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Scar Night Hardcover – December 26, 2006

4.4 out of 5 stars 179

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Spectra (December 26, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553384163
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553384161
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.44 x 1.25 x 9.55 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 out of 5 stars 179

About the author

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Alan Campbell
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Alan Campbell was born in Falkirk, Scotland, and grew up there, before moving on to study Computer Science at Edinburgh University. Before writing, he previously worked as a software engineer for various companies, developing numerous games including the Grand Theft Auto series.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
179 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2006
I purchased the British version of this because I couldn't wait for the US edition (the artwork on the jacket is superior, so glad I did). What a complexity of visions the writer's prose creates-- I was absolutely THERE, seeing that vast metropolis of Deepgate in all its foreboding and creepy realism, chills and thrills, ooo-weee loved it. I get extremely tired of all of the young man turns world do-gooder on some sort of impossible quest yet somehow has this magic crap he knows nothing about that allows him to save the universe blah blah stuff. This was wonderfully different, unique, off-the-wall, you know what I mean. When you're in a good book it sits there by your couch, sortof like a present waiting to be opened again, nothing better than a good bookie, except a freekin GREAT bookie and this is it. You truly must get this one. I would pay the extra though and opt for the British edition, you'll love the cover.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019
Fun story about this book. I once owned the paperback. I started reading it, but kept getting distracted by shiny objects. I lost the book, but never forgot about it. Somewhere close to a decade later I ran across Scar Night in the kindle store and decided to buy it. It sat in my library for a long time before I finally found the opportunity to sit down and read it.

The reason I tell that story is so you can understand that the bits I did read were good enough that I never forgot about them after nearly ten years of waiting to finish the damn thing. The fact that I'm awful at finding time to read didn't diminish my desire to keep reading this book.

The writing itself is beautifully descriptive. The author is fully capable of describing complex action scenes in a way that allows you to fully absorb the magnitude of it all. This is especially nice when you've got angels fighting airborne battles with crazy stuff crashing down all around them.

The plot itself is fun and full of thinky moments that force you to reconsider how you feel about characters.

It got a little sleepy on occasion when I was reading about characters I had no attachment to, but I get like that with almost every book.

Overall, it's a really book and was absolutely worth buying twice and keeping on the back of my disorganized mind for a decade.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2014
Excellent first novel by the Author, the world created is amazing and the descriptions allow the reader to visualize Deep Gate easily. The story in enthralling and I could hardly put the book down, immediately moved onto Iron Angel to continue the story.
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2021
A dark, dark fantasy story and very well written! I love the world created here.... excellent
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024
I could not love this author more. Every paragraph reads like prose with absolutely poetic descriptive mastery. I own every book by this author and very much hope to see loads more!
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2008
For a first book this was excellent although if I could I might rate it 3.75 stars. I wont get into the plot or a rehash of the story since others have done it so well but I will say that I think Alan Campbell has great potential. Much of the book feels like a mix of other more popular authors but Alan does a great job building up his story and while his story and ending are somewhat predictable if was thoroughly enjoyable. I have already recommended this book to my friends and happily read through his sequel in a day (Iron Angel). I am looking forward to his next book.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2015
Great book, very well written, explores the darkest sides of human nature where gods, angels and demons expose the delicate balance between sanity and nightmarish madness.
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2010
Scar Night is the first book by Alan Campbell, and it most certainly shows. While the story works in some areas and shows promise in others, for the most part the world that the plot takes place in is what ruins this book.

The concept is an interesting concept. Fallen angels living in a chain city. The promise behind such a premise was enough to make me continue on and read to find out. But this is where the story begins to falter because of where the angels live. Two of them, a young angel and an immensely old angel, live in a city held together by chains above the abyss. This could be good as an intermediary to hell down below. The problem is that the city is held by chains, but it is connected to land. People live in squalor and fear, when all they have to do is walk away from the city and build their own community on land with deserts, trees, seas you name it. So what is the point of having a city suspended above the abyss? It makes no sense at all. Presumably because the city was put there to guard the abyss and as some sort of religious pretext for why their god chose that spot and built that city. But this is hard to get over, especially with an angry tribe marching to destroy the city.

Two other parts that ruin the book. A poisoner is somehow privy to exactly how Deepgate's military will fight and knows exactly how and what they will do militarily and politically. The logic behind this is just not there, leaving you with a flimsy reason to further the story. Finally the book culminates with a mad group of decaying angels (which, by the way, did have promise and it would have been much better if we would have seen more of them and what they could have done) flying after the two other angels out of the abyss. Yup, flying to the surface with no restrictions. So what is the point of staying in the abyss with no light, food or anything else except decaying flesh and dead bodies? None apparently, but it helped to facilitate the story so it was added to it.

I really can't say that I enjoyed Scar Night, although I won't necessarily go so far as to say it was horrible. It is a decent first book with a ton of room for improvement. I may read the next in the series if only to see if his writing improves and to see if the decaying angels make another appearance. Not a recommend.

2.5 stars.

Top reviews from other countries

David Brookes
5.0 out of 5 stars Scar Night
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2008
This is one of the best fantasy books I've read in a long while. The author balances his in-depth descriptions and highly illustrative style with rapidly successive scenes, providing a flicker-book approach to telling his involved story of supernatural beings in and below the city of Deepgate, which is suspended by chains above a gaping chasm that is, according to almost forgotten recent history, the pit bored by a falling angel who disagreed with the god above as heaven closed its doors to the souls of Deepgate's dead. Naturally the complex religious network that Deepgate is founded on sides with the fallen angel, who exists as "the god of chains" far beneath the city.

The storytelling is excellent, and gallops through what looks like a huge text of 550 pages, towards an ending that actually comes all to soon. It's thoroughly enjoyable, mostly because the author skillfully keeps us entertained by providing an almost film-like skipping between characters, but also becuase of the characters themselves. Each of them is strong, clearly defined, and likeable in their own way, even the sinister or misguided ones. Dill is the only surviving angel in Deepgate, bar the monstrous scarred fallen demi-god Carnival, who hurls herself about the city in her rage every Scar Night, when the moon is darkest, to feed her unslakable bloodthirst. Rachel is an assassin-in-training, leather-bound and skillful despite having not taken her initiation into the sinister society of the Spine. Devon is the Chief Poisoner of the Poison Kitchens, a smoky, toxic quarter of the city devoted to the development and distribution of deadly substances to the assassins of the church. And Mr Nettle is the hulking father of a dead girl, whose soul has been taken for a sinister purpose; he only wants to get it back, and will do whatever is necessary.

I can't praise this book enough. It's essentially flawless, apart from the odd page of clumsy exposition, but in a volume this size it's forgivable. Recommended to all fans of the grimy fantasy style of authors like China Mieville, of whom this book is strongly reminiscent. For a debut, this title is remarkably accomplished and genuinely unmissable. Thankfully, a second volume in what has become a series is already available - "Iron Angel".

9.5 / 10
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The Keen Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Lies, Murder, War
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2012
Wow ... this is a fantastic book, and, hopefully, the start of a fantastic trilogy. I am always totally delighted to find a new writer who writes fantasy/sci-fi, or whatever you like to class it as, in a new, fresh and exciting way. And this book certainly ticks all the boxes.

The world of Deepgate, balanced on its chains over the Abyss of Ulcis, is brilliantly portrayed. The `pure' dead of Deepgate are sent to the Abyss to their god, but those who die in an `unnatural' way, particularly those finished off by the mysterious Carnival, are doomed. This is the way of life, and has been for as long as the Church has been in control. But in this story we find things start to change, with the Angel Dill, and Mr Nettle, and the Poisoner Devon among others, making decisions that will alter Deepgate for ever.

What seems to start off as quite a `nice' book turns rapidly into a dark novel of hate, greed, ambition, destruction and rather gruesome nastiness. When I finished the book I thought that really every character in the story carried with them scars and nightmares - not one character was free from darkness of one sort or another.

This was absolutely brilliant to read, and I think it would be great to see visually - perhaps in a mini series. Evocative, thoughtful, exciting, horrifying, wonderful and leaves the reader really eager to read the next in the series. Totally recommended to anyone looking for a new, fresh series to read.
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Mr. A. I. Harrison
4.0 out of 5 stars Barbarella goes Gothic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2008
In a world where the field of fantasy writing is as rich and fertile as it's heyday in the 50's, with luminaries such as Fiest, Martin, Hobb and Eriksons still knocking out the 'hits' and bright new talent seemingly emerging all the time like Lynch, Abercrombie and Rothfuss it gets very hard for a guy to stand out from the crowd.

However in this field of fantasy writing is a corner that is forever Deepgate! A very weird, slightly disturbing gothic fantasy / horror highbred. Very original though the early chapters more than tip a wink to Mervyn Peake.

Picture a city suspended over an abyss by giant chains where the cheap streets are determined not by the expense of the architecture but by how likely they are to tumble into the void! A city menaced every 'scar night' by a fallen she-angel who takes PMT to previously un matched heights. A crazed poisoner out to avenge his dead wife on the whole city and a God who is definately not what the populace hope he is!

A heady brew! Unusually for a book written by a man, the most complex and engaging charactors are female.

The writing style is witty and fast moving and the story if you haven't already realised is incredible far fetched and fantastic, so if you can't suspend belief or find yourself shouting 'oh that's just stupid!' at Dr Who then this book may not be for you. If you just go with the flow, strap yourself in for the ride and see the black humour I think you'll enjoy it I certainly did.
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Constance F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous! Wow! A Deliciously Dark World Injected with Humour and Humanity
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2020
Alan Campbell’s ‘Scar Night’ is amazing with excellent world building and characterisation in a cross-genre, boundary-pushing novel of a world at war that raises big questions about religion and life after death. Although a dark series I liked the humour and humanity Alan Campbell injects into his novels. I started Alan Campbell’s ‘Iron Angel’ his second book in the Deepgate Codex but stopped about halfway through when I reached ‘The Maze’ at the beginning of the year when my mother was taken into hospital with a terminal illness as I was too disturbed by the dark storyline and the questions it raised at that time. However, Alan Campbell’s story and that of the angel Dill and his other characters stayed with me and I will be returning to and finishing the series.
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Charlotte Harley
5.0 out of 5 stars TOTAL FASCINATION
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2006
Dark, surreal, gory, monsters, blood, guts, and oh so beautifully written--an absolute vision of fantasy that one rarely finds. I could SMELL the chained city, picture it vividly, I heard the sounds of it: this is the realism of this book. And yes, there are even touches of sarcastic humor that are a delight. No elves, no dragons--I guess the popular term would be urban fantasy. But to me, this one stands alone, in a class by itself. You MUST experience this book.
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