Book Review: The Deepgate Codex Trilogy by Alan Campbell

[Werthead]

Book One: Scar Night

 

The city of Deepgate is suspended by chains over a vast abyss. At the bottom of the abyss dwells Ulcis, the fallen god, who collects the souls fed to him by the priests of Deepgate to forge a new army of the dead, an army which will break open the gates of heaven and end the damnation of humanity. For three millennia the newly-dead have been given to Ulcis, and the time of reckoning draws nigh.

 

In Deepgate the destinies of several characters become entwined. Dill is the last battle-archon in the service of the temple, an angel who doesn't know how to fly. A failed assassin, Rachel, is ordered to train him in the ways of war. Meanwhile, a fallen angel named Carnival haunts the city, feasting on the souls of the innocent on every night of the new moon: Scar Night. A scavenger named Mr. Nettle believes she has taken his daughter, Abigail, and seeks revenge. In the temple itself ancient secrets are being kept, and Presbyter Sypes and the master poisoner Devon separately find themselves in possession of the knowledge that could destroy the city forever, or save it from oblivion.

 

Scar Night is the first novel in the Deepgate Codex trilogy, which continues with Iron Angel and the recently-released God of Clocks. In writing style it comes across as a mash-up between China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, steampunk and a particularly good Planescape D&D campaign, mixing up styles and ideas with wild abandon. Deepgate itself is a fascinating location, built on immense chains stretching across the abyss with wooden districts suspended by ropes and pulleys which occasionally and spectacularly fail. Travel outside the city across the hostile Deadlands, filled with heathen tribes, is only possible by airship. There's no doubt that Campbell has constructed a superbly interesting world here.

 

Characterisation is also strong, with the motives and rationales for the protagonists ('heroes' being very definitely the wrong word) all convincingly worked out. However, whilst they are set up very strongly, character development is perhaps a little weak. With the exception of Carnival and Dill, very few of the characters seem to learn much from their experiences and don't change a great deal over the course of the narrative. That said, we are only one-third of the way through the story here and there is no doubt more to come.

 

The only other criticism that comes to mind is that the book starts fairly slowly as we are introduced to the world. Campbell ratchets up the tension and he has a gift for descriptive prose, but we could perhaps have cut to the chase a little sooner. However, this starting section is also packed with great little worldbuilding and character touches and there is a satisfyingly macabre sense of humour explored more during this opening sequence as well, so it is hard to criticise it too much on that level.

 

Scar Night (****) is a first novel brimming with confidence, verve and style. It is available from Tor UK and from Bantam Spectra in the USA.

[Werthead]

Book Two: Iron Angel

 

A devastating conflict between the defenders of Deepgate and the Heshette tribes has left the city in a precarious position, but the Spine priest-assassins are reluctant to let the civilian population flee. Former Spine operative Rachel Hale and the temple archon Dill are on the run, whilst the fallen angel Carnival has vanished. But, from the pit under Deepgate, a strange mist is rising...

 

On the other side of the vast eastern ocean, the continent of Pandemeria has served as the battleground between the armies of Hell and those of the surface world, led by Ulcis' brothers. With their brother MIA, the rest of the family dispatches Cospinol, god of brine and fog, and his immortal champion John Anchor to investigate and seal the rent that Carnival and Dill accidentally created, before the world is destroyed.

 

In Iron Angel, the sequel to Scar Night and the middle volume of The Deepgate Codex trilogy, events take a turn for the Biblical. The armies of Hell are gathering and key characters from the first book are revealed to have major roles to play in the struggle to come. Characters from the first book, most notably Carnival, are unfortunately sidelined, but some of their replacements, like the superbly-realised John Anchor, more than make up for the lack.

 

The biggest difference between the two books, and Iron Angel's biggest weakness, is the lack of a milieu to rival Deepgate. A large chunk of the book is set in Hell and whilst it is vividly described, we are firmly in the traditional post-Dante vision of the underworld (with a dash of mid-1980s movie Labyrinth thrown in for good measure) more thoroughly explored by the likes of Gaiman (in the Sandman graphic novels) and it has to be said that there's a bit too much over-familiarity in this sequence. Also, whilst Dill grew a pair at the end of Scar Night and seemed to grow as a character, Iron Angel throws him back into ultra-nervous emo mode and he lost my sympathy and became a figure of pity before the halfway mark of the book. There's a notable lack of focus in the book as well, with the earlier sequence depicting John Anchor's mission, the central Hell section and the conclusion (which opens with an unexpected take on Murder on the Orient Express) not quite hanging together as a cohesive whole, although the three sections are individually compelling.

 

Things do come together at the end of the book, and Iron Angel's vast final battle redefines the meaning of 'epic', with events culminating with a powerful cliffhanger ending which redeems the weaker sections of the book and leaves the reader eager to press on to the final volume, God of Clocks.

 

Iron Angel (***½) is a mixed bag which eventually overcomes its problems to deliver a readable and entertaining tale, although the measured pace and rich worldbuilding of Scar Night is sadly missing. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[Werthead]

Book Three: God of Clocks

 

Twelve powerful arconites walk the earth, preparing to bring about the destruction of humanity and bringing its souls under the command of Menoa, Lord of Hell. Ahead of their advance, assassin Rachel Hale, blood-witch Mina Greene, the angel Dill and the god Hasp retreat towards the castle of Sabor, god of clocks. Meanwhile, Cospinol, god of brine, decides that he must mount a direct assault on Menoa and orders his slave-champion, John Anchor, to pull him and his immense vessel into Hell, for a very strange voyage indeed...

 

God of Clocks is the final volume of The Deepgate Codex (possibly the most misnamed trilogy ever: the titular codex is mentioned a couple of times and plays no substantive role in proceedings at all). It picks up after the cliffhanger ending to the second volume and expectations were for a big, epic climax. Instead, we get something different.

 

This is an odd book. Campbell's grasp of character and plot remains strong, and the revelations of backstory mysteries are mostly effective. But there are long diversions and side-plots that ultimately don't seem to go anywhere. The introduction of time travel is intriguing - fantasy typically doesn't touch it with a bargepole - and there's a lot of humour going on, but ultimately the narrative becomes confused and self-destructs towards the end. Time travel is often used as a get-out clause for lazy writers, something I'd never have pegged Campbell as (based on the strength of his first two novels), but here it fulfils its all-too tempting deus ex machina, narrative-crutch role. Simply put, the revelation that there are billions of alternate timelines in which every possibility is played out does make the reader wonder why he should be caring about this particular timeline and story. Even worse is the danger that time travel can be used to undo all the events of the story so far, meaning that the losses and prices that our heroes have paid are simply wished out of existence. Whilst the ending doesn't quite go that far (it's ambiguous what does get changed and what doesn't), it's still a bit of a cheat.

 

God of Clocks (***) is a disappointing finale to the trilogy, which started out superbly but seemed to lose focus and cohesion as it went along, before ending on a decidedly anti-climatic note. There's enough interesting characters and ideas here for the book to be worth reading, but ultimately this is a trilogy that does not deliver on what it promised in the first book. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[Kivam]

Yeah, that about covers it.  Scar Night was terrific, but Iron Angel left me cold (though John Anchor was great).  Didn't know god of clocks was out, but not rushing to buy it.