Product Description

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #270210 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-27
• Released on: 2007-11-27
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.80" h x .86" w x 4.10" l, .58 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 560 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Campbell sets his stunning debut fantasy in Deepgate, a town wreathed in chains that keep it hanging suspended over a bottomless abyss, peopled by worshippers of Lord Ulcis, the god of chains, and tormented by a mad angel named Carnival. The author, who was a video game designer, renders Deepgate beautifully. It's a complex city of creaking metal links, stone and shadow, inhabited by priests, assassins and the boy-angel Dill, who will lead a journey into the abyss in a desperate attempt to save the city. Campbell has Neil Gaiman's gift for lushly dark stories and compelling antiheroes, and effortlessly channels the Victorian atmospherics of writer and illustrator Mervyn Peake as well. This imaginative first novel will have plenty of readers anxiously awaiting his follow-up. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
A vast network of ponderous chains suspends Deepgate over a dark chasm. The church of Ulcis dominates the skyline and the citizens' lives. When a Deepgate denizen dies, the body is cast, with appropriate rites, into the chasm. According to the church, Ulcis lies in the abyss. When he has enough of the sanctified dead to support him, he and they will rise and overthrow Ulcis' mother, Ayen, who bars men from the joys of Paradise. In the meantime, Deepgate battles intermittently with the nomadic heathens of the surrounding deserts, who worship Ayen. Deepgate is home to two angels, the 16-year-old male last descendent of one of Ulcis' companions, and the mad female Carnival, who, once a moon, hunts down and drains someone's blood and soul to remain alive. Almost torturously crafted in characterization, plot, and setting,Campbell's debutmay appeal most to those who like novels in the manner of Dickens, whose highly evocative, occasionally overripe, memorable style Campbell's recalls. Frieda Murray
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Campbell’s debut may appeal most to those who like novels in the manner of Dickens ... whose highly evocative ... memorable style Campbell’s recalls.”—Booklist

“[A] stunning debut…. Campbell has Neil Gaiman's gift for lushly dark stories and compelling antiheroes.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A chain-wrapped industrial city so real you can feel the iron and smell the fumes—and a violent tale told in murderously beautiful prose."—Sharon Shinn, author of Archangel

"Vividly imagined, visceral and intensely involving...a stunning debut. I can’t wait to see what follows in the next volume."—Sarah Ash, author of the Tears of Artamon series

“With undead armies, psychotic angels and exploding airships, Scar Night is a gripping, ripping yarn which rattles along at a great pace. Tether all that to the knock-out image at the heart of the novel—Deepgate, a Gothic city built on a network of chains over a great abyss—and you have urban fantasy at its best.”—Hal Duncan, author of Vellum


From the Hardcover edition.