God of Clocks
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Review
`A theological fantasy with echoes of Gormenghast is both spellbinding and literary.'
--Scotland on Sunday
'Fantasy excels at alternative theologies, and Campbell's pantheon is vividly imagined.'
--Scotland On Sunday
`Comparisons with Mervyn Peake (author of Gormenghast) are certainly justified, but Campbell brings a contemporary twist to a Peake-style gothic world - it's certainly something new, strange and compelling. '
--Civilian Reader --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Scotland on Sunday
'Fantasy excels at alternative theologies, and Campbell's pantheon is vividly imagined.'
--Scotland On Sunday
`Comparisons with Mervyn Peake (author of Gormenghast) are certainly justified, but Campbell brings a contemporary twist to a Peake-style gothic world - it's certainly something new, strange and compelling. '
--Civilian Reader --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A bombastic, action-packed follow up...Campbell's gift is in exploring elements of good and evil and infusing them.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Fans of Alan's Deepgate Codex have been chomping at the bit for this conclusion to an epic series and to be honest it was going to have to be something special after the climax of Iron Angel. What was presented was a tale that did exactly what was required, a story to help tie up a lot of the lose ends from the previous instalments yet lacked some of the flair that appeared in the other books of the series.
It is well written, its definitely a series to mark the genre by, but above all it's a series that needed that huge bang right at the end that was more of a fizzle as a number of plot points seemed to just not have the passion or the strength to make it up that final incline. Add to the mix the sad fact that the characters seemed to whimper and retract into themselves rather than grow to increase the longevity and it was a sad ending to the series. However, to counter balance that, the descriptiveness is much better than the original novel and the pace along with Alan's indomitable storytelling style do a lot to save it. I'll look forward to more of his work but hope that he's learned from this outing what went wrong and has a plan to fix it the next time.
It is well written, its definitely a series to mark the genre by, but above all it's a series that needed that huge bang right at the end that was more of a fizzle as a number of plot points seemed to just not have the passion or the strength to make it up that final incline. Add to the mix the sad fact that the characters seemed to whimper and retract into themselves rather than grow to increase the longevity and it was a sad ending to the series. However, to counter balance that, the descriptiveness is much better than the original novel and the pace along with Alan's indomitable storytelling style do a lot to save it. I'll look forward to more of his work but hope that he's learned from this outing what went wrong and has a plan to fix it the next time.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Twelve powerful arconites walk the earth, preparing to bring about the destruction of humanity and bringing its souls under the command of Menoa, Lord of Hell. Ahead of their advance, assassin Rachel Hale, blood-witch Mina Greene, the angel Dill and the god Hasp retreat towards the castle of Sabor, god of clocks. Meanwhile, Cospinol, god of brine, decides that he must mount a direct assault on Menoa and orders his slave-champion, John Anchor, to pull him and his immense vessel into Hell, for a very strange voyage indeed...
God of Clocks is the final volume of The Deepgate Codex (possibly the most misnamed trilogy ever: the titular codex is mentioned a couple of times and plays no substantive role in proceedings at all). It picks up after the cliffhanger ending to the second volume and expectations were for a big, epic climax. Instead, we get something different.
This is an odd book. Campbell's grasp of character and plot remains strong, and the revelations of backstory mysteries are mostly effective. But there are long diversions and side-plots that ultimately don't seem to go anywhere. The introduction of time travel is intriguing - fantasy typically doesn't touch it with a bargepole - and there's a lot of humour going on, but ultimately the narrative becomes confused and self-destructs towards the end. Time travel is often used as a get-out clause for lazy writers, something I'd never have pegged Campbell as (based on the strength of his first two novels), but here it fulfils its all-too tempting deus ex machina, narrative-crutch role. Simply put, the revelation that there are billions of alternate timelines in which every possibility is played out does make the reader wonder why he should be caring about this particular timeline and story. Even worse is the danger that time travel can be used to undo all the events of the story so far, meaning that the losses and prices that our heroes have paid are simply wished out of existence. Whilst the ending doesn't quite go that far (it's ambiguous what does get changed and what doesn't), it's still a bit of a cheat.
God of Clocks (***) is a disappointing finale to the trilogy, which started out superbly but seemed to lose focus and cohesion as it went along, before ending on a decidedly anti-climatic note. There's enough interesting characters and ideas here for the book to be worth reading, but ultimately this is a trilogy that does not deliver on what it promised in the first book. It is available now in the UK and USA.
God of Clocks is the final volume of The Deepgate Codex (possibly the most misnamed trilogy ever: the titular codex is mentioned a couple of times and plays no substantive role in proceedings at all). It picks up after the cliffhanger ending to the second volume and expectations were for a big, epic climax. Instead, we get something different.
This is an odd book. Campbell's grasp of character and plot remains strong, and the revelations of backstory mysteries are mostly effective. But there are long diversions and side-plots that ultimately don't seem to go anywhere. The introduction of time travel is intriguing - fantasy typically doesn't touch it with a bargepole - and there's a lot of humour going on, but ultimately the narrative becomes confused and self-destructs towards the end. Time travel is often used as a get-out clause for lazy writers, something I'd never have pegged Campbell as (based on the strength of his first two novels), but here it fulfils its all-too tempting deus ex machina, narrative-crutch role. Simply put, the revelation that there are billions of alternate timelines in which every possibility is played out does make the reader wonder why he should be caring about this particular timeline and story. Even worse is the danger that time travel can be used to undo all the events of the story so far, meaning that the losses and prices that our heroes have paid are simply wished out of existence. Whilst the ending doesn't quite go that far (it's ambiguous what does get changed and what doesn't), it's still a bit of a cheat.
God of Clocks (***) is a disappointing finale to the trilogy, which started out superbly but seemed to lose focus and cohesion as it went along, before ending on a decidedly anti-climatic note. There's enough interesting characters and ideas here for the book to be worth reading, but ultimately this is a trilogy that does not deliver on what it promised in the first book. It is available now in the UK and USA.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Minor spoilers.
Hooray! A book with real imagination, bold ideas and lots of fun!
I read the first two books in the series and thought they were bursting with original ideas and plenty of atmosphere. I wish I could have remembered more of the details before picking up this third book, because it jumps straight in and doesn't do a lot to remind you who the multitudinous characters are. Disappointingly, all their motives appear to have been explained in the previous instalment and therefore this didn't make a huge amount of sense to me, despite being easy to read.
As literature this is fairly light but with concise imagery that is a real strength. This does get a little close to overwriting at times but that only helps to give you some great set-pieces without being too wordy. Forgiven.
What isn't forgiven is that this is a book with time-travel in it. Oh, how my heart sinks when I realise a book includes time-travel. It's such a dumb concept at the best of times, but only when you keep it simple (i.e. Back to the Future or Terminator) can you skip over the absurdity of it. When a writer tries to draw in the 'science' of it, writing in theories and overexplaining things, you open up a whole can of worms that makes the text vulnerable to scrunity.
I can't be bothered to nit-pick here but basically the characters in the book directly contradict themselves constantly about this aspect of the plot. One of these is the eponymous God of Clocks, who really should know better. One minute he says even a little trip would destroy the universe, then they're time-travelling left right and centre, deviating from plans in a way that 10 pages earlier would apparently have eradicated the cosmos. You can see how this utterly undermines everything about the story, and is annoying to boot.
The ending also suffers, being too sudden and just a little side-note following the knot of unecessary time-travel and other bits. Two important characters seem to disappear completely. A pretty heft side-plot is resigned to a brief epilogue.
A disappointing end to the series - although I still stand by the first line of this review.
A generous 6 / 10
David Brookes
Author of 'Half Discovered Wings'
Hooray! A book with real imagination, bold ideas and lots of fun!
I read the first two books in the series and thought they were bursting with original ideas and plenty of atmosphere. I wish I could have remembered more of the details before picking up this third book, because it jumps straight in and doesn't do a lot to remind you who the multitudinous characters are. Disappointingly, all their motives appear to have been explained in the previous instalment and therefore this didn't make a huge amount of sense to me, despite being easy to read.
As literature this is fairly light but with concise imagery that is a real strength. This does get a little close to overwriting at times but that only helps to give you some great set-pieces without being too wordy. Forgiven.
What isn't forgiven is that this is a book with time-travel in it. Oh, how my heart sinks when I realise a book includes time-travel. It's such a dumb concept at the best of times, but only when you keep it simple (i.e. Back to the Future or Terminator) can you skip over the absurdity of it. When a writer tries to draw in the 'science' of it, writing in theories and overexplaining things, you open up a whole can of worms that makes the text vulnerable to scrunity.
I can't be bothered to nit-pick here but basically the characters in the book directly contradict themselves constantly about this aspect of the plot. One of these is the eponymous God of Clocks, who really should know better. One minute he says even a little trip would destroy the universe, then they're time-travelling left right and centre, deviating from plans in a way that 10 pages earlier would apparently have eradicated the cosmos. You can see how this utterly undermines everything about the story, and is annoying to boot.
The ending also suffers, being too sudden and just a little side-note following the knot of unecessary time-travel and other bits. Two important characters seem to disappear completely. A pretty heft side-plot is resigned to a brief epilogue.
A disappointing end to the series - although I still stand by the first line of this review.
A generous 6 / 10
David Brookes
Author of 'Half Discovered Wings'
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Lots of unique ideas
I enjoyed this book. Yes, there were flaws with the writing and the storytelling, it was very inventive and had a lot of unique ideas in it. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Thomasd1980
Brilliant but strange
This is the last book of a trilogy, which starts with 'Scar Night'. I believe it has been likened to 'Gormenghast': certainly it it nothing like your usual run-of-the-mill... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mrs. V. M. Leonard
Disappointed
Having really liked the first two books in this series, I found this one deeply wanting. Nothing much happens in it first of all and Time Travel rears it's ugly head; that's never... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Unsaintly
left wanting
After enjoying the dark atmosphere and alternate reality of the world and characters created in the first books in the series, I had been waiting to see how the third book "God of... Read more
Published 19 months ago by K. Logan
Above the rest!
Obviously if you are going to get this book i asume you've read the first two, and if you haven't; GET THEM NOW!!! Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mazzeha
terrible
Awful ending to a series that completely lost its way after the first book (which was excellent). Confusing, boring, mismatch of ideas which were poorly executed. Read more
Published 19 months ago by M. Davies
god of clocks
compulsive reading but too long between books had to scan thru previous books to remind myself of story.once started couldnt stop reading
Published 20 months ago by Rab L
Different. You may well hate the ending!
God of Clocks is the conclusion to the Deepgate Codex trilogy, but for a long time it sure doesn't feel like it! Read more
Published 22 months ago by R. M. Lindley
poor ending to a promising start
this trilogy had nothing but potential. Scar night was a fantastic book that seemed that it would take you somewhere and iron angel just built upon that, so as you can imagine i... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. J. W. Sedgwick
Hell Rises
God of Clocks is the last in the trilogy. If you ever wondered what the world would be like if hell rose up, well here it is! Read more
Published 23 months ago by alysan
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