Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing

In preparation for the last book Alan Campbell's Deepgate Trilogy, I've decided to re-read Iron Angel, the sequel to Scar Night, which I read when it came out last year, but for one reason and another, failed to blog about at the time.

The first part of the book opens in the town of Sandport, where Rachel and Dill have fled following the near destruction of the city of Deepgate. As the pair struggle to stay out of the hands of the Temple's Spine assassins, another interested party arrives in town: the sea god Cospinol, convinced that the scarred angel Carnival is the key that will let him escape the prison of his rotting skyship, would also like a word. Aided by John Anchor, the massively strong acolyte who tows his ship through the sky leaving destruction in his wake, Cospinol pursues Rachel and Dill when they find themselves forcibly returned to the remains of the Temple of Ulcis in Deepgate for questioning by the Spine.

The second part of the book is set in the Maze of Blood, an ever-changing Sartrean hell where King Menoa and his Mesmerists hold absolute sway, and where everything — every building, every door, boat and weapon — is formed from a damned soul; but when left to their own devices, the souls form themselves into houses and rooms whose contents represent the character and personality of their owner. On sensing Dill's arrival in the Maze, Menoa orders his chief engineer, Alice Harper, to find the angel and to return his soul so that it can be use to create an arconite, a vast and indestructible war machine. Aided by the god Hasp, the Lord of the First Citadel, Dill flees Harper and her vast army of demons in an attempt to escape his fate.

The third part of the book takes place on a glass train filled with Mesmerist socialites, hurtling towards Coreollis City to demand the surrender of Rys, the god of flowers and knives, with the forces of hell at their heels and an arconite as vanguard. But as the journey progresses, it becomes clear that the passengers are not alone: a ghostly force is detected; a piano is destroyed; and a passenger is murdered. Alice Harper, recently returned to the human world by her king, investigates and, much against her will, is compelled to call upon the assistance of the god Hasp, now trapped in a fragile glass body and compelled to obey any Mesmerist by demonic parasite embedded in his skull. After a series of mishaps, the remaining passengers arrive at their destination, just in time to witness a vast battle between the combined forces of the six fallen gods and Menoa's legions.

Despite liking Iron Angel very much, I've got a few minor quibbles, most of which are probably due the sheer number of things that Campbell packs into the book. The sheer number of characters and locations packed into the book inevitably means that there are places and people I'd have preferred him to linger on and develop in more detail. But if that seems a churlish complaint, it's only because the details sounded so intriguing I'd have liked to learn more about them. Then again, I also realise that, had he done this, he'd have ended up with a Stephensonian doorstop of a novel rather than the fast paced steampunk actioner that he clearly had in mind.

Of the three main sections, I thought the first wasn't as strong as the latter two, probably because it revisited some ideas and locations covered in more depth in Scar Night, but it was still enjoyable. But the latter two sections really shone with invention and weirdness. The hellbound section was suitably infernal, full of demonic priests ready to torture innocent souls — heaven, remember, is closed to all souls regardless of their acts in life — and to press them into the service of Menoa's philosophy of constant change. While the final train journey is like some crazed version of Murder on the Orient Express where the murders are committed by demons and the detective is a blood breathing corpse.

I'm generally positive about it as a novel — if nothing else, it's good honest savage fun — but it's not without its flaws.