Alan Campbell

Deepgate Codex — (2007-2008) Lye Street is a prequel. Iron Angel is called Penny Devil in the UK. Publisher: Suspended by chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss, the ancient city of Deepgate is home to a young angel, an assassin, and a psychotic murderer hungry for revenge — or redemption. But soon a shocking betrayal will unite all three in a desperate quest... The last of his line, Dill is descended from legendary Battle-archons who once defended the city. Forbidden to fly and untrained even to wield the great sword inherited from his forebears, he has become a figurehead for a dying tradition. Now he lives a sheltered existence in one of Deepgate’s crumbling temple spires under the watchful eye of the Presbyter who rules the city. Spine assassin Rachel Hael has better things to do than oversee the Presbyter’s angel. Each dark moon she must fight for her life among the city chains, hunting an immortal predator with a taste for blood. But when a traitor brings enemies to Deepgate’s doorstep, Dill and Rachel are forced into an uneasy alliance with the city’s oldest and most dangerous foe. They must journey down into the uncharted chasm to save their sprawling metropolis — and themselves — from annihilation. Once they descend however, they learn that what lies below is far more sinister than what they’ve been taught to expect.

Lye Street

Lye Street is a 135 page novella exclusively available from Subterranean Press in two unique, limited editions — a fully cloth bound hardcover signed by the author (numbered to 2000) and a signed leatherbound copy housed in a custom traycase (numbered to 26). Cover artwork is provided by Dave McKean — longtime Neil Gaiman collaborator and noted CD cover artist — while the wonderful interior illustrations are done by the award-winning Bob Eggleton.

One of the best things about Scar Night was the thrilling prologue which first introduced the demonic Carnival, a deranged and immortal angel who feeds on the blood of victims every ‘scar night.’ Lye Street is the prequel to that prologue and ends just where Scar Night begins. Since Carnival was one of my favorite characters from the book, I found the novella to be particularly satisfying, especially because we get to delve a bit deeper into the renegade angel’s intriguing madness. Specifically, we discover that in addition to the ritual ‘scar night’ slayings, Carnival has also been regularly murdering the descendants of a certain family every fifty years for five generations. Sal Greene is the next target on that list, but the old prospector isn’t going without a fight…he’s hired a phantasmacist to summon the demon Basilis — formerly Ayen’s Hound Master and Heaven’s Lord of Warfare — to kill the scarred angel.

Alas, plans never go quite the way you expect them to, and Sal soon finds himself on a strange quest to free the demon’s physical aspects from the memories of his hounds. Meanwhile, Presbyter Scrimlock has learned of Carnival’s vendetta against the Bucklestrappe family and uses that knowledge to set a trap to destroy the angel once and for all…

Writing a novella or short story is obviously different from writing a long-form novel, especially one that’s part of a series, and not every writer can pull it off. Fortunately, Alan Campbell seems to have a knack for the format and delivers a story that was well-written, fun and interesting — it’s kind of like a gothic, grown-up fairy tale that Neil Gaiman or Tim Burton would cook up — featuring the visually arresting imagery of the city Deepgate and a macabre sense of humor that reminded me of Steven Erikson’s Bauchelain & Korbal Broach novellas. In fact, I was really surprised by how amusing the novella could be at times, which was something that Scar Night lacked.

In the end, I really enjoyed Lye Street. Part of it of course is returning to the unforgettable world of Deepgate and learning more about Carnival, but also a lot of the problems that plagued the debut are nowhere to be found, and in a couple of areas, the novella actually excels over the book. So, if you were a fan of Scar Night, I’m pretty confident that you’ll like Lye Street, which is an excellent companion piece. And if you haven’t read Scar Night yet, then no worries because Lye Street is also the perfect introduction to author Alan Campbell and the Deepgate Codex. —Robert Thompson

Scar Night

Scar Night is a bit of an odd animal for me to review. In some ways it felt more like having a relationship than reading a book. There were highs (some really amazing ones), and there were of course lows. Sometimes pretty darn low. Like a person would, it has flaws, flaws that occasionally make me question not only why I'm still in the relationship (or in this case, reading the book) but why I'm still enjoying it.

The city of Deepgate is a fascinating one, peopled with some interesting characters involved in interesting subplots. The problem is that these characters and their subplots are poorly paced, taking up too much time and leaving not enough for the three characters who, in the end, prove the most interesting of all: Dill, Rachel, and Carnival. Towards the end of the book they begin descending (kind of literally, in a sense) into some really intriguing, even moving character development. It's all handled very well, considering that for most of the book it isn't handled at all. Not nearly enough time is spent on their journey to reach the emotional places they end up at, so though it's all written nicely, it doesn't reach the truly striking potential it could have had.

While still enjoyable to read about, something in the tone of the book makes the revelations rather unsurprising, and unfortunately I can't explain this any better without major spoilers. The violence levels can get unsettling and the characters frustrating — about halfway through I began mentally subtitling the book “Of Fools and Madmen” because most of the characters are one or the other, if not both. There's also some serious fail with regards to the whole nomadic tribe-like desert people trope; that is, it's sadly followed mostly to the letter and expresses nothing new on the idea.

The action in the book is mostly intense and fast-paced, though it does seem to stray a bit beyond the boundaries of reality and physics at times (admittedly though I could be completely wrong about this, being an expert on neither). Towards the end it drags; something about fantasy writers, they can't seem to resist the roughly hundred pages long epic battle even though it's usually unnecessary.

Like I said, highs and lows. I enjoyed the actual reading of the book more than three and a half stars, but looking back on it, I can't quite justify rating it higher. Overall Scar Night has a lot of flaws, a cliffhanger ending, and the entire Codex itself has just as much potential for a major plummet as it does for a major summit. —Beth Johnson

Scar Night: Doesn't quite meet its potential

Alan Campbell's Scar Night is the first book in a proposed trilogy (Deepgate Codex) and it’s a decent and intriguing start, though one hopes that succeeding books do a much better job of realizing the potential in the backstory than Scar Night itself does.

The strengths of the book mostly lie in its background. One is the underlying mythos: a millennia-ago war in heaven, a god who waits in the abyss below a major city as they feed him their dead (along with the dead’s souls) so he can create another army to storm heaven, a race of angels, a powerful church, a once-powerful group of heathens. Another strength is the setting — the city of Deepgate, suspended by massive chains over the god’s abyss, chains that wind through the entire city, holding up houses and blocks (or sometimes not, as the chains are known to deteriorate). The character types, while somewhat familiar to fantasy fans, are also a solid plus: the assassin pained by her skill at death, a creature pained by its need to feed on humans to sustain itself, a head priest whose faith isn’t as solid as it seems, the assistant who never knows enough. These are joined by two relatively original creations: Dill, the boy-angel who longs to match the stature of his ancestors who were great battle-archons that protected the city; and Devon, the master poisoner who is unlikeable in so many ways but also charmingly compelling.

All of these strengths bring Scar Night to an average, solidly enjoyable read. But the book’s weaknesses keep it from breaking beyond average and sometimes strongly disappoint the reader. For one, little of the background strengths are realized to their potential. The city could have been much more of a character in the story and while there are some nicely done passages in this vein, it just wasn’t enough.  One doesn’t “feel” the city as one does say, in Mieville’s  New Crobuzon or VanDermeer’s Ambergris. And the characters aren’t fully fleshed out either, just like the city. Carnival, the vampire-like angel who needs to feed on “Scar Night” to maintain her seeming immortality comes closest (she reminds me, in paler fashion, of C.S. Friedman’s Gerald Terrant in her Coldfire Trilogy) though we don’t see enough of her through most of the book. The assassin, Rachel, deepens somewhat but only past the halfway point, and Devon is pretty solid all the way through, but in a pretty mechanistic sense as he is mostly driven by revenge. But the others vary greatly in their fullness of presentation. Dill, sadly enough, is merely a pale shadow for just about all of the book. Mr. Nettle is a strong character, but single-minded so that lessens his impact somewhat.

The plot, similarly, has lots of potential, but fails to fully achieve it. Sometimes events seem a bit arbitrary, happening as they do only for the plot’s sake and not naturally due to character. Some events are simply too rushed, or feel very anticlimactic, such as almost all the experience with the god of the story. Battles, whether minor or major, are handled a bit perfunctorily, with little tension or excitement.  And the look ahead to the next book is far too abrupt. There is also too much vagueness surrounding some of the mythology, especially as we get a closer view of its reality. By that, I don’t mean that there are questions to be answered by future books but points that should have been clarified for the purposes of this book (don’t want to give away plot points, so excuse my own vagueness on this point).

In the end, a solid three sort of book. The kind of opening book where I’ll read the second book (Iron Angel), but rather than buy the hardcover version of it as soon as it comes out (a sign of strong interest), I’ll get it out of the library. And decide then if it’s worth continuing the series. A mild recommendation due to its potential, with hopes that further books do a much better job of achieving its potential.
—Bill Capossere

Iron Angel

I thought Scar Night, the first book in Alan Campbell’s Deepgate Codex, never really reached its potential in terms of story, character, or richness of imagination and detail. It had enough to keep my interest piqued in the series, but I can’t say I was holding my breath for book two.

Iron Angel picks up slightly after the events of Scar Night and continues the major story arc. A long-ago war in Heaven ended up with Heaven sealed, the god Iril shattered into pieces (which retain power) in the Maze of Hell, and his sons scattered and imprisoned, though most managed to free themselves and plot a return to heaven. Meanwhile, they must deal with King Menoa of Hell, who is attempting to lead his Mesmerists out of Hell into this world. Iron Angel opens with one of Iril’s sons, Cospinol joined by his brothers on his great skyship of the dead (his prison), pulled (yes, pulled) by John Anchor, a great character. Cospinol is told by his brother Rhys that he’s needed to stop Menoa by sealing the portal to Hell under Deepgate, which is where he’ll also find the mad demigod/angel Carnival whom he can kill and then “drink” to attain enough power to free himself. From there the book goes into multiple strands:

In part 1, the young angel Dill and his companion, the Spine assassin Rachael, are hiding out from the Spine-declared martial law. They become separated and Rachael leaves Deepgate with Dill’s possessed body (his soul is in hell), eventually meeting up with Carnival. Also in part 1, John Anchor, pulling the huge skyship behind him, seeking Carnival, joins up with Jack Caulker, a thief looking out for himself.

Part 2 takes place in the Maze of Hell and also follows two strands. One focus is on Dill, whose soul, upon his body’s possession, was transferred to Hell. Here he is prime prey for Menoa so he must avoid capture, helped by Hasp, another of Iril’s sons, and Mina Greene, a thaumaturge. The other focus is Alice Harper, a human who traveled to Hell for reasons of her own and is now working for Menoa.

Part 3 takes place in the land of Pandemeria (much of it on a train actually), and we see many of the same characters here in this section, although many are greatly transformed, some physically, some emotionally, some motivationally. We also get a big battle scene here.

So how does Iron Angel measure up to its so-so precursor? In many ways, Iron Angel is exponentially better, so much so that were it not for the obviousness of the continued plot and characters, I would have never have guessed this was the same author. First, the richness of imagination that was hinted at but not fully realized in Scar Night is all here: a poisonous forest, an odd little dog, the Soft Men, The White and Black Swords, mixes of magic and technology, strange forms, shapeshifting. Hell is especially vivid and original. Here nothing is permanent — it’s all a matter of will, and so things can be changed at will (Menoa, for instance, transforms Harper into whatever form best suits his purpose). Also, the walls, houses, etc. are made up of the souls of those in hell and one’s souls take the forms of rooms or, in the case say of Hasp, entire castles (making for a highly original battle scene in Hell).

Beyond the vivid setting, Hell is also without a doubt the best part of the book — the most taut and compelling writing, the most moving. Part 1 is solid if a bit slow to start. And the scenes with Rachael get better toward the end — more interesting and humorous if not more compelling. The humor flares up especially nicely in Part 3 and the book closes well with a strong ending, though fair warning — it’s a kicker of a cliffhanger.

Eventually some of Campbell’s flaws from Scar Night reasserted themselves. Pacing becomes an issue in Part 3 — the whole first half feels unnecessarily long. Campbell presents us with some wonderful characters — especially Anchor and Mina Greene (any scene with Anchor is a winner); They’re great characters for whimsy, dialogue, and action, but we don’t know much about them. Other characters are weaker — Rachael, Dill, Harper, Menoa — none of them really come alive or compel any emotional tie, for good or bad.

But while I would have wished for stronger characterization more consistently, the flaws were really drowned out by the sheer originality of the scenes in Hell and the book was a vast improvement on Scar Night. Book Three, God of Clocks, is not as good, so we end up with that rarity in the fantasy trilogy world — a second or “bridge” book that is the best of the three (shades of Empire Strikes Back — though God of Clocks is nowhere near as bad as Return of the Jedi — no damn Ewoks for one). But based on the solid Scar Night, the very strong Iron Angel, and the bit of a letdown though still decent God of Clocks, the Deepgate Trilogy is a recommended read. It has many flaws, but there are enough good moments to earn it a read, even if it shouldn’t go to the top of your TBR list. —Bill Capossere

God of Clocks

God of Clocks is Alan Campbell’s third (and I believe final) book in his Deepgate Codex. It is (save for the ending) better than Scar Night, but nowhere near as strong as Iron Angel.

In God of Clocks, the Spine assassin Rachel is reunited with the young angel Dill, though his soul is now enhoused in a monstrously tall (400’ I think) mechanical construct of an angel. They are joined by the thaumaturge Mina Greene (still with her strange dog) and the god Hasp, who is also transformed (though in much different fashion) and who is carrying a mind-controlling parasite that allows him to be ordered by any of a group of people to do whatever they tell him to, making him an untrustworthy ally. They are pursued by 12 other “archonites” as they try to reach the castle of the god of time Sabor in order to find a way to defeat King Menoa of Hell (who has just killed one of Sabor’s brothers). Meanwhile, John Anchor, joined by Alice Harper, pulls Cospinol’s ship into Hell to try to reach Menoa’s citadel to stop him there. Carnival plays her usual important role, as do several other characters, including a little girl with a submarine, a talking box, and several time-copies of the main characters.

One of the aspects that made Iron Angel so strong was its vivid imagination and originality. We see flashes of that here — the aforementioned talking box for instance, as well as a living river and a castle whose rooms exist in different times — but they don’t permeate the book as much as they did in Iron Angel. John Anchor is still a great character, but he’s really the only standout one. Sabor’s assistant adds some welcome humor and a sense of individuality, but he’s relatively minor. The problem, which has been a steady one over the series, is that many of the main characters just don’t breathe fully: Rachael, Dill, Menoa. Alice Harper and Carnival have potential, and some fine moments, but their potential isn’t fully realized (the same holds true for a few others). And Mina Greene is washed out a bit compared to her appearance in Iron Angel. Hasp, who had one of the greatest moments in Iron Angel, is just repetitive and mostly unlikable in God of Clocks. His situation should have made him the most compelling character, but instead you eventually dread almost any scene he’s in.

Campbell still does a good job mixing in some humor. And certainly the big picture story is a strong concept — a war of gods, humans caught between Hell and Heaven, a bold attempt to bring Heaven into the mix. And there are some wonderfully single scenes, especially those involving Carnival and Anchor. But it starts to bog down in the final quarter once time-traveling makes a major appearance (I should confess a bias against time-travel — it’s seldom done well and is often used as an easy out). It began mildly enough, became a bit annoying, then turned into a bit of a deus ex machina (somewhat literally). Where Iron Angel ended with a great bang, God of Clocks petered out, ending too abruptly and easily. I wasn’t even sure this was the actual ending to the series, it felt so incomplete.

In the end, a disappointment, but not really until the last part of the book. I’ll just repeat what I said about the series as a whole in my review of Iron Angel: Based on the solid Scar Night, the very strong Iron Angel, and the bit of a letdown though still decent God of Clocks, The Deepgate Codex is recommended; There are enough good moments to earn it a read. —Bill Capossere