Synopses & Reviews
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 revengeor 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 Deepgates 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 Presbyters 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 Deepgates doorstep, Dill and Rachel are forced into an uneasy alliance with the citys oldest and most dangerous foe. They must journey down into the uncharted chasm to save their sprawling metropolisand themselvesfrom annihilation. Once they descend however, they learn that what lies below is far more sinister than what theyve been taught to expect.
Synopsis
When one of the inhabitants of Deepgate, a city suspended by giant chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss, turns traitor, unleashing powerful enemies against it, two angels--one an untested boy, the other a psychotic murderer--venture into the depths of the abyss in search of a powerful magic rumored to lie at the bottom of the chasm. 29,500 first printing.
About the Author
“Campbells debut may appeal most to those who like novels in the manner of Dickens ... whose highly evocative ... memorable style Campbells 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 fumesand a violent tale told in murderously beautiful prose."Sharon Shinn, author of Archangel
"Vividly imagined, visceral and intensely involving...a stunning debut. I cant 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 novelDeepgate, a Gothic city built on a network of chains over a great abyssand you have urban fantasy at its best.”Hal Duncan, author of Vellum
Author Q&A
Alan Campbell talks about the inspiration behind the dark–but not bleak–world in Scar Night.There's an old mine in the Ochil hills in Scotland near where my grandfather used to live. If you wander into it, as I did when I was a young lad, then you'll find a hole in the ground a short distance inside. It is utterly dark down in that shaft, and without a torch there's no way of knowing how deep it is. If you jumped in, you might fall for less than a yard, or for 300 feet, or–as a twelve year old boy who knew all about Frodo's adventures in the Mines of Moria liked to imagine–you might plummet for miles and end up in some forgotten underground realm (albeit as a splat on a rocky floor).
At any rate, it's a hole which potentially leads somewhere. I still have no idea what is actually down there, which makes it intriguing to me.
The abyss in Scar Night is a lot bigger: large enough, in fact, to hang an entire city by a web of chains over its mouth. This is Deepgate, an ancient place of rusting bridges and creaking walkways; of suspended streets, pendulum houses and poison kitchens. It is home to angels and assassins, madmen, priests, brawlers and murderers. Nobody can be absolutely certain what lies in the fathomless darkness beneath their very homes, because to make the journey down there, as Deepgate's priests have long preached, you must first be dead.
At the hub of the city rises the Temple, where the dead are brought to be cast into the abyss. Ultimately these souls are sent down to Ulcis, a renegade god who is building an army with which to storm heaven.
But is he really? What if the priests have got it wrong? Like the shaft in the mine I visited as a boy, there might be just about anything down there if you let your imagination have free reign. And if, like me, you read a lot of fantasy, then I expect your imagination is quite healthy from all the exercise it's had. So I hope you're as curious to know what's down there as I was before I decided what was actually down there in Chapter 25.
One of the great joys of reading fantasy is that the genre lets you don your explorer's cap and head off into realms unknown, places that are not necessarily limited by something as mundane as physics. So we can have magic and monsters; we can climb aboard sumptuous airships and journey across strange deserts if we want to. But there's a proviso.
I think we'll only commit to such an adventure if the characters are worth caring about. In Scar Night, I've tried to make them as human as I can. Dill, the main protagonist, is an angel who lives alone in a tall tower. He has his wings, of course, and the blood of heroes in his veins, but, like the rest of us, he dreams of a better life and wonders where his missing socks go.
And then there's Carnival, an altogether different sort of angel. Hunted by the Church assassins for nearly three thousand years, she has nevertheless prevailed. It's safe to say she can handle herself in a fight. But then even Carnival has issues. What good are sublime combat skills to someone who detests herself for using them? And how much fun would immortality be to someone with a self-destructive, even suicidal, personality?
Scar Night is certainly dark and violent, although I don't see it as bleak. It's an adventure story which, at its heart, is about friendship and redemption. It's also about chains. In one way or another, all of the main characters are chained: to their own past, their duty or their way of life. This is the story of how they break free.
We've heard that you began Scar Night a decade ago in Budapest, but that you gave it up fairly quickly. What happened that made you stop writing at that point, and what compelled you to give this manuscript another shot rather than start with something else?Soon after I'd returned home I started a job as a games programmer, which occupied almost all of my time. We were working to deadlines, which often meant long hours, so I really didn't have much time to work on the book. Eventually I decided to quit coding and concentrate on photography—I'd had a little bit of success selling travel images, and wanted to expand my portfolio—but also to finish the book. I probably stuck with the original manuscript rather than attack something new because I enjoy rewriting. A good thing, too, because my photos weren't great.
How did the germ of the story blossom? Was it something about Budapest that struck you, or was it fashioned from an experience you had there?
Neither, to be honest. I think Deepgate contains more of Edinburgh's old town than Budapest—the narrow lanes, steps, closes, spires and turrets. I just happened to have a lot of time on my hands when I was in Hungary, and few distractions (like TV or beer money) so I started writing. I'm still not entirely sure where story came from.
Dill appears to be the main character of Scar Night, and he obviously has some learning to do. Was it a conscious decision to go with a younger, teenaged main character instead of a more adult character? Why?
Yes. The world I was trying to put down on paper was a dark, complex and menacing place, so I wanted a character who hadn't been exposed to any of it yet. Dill has lived in isolation his whole life, under the watchful eye of an overly protective Presbyter. He only begins to step beyond the walls of his cell when the story begins. It was useful to explore Deepgate from his point of view, while destroying his preconceptions of how life should be.
Chains play a very big role in Scar Night, as do scars. What is it about these two things that compelled you to give them such meaning and prevalence?
I couldn't get away from chains in a place like Deepgate, which owes its very existence to them. I liked the idea of a city hanging precariously over the unknown because, well, life is like that. But because chains were so prevalent in the city, I tried to use them in other ways in the story.
I felt that Carnival's scars were necessary for her character. She's cruel and savage, but I wanted to like her. And I couldn't do that unless she had a conscience, even if it was buried deep inside. The scars she inflicts upon herself are a reflection of that conscience.
"Dark Fantasy" is a tag easily placed on Scar Night. It is full of pain, sorrow, denial, and is quite heavy. Dill and Devon provide the few lighter moments. Did you feel that the book was just too heavy at times and that it needed these light spots on occasion?
Absolutely. I had a lot of fun with both these characters —Dill with his bucket of snails, and Devon with his... err, unusual sense of humour.
Scar Night has a lot of religious influences and overtones. How much of this comes from your own religious beliefs/upbringing?
I'm not religious at all, but I think that fantasy worlds need religion to make them more believable. Wherever you have religion, you have conflict—maddening, frustrating, and horrific in real life, but handy in fiction when you want to have a bloody great war.
After setting Scar Night aside, you moved into the realm of video games. Compare and contrast, if you will, the process of novel writing and game programming.
I suppose there's an element of problem solving in both processes. With writing, you're trying to create story which works—which all hangs together and is, you hope, entertaining. Coding a large game is similar, and just as complicated, although your vocabulary of functions, data structures and variables is hidden from the player (and therefore tends to be a bit messier than prose).
Have you always enjoyed storytelling, or is this something that came along over the years?
I did enjoy writing stories at school, but I think I lacked the patience to really work at them when I was younger.
The gothic elements in the book remind me of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. Was his work a particular inspiration? What other authors have you been inspired by?
Very much so. I love Peake's rich descriptions of decaying places in Gormenghast. Other authors who have inspired me have been M John Harrison for his beautiful prose and George R R Martin for his intriguing characters; Also Stephen Donaldson for his anti-heroes and Steven Erikson's superbly crafted worlds.
Scar Night is the first title in a series. When can readers expect volume two and what can you share with us about future titles?
More violence, ghosts, monsters and strange machines. The protagonists who survived the first book are forced out into the world beyond Deepgate, where they discover some very odd people and places. There are other gods at large, and they aren't happy. Dill's character evolves, although not in a way he hopes for or expects. Beyond that, I'd rather not say too much at the moment. The second volume should be out in early 2008.