Scar Night

In a city suspended over the void by chains of steel, angels hunt in the night…

The decaying city of Deepgate hangs suspended over the abyss by a mass of chains. It is ruled by a theocracy supported by the mythology of a god who will eventually return with a host of dead souls to kill his brother and save the world. The reality is somewhat darker, and this gritty fantasy is as blood-soaked as it is compelling.

The story starts as a dark mystery, attempting to find a soul thief in the city who murders innocents and bleeds them dry. Every eye is aimed at a mad angel named Carnival who stalks the city streets once a month for a victim to sustain herself, but the murders just don’t fit her pattern.

I’ve read – or attempted to read – show more this book twice. Both times, I’ve ended up quitting halfway through. I really loved the worldbuilding – this world is easily one of the most unique I’ve ever experienced, but also deeply flawed. The one thing I couldn’t get past in this book was, “Why?” Why on earth did these guys suspend their city over a giant pit? Where do the chains connect to? Why not build on the edge and just kick the dead over? I just kept yearning for an explanation, any explanation at all, no matter what it was, and it was a need that was never fulfilled.

I loved some of the characters – Dill, the innocent, hapless angel who has been brought up by the church to be an armed defender of the church but who spends most of his time pretending to be his ancestor, an angel who saved the world. I loved the story (and the backstory) of Deepgate’s resident poisoner. I appreciated the conflicted character of the head of the church, who is protecting a secret that would throw the entire world into question. I really appreciated some of the elements of steampunk that were occasionally included – the zeppelins, the war with a distant enemy fought with poisons and gas, the decaying city with parts that occasionally fell into the deeps, the scroungers… And I really liked elements of the story itself – betrayal, a social mythology built on a lie, and a lie that’s about to bite back… But somehow the execution fell a little flat.

If you’re up for a truly unique, gritty and bloody read, this is definitely a good book. But in a lot of ways, I think this would work better as a tv series, a movie, or a video game, instead of a novel. show less

Deepgate hangs suspended by giant chains over a huge abyss. Ruled by a theocracy and having aspects of steampunk this is a world regulated by belief and overshadowed by the abyss under it. In the abyss there is a god, but the god's motives are unknown to the people living in the city.

It's not a bad read but there are times I just didn't care about what was happening to the characters, getting past the first 100 pages was quite a hard slog and after I'd finished I wasn't rushing out to get the sequel. I'm still wondering where it failed me as a story but I'm pretty positive it was the lack of empathy I had for the characters. It shows potential.

Alan Cambell’s Deepgate Codex is a dark, grimy, Gothic fantasy with elements of dark humor and horror. This thrilling saga is consistently anything but predictable or mundane. It is a madcap tumble through bizarre, lunatic landscapes. Just when you think you know what is coming, guess again!

Scar Night drew me in with descriptions of a city suspended by chains – all crumbling walls and leering gargoyles. The stunning imagery quickly brings the city and characters to life. The story was gripping, with brilliantly developed characters, great concepts, and a spectacular cliffhanger ending. Each character is likable in their own way, and, if not likable, then certainly intriguing.

I highly recommend this trilogy for fans of Scott Lynch, show more Patrick Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin. Like Martin and Lynch, Campbell is not afraid to kill off main characters… although they do not always stay dead… show less

I desperately wanted to love this book, but to quote Gregory House quoting the philosopher Jagger, "You can't always get what you want." There are so many amazing concepts in this book, but that's part of the problem--there are so many potentially engaging ideas brewing in here that it's like Campbell couldn't decide on just one so decided to toss them all in at once. The resulting problem is that no one idea or character receives the full attention it deserves. For instance, the most compelling character was Carnival, a several thousand year old angel who, to maintain her immortality, must drink the blood of a mortal each month. She terrorizes the town of Deepgate when the moon goes dark--Scar Night--and she seeks out her prey. When show more she does kill, she inflicts another wound upon herself as punishment for once again sating her need. As a result, her body is lined with scars. She is at once a demon and a pitiable creature. She alone would have made a fascinating focus for the book, but, no, we have to be introduced to a cast of hundreds.

Some positives: Campbell has done a stunning job of creating a complex and thought provoking mythology that explains how the city of Deepgate, built in an abyss and cradled by a network of chains, came into being as a means of honoring the fallen god of chains, Ulcis. Campbell's descriptions help the reader envision such an unlikely setting as though it could truly exist (therein, though, lies another problem with the book--the lengthy and sometimes unnecessary descriptions slow the narrative pace of the book down). On the cover, Hal Duncan proclaims that Scar Night is "A gripping, ripping yarn which rattles along at a great pace." If by "gripping" he meant lackluster and by "ripping" he meant tedious, then I agree with him. If not, then to Hal I must say, "What the hell, Hal? What the hell?" show less

I'm still not entirely sure what to make of this book. By the time I'd read the Prologue, I had a clear impression of a decaying City ruled by a corrupt Church, and troubled by a psychopathic angel. By the end of the scene, my sympathy lay slightly more with the psychopath, if only because she hadn't been described in great enough detail for me to form an active dislike. It could, I felt, only get better.

The main story begins some 2000 years later, by which time the city is further decayed, the Church watches closely over a boy-angel forbidden to fly, and 'pilgrims' are brought under guard to the city to die. As the tale unfolded, I found it difficult to empathise with any of the characters, and found myself rather wishing the whole show more sordid city of chains would just fall into the pit and have done with it.

This is, undisputedly, a very visual, very dark, gritty fantasy. Unfortunately, there is no relief from the lovingly painted dark and gritty details, and the protaganists are all, frankly, more or less equally distasteful, unprincipled, irritatingly thoughtless or just plain unpleasant. I was around three quarters of the way through the book when I finally started to empathise with any of the characters, and then it was a half-made Church assassin and the psychopath. Having said all this, it was worth ploughing through the first three-quarters of the book if only for the scene involving the living chain-mace.

Did I enjoy the book? More than I expected to by the halfway mark. Will I buy the sequel? Possibly not. show less

One of the strangest dark fantasies I've ever come across. The author builds such a fantastic world, a city hung from chains over the abyss, two angels left, one an ineffectual young man, the other a 2000 year old serial killer, both of whom must save their world, that I hardly know where to begin a review. I was enthralled.

I've read this book twice. Unlike a couple of other reviewers, I found enough to interest me that I bought the rest of the series.

Scar Night has a lot of possibility. Campbell has built an intriguing, steampunk-ish, 'is it F or SF?' world around the city of Deepgate, suspended above a truly deep and dark abyss. He's put interesting people in the world, and the story itself was strong enough to leave me wanting answers to some of the mysteries.

Unfortunately, Campbell also skimps on some of the scene setting. Even after the second read-through, I'm still not entirely clear on how the city is suspended. Campbell spends quite a lot of time talking about chains, ropes, and rings, but it's only very late in the book that we get much in the show more way of helpful description. So I spent much of the first reading trying to figure out what was where, what all the chains connected to, and why.

[not really a spoiler, but ...] As far as I could tell, there are 99 chains made out of a meteorite alloy, and hooked at one end to various points along the sides of the chasm (which may be circular and really more of a pit). At the other end, the 'foundation' chains are supporting one or more huge rings of the same metal. These rings form the support for the Deepgate cathedral. The chains are cross-linked, and these links support the various neighbourhoods of the city.

The story is similarly opaque on a number of other fronts. The uncertainty only works in the story's favor on the F or SF angle; the rest of the time it's more frustrating than intriguing. (An exception is the deliberate mystery about the base of the abyss. The reveal is a bit of a letdown, but a few pages into the sequel, [b:Iron Angel|2598001|Iron Angel (Deepgate Codex #2)|Alan Campbell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266953288s/2598001.jpg|2895252], that may improve.)

Deepgate exudes a very Gormenghastian feel, but it's not clear to what end. The writing is not as polished as one might hope. Still, I'm happy to say that it does improve on a second reading. There's quite a lot of detail - if not quite world-building, at least world-ornamenting.

I can recommend this for fans of Mervyn Peake and steampunk. For readers who have trouble working out the engineering, as I did, I recommend looking at the above spoiler, and letting it go at that. show less