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Title | Lye Street
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Author | Alan Campbell
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | Subterranean Press - 2008
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First Printing | Subterranean Press - 2008
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Title | Scar Night
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Author | Alan Campbell
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Cover Art | Stephen Youll
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Publisher | Bantam Spectra - 2006
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First Printing | Bantam Spectra - 2006
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Title | Iron Angel
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Author | Alan Campbell
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Cover Art | Stephen Youll
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Publisher | Bantam Spectra - 2008
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First Printing | Bantam Spectra - 2008
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Title | God of Clocks
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Author | Alan Campbell
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Cover Art | Stephen Youll
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Publisher | Ballantine - 2010
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First Printing | Spectra - 2009
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Title | Damnation for Beginners
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Author | Alan Campbell
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Cover Art | ---
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Publisher | Subterranean Press - 2012
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First Printing | Subterranean Press - 2012
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Category | Dark Fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Dill, Rachel Hael, Carnival, Mina, John Anchor, Hasp, Menoa, Jack
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Main Elements | Angels, demons
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Website | None
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 Lye Street
Alan Campbell has graced us with a 26,000 word novella, a prequel to his stunning fantasy debut, Scar Night, the first novel of the Deepgate Codex. Lye Street ends just where the novel picks up!
Scar Night
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.
Iron Angel
In this stunning follow-up to his epic fantasy debut, Alan Campbell propels readers into a captivating city battling for its own survival—and that of humankind—in a world of deities and demons, fallen angels and killers.
After a destructive battle, the ancient swaying city of Deepgate has been overtaken. Most of the chains that suspend it have given way, toxic fumes are emanating from blazing structures, and the temple once inhabited by the ruling Presbyter now dangles upside down above the once-uncharted abyss. The victorious Spine have initiated martial law and are ruthlessly pursuing all who attempt to leave. Amid the turmoil, two captives are returned.
Arriving by ship are the young angel Dill, now toughened by war, and traitor assassin Rachel Hael. Incarcerated in the slowly crumbling temple, the two await their fate, while from the abyss beneath them ghosts rise—for the death of the god Ulcis has left open the gates to Hell.
But on orders from his divine brethren, Cospinol, the god of brine and fog, is traveling the world to Deepgate to seal this breach. His great skyship is being dragged through the air by the giant John Anchor, a monster of a man enslaved to pull the god’s vessel, moving slowly, inevitably, toward the city.
As the city waits, teetering on the brink, myriad plans for vengeance are set in motion, from the continent of Pandemeria to Heaven itself. Among them is a ghostly archon sent to deliver a message to the gods on earth—using Dill as his vessel. Thrust from his body, Dill’s own soul returns to Hell. When Dill and Rachel are attacked by Spine assassins, Rachel has no choice but to try to escape with the creature that calls itself Dill…and to somehow find a way to restore her friend’s soul before it’s too late. For powerful forces are stirring, and in the coming battle between gods, it is the world of men that is at stake.
God of Clocks
In the cataclysm of the battle of the gods, a portal to Hell has been opened, releasing legions of unnatural creatures that have pushed humanity to the edge of extinction. While warring deities clash with fallen angels, the only hope for mankind's survivle lies with the most unlikely heroes: Former assassin Rachel Hael has rejoined blood-magicians Mina Greene and her little dog, Basilis, on one last desperate mission to save the world from the ravages of Hell. As Rachel travels to the final confrontation she has both sought and feared, she begins to realize that time itself is unravelling. And so she must prepare herself for a sacrifice that may claim her heart, her life, her sould - and even then it may not be enough.
Damnation for Beginners
The story begins in the beleaguered city of Cog. The protagonist, Jack Aviso, is himself a cog, a functionary in the soulless, profit-obsessed enterprise known as the Henry Sill Banking Corporation. When a routinely corrupt business transaction shatters both his marriage and his well-ordered life, Jack finds himself--quite literally--in Hell, where he embarks on a perilous, unprecedented journey of revenge.
I had really high expectations for this series, not sure why, maybe it was the covers, or the fact this was an angel based series that wasn't young adult. Thus I was a little disappointed that I didn't get sucked right into the world of Deepgate, a city hanging over an abyss held up by massive chains. It made for an interestingly bizarre city, but I've read about stranger cities that somehow felt more real.
I was also all eager to follow the adventures of Dill, a young angel serving the church, however it soon became clear he wasn't actually the protagonist. I still really liked him, he was pretty much the only nice person in the whole series, but he's basically the character the author makes suffer so the other characters can rescue him. It is the assassin Rachel that, if anyone, is the protagonist. She was ok, but I wanted to read about angels, not assassins.
Most other characters are either crazy or evil, which is interesting in its own way, but you can't really learn to like them. And a few are so over the top they end up being charicatures, Carnival unfortunately ended up being little more than a killing machine, I wanted to know so much more about her, maybe redeem her...but even the ending left me confused as to her fate. (Dill's fate is also left kind of hanging, not all characters get a proper wrap up)
Then there is the worldbuilding, and I think that's where I kind of didn't get into it as much as I had hoped. I actually love complex worldbuilding. Interesting concepts, a whole history to back up the present, cultures and religions...it was all there...except it got a bit too complicated. You had gods and angels, cities hanging from chains, magicians and priests and a machine called the Tooth which after some time I decided didn't look anything at all like a tooth but I kept picturing a giant molar rolling about the desert. There are poisoned forests and mysterious mountains, desert people and gods floating about in skyships pulled by super strong immortal slaves (actually kind of liked that guy).
And then there is Hell. Now that was a place that warps the mind, which is as it should be. When you die you have no body, just a soul, so the world no longer revolves around the physical, but around the the will. When you go to Hell a room made out of your own body grows around you, and you merge into essentially an apartment building of other soul rooms...which if they can all work together, the entire building can up and start wandering around. There are a variety of creatures in Hell, and to be honest, given how many souls got consumed or used as building materials, I'm not sure why it was overcrowded, they seemed to get used up in vast amounts.
And then in the third book, throw in time travel! Having watched quite a bit of Star Trek, wrapping my head around time loops and paradoxes wasn't all that hard, but the combination of all these complex ideas was a bit overwhelming.
And it was dark, as I mentioned before my favorite character Dill (stupid name, keep thinking of pickles) gets killed, abused, tortured, possessed, killed a few more times...it was rather depressing. Most everyone else dies too. Wasn't exactly the best choice for my Christmas time reading!
As for the two short stories, Lye Street (available on OpenLibrary, nearly impossble to find otherwise since it was a limited, signed run) was a tale about Carnival and leads up to the dramatic opening of the first book. Do NOT read it first though, I recommend reading it after Iron Angel which is when it was published. It was one that made me want to know more about Carnival, as interesting tidbits were dropped but I felt never really fulfilled later on.
Now all the above was incredibly dark...and so was Damnation for Beginners (also available on OpenLibrary), but that one was funny too! A guy working for a bank knows the customers are getting screwed over, eventually gets used to cover some random stranger's debt (you see, when someone dies without heirs, the bank has to somehow recoup the losses, and since the guy who owns the bank also owns the public records, can pick some other person to "become" the deceased and become responsible for that debt). Jack kills himself, prepared to make his boss suffer for all eternity. A dark but hilarious look at corporate greed that extends beyond the grave.
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