t know him. We don’t know if he’s a good guy, a bad guy, an arrogant  son of a bitch or a quiet, lonely type. He’s just a stranger. All we know is his name, and that around about now he’s six feet under”. That was that. He was dead and none of us really cared. Then they found the echo stone. Then we met Gordon properly in all his wonderful glory. We saw his love for his niece, his wise and wonderful insights to life, his egotistical and suave demeanor, and we loved him. We even, if only for a moment, forgot he’d died at all. His death was insignificant. He was here, so the fact that he died meant nothing. In fact, after a while we thought he was the one character who never could die. He was invincible. He was untouchable.He’d been killed off once, he wouldn’t be killed off again. But we forgot how cruel and unforgiving Derek truly is. And then Dying of the Light came. It was like blow to the  stomach, really. Like Derek had turned around and stabbed us unexpectedly. Gordon Edgley was dead. Like, actually, really, truly dead. We all thought that before, at the  start, but it meant nothing. Our Gordon. The one we knew and loved and cared for, the one who was already dead and yet would never die. And yet, Derek still found a way to do it. And it hurt. It was almost like that cruel, horrible, wonderful author was showing off, letting us know that nobody was safe. That  he could, and would, kill off anyone we loved or held dear. And that is the thing about this series that impressed me the most. Fuck plot armour. Screw keeping the protagonist alive. Everyone could die. And everyone did die.