Take Neverwhere, Perdido Street Station, and The Lies of Locke Lamora, throw them into a blender and hit puree. Sprinkle liberally with creepy religions, kickass characters, undead, and airships.
This is starting to approximate Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex series.
The ancient city of Deepgate hangs suspended by giant chains over an abyss. The Church of Ulcis throws the dead down, to the care of the god of chains, because Heaven has been forever closed and the only other option is Hell. They've got this really disturbing fascination with death and blood, because blood is life and the currency of the soul. Bodies that have been bled dry have no chance of salvation and are condemned to Hell.
Dill is a sixteen year old angel, last of his line, and sheltered by the Church to be little more than a figurehead. Rachel Hael is the Spine Adept (Church Assassin) assigned to train (babysit) him, and is considered to be the scapegoat Spine because she hasn't undergone the torturous procedure that'll rip her emotions out. And then there's Carnival, the insane, scarred, 3000 year old angel that haunts the dark streets of Deepgate and must drain a person dry every month to survive. She's still around because the Spine have been trying for three thousand years to kill her. And failed. Not surprisingly, she hates the Spine.
So of course, when a traitor sells out the city to the enemy, it's going to be up to these three to save the day. Yeah. That's gonna work well.
And that's the teaser for Scar Night, first in the Deepgate Codex. It's gritty because it feels real. You can almost hear the creaking of the chains. Action and atmosphere are mixed just right, where you can visualize exactly what's happening. The characters feel like real people and undergo, holy shit, character development! This is steampunk mixed with angels mixed with zombies mixed with weirdshit. I'm not even kidding.
Not to mention that the series nails one of my weaknesses for strong, badass female characters. You seriously can't get much more crazy awesome than Carnival and Rachel. (There is one instance of when Carnival takes out an airship with a gardening fork. I'm not even kidding. And when those two actually team up, even Dill is just jawdropping.)
Actually, I could just babble on and on about this. I seriously can't stop reading it. I finished the first one last night, and am working my way through the second, despite the fact that I've got a pile of work to do. It is, honestly, just that good.
The first book is Scar Night, followed by Iron Angel and God of Clocks.
This is starting to approximate Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex series.
The ancient city of Deepgate hangs suspended by giant chains over an abyss. The Church of Ulcis throws the dead down, to the care of the god of chains, because Heaven has been forever closed and the only other option is Hell. They've got this really disturbing fascination with death and blood, because blood is life and the currency of the soul. Bodies that have been bled dry have no chance of salvation and are condemned to Hell.
Dill is a sixteen year old angel, last of his line, and sheltered by the Church to be little more than a figurehead. Rachel Hael is the Spine Adept (Church Assassin) assigned to train (babysit) him, and is considered to be the scapegoat Spine because she hasn't undergone the torturous procedure that'll rip her emotions out. And then there's Carnival, the insane, scarred, 3000 year old angel that haunts the dark streets of Deepgate and must drain a person dry every month to survive. She's still around because the Spine have been trying for three thousand years to kill her. And failed. Not surprisingly, she hates the Spine.
So of course, when a traitor sells out the city to the enemy, it's going to be up to these three to save the day. Yeah. That's gonna work well.
And that's the teaser for Scar Night, first in the Deepgate Codex. It's gritty because it feels real. You can almost hear the creaking of the chains. Action and atmosphere are mixed just right, where you can visualize exactly what's happening. The characters feel like real people and undergo, holy shit, character development! This is steampunk mixed with angels mixed with zombies mixed with weirdshit. I'm not even kidding.
Not to mention that the series nails one of my weaknesses for strong, badass female characters. You seriously can't get much more crazy awesome than Carnival and Rachel. (There is one instance of when Carnival takes out an airship with a gardening fork. I'm not even kidding. And when those two actually team up, even Dill is just jawdropping.)
Actually, I could just babble on and on about this. I seriously can't stop reading it. I finished the first one last night, and am working my way through the second, despite the fact that I've got a pile of work to do. It is, honestly, just that good.
The first book is Scar Night, followed by Iron Angel and God of Clocks.
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