Book-A-Day #40 (8/26): Scar Night by Alan Campbell

Scar Night is the first novel from a guy who was a writer and programmer for the Grand Theft Auto games, but, oddly enough, there are no cars or guns in it.

I read it for SFBC, and it's not out in the US until the very end of the year (though it's already been published in the UK), so I won't say anything about the plot. But it's another sign that an area of fantasy I enjoy a lot -- swords & sorcery, roughly, descended from Leiber and Moorcock and filtered through more modern books like Perdido Street Station -- is healthy and increasing. I didn't love it quite as much as The Lies of Locke Lamora, but it's quite entertaining, and it was good enough to make me keep pulling it out of my bag to read on line at Disneyland the other day.

It's set in an ancient city suspended by chains over a vast abyss in which the rogue son of a god lurks, and from which that god will supposedly launch his assault on heaven once he has accumulated enough souls in his army. (The city isn't described as much as I'd really like, though -- on the other hand, the relative lack of description does make the book move more quickly, which I enjoyed.)