Alan Campbell

In this volume, thank goodness Deepgate has practically collapsed into the abyss with only the Temple hanging upside down above the chasm. However the death of the god Ulcis has left the gates to hell unguarded and Dill and Rachel flee across the Deadsands to escape the hordes thus unleashed.

Now we meet other gods and the best defined character in the series John Anchor, who tows the god Cospinol's sky ship, adorned with corpses, down into hell to combat the King of Hell, Menoa.

In this, the last volume of the trilogy, there is finally a mention of sunlight ! Dill battles the arconites and all becomes more or less resolved.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that by this time I was skipping quite a lot, and never being able to quite get to grips with time travel, felt that this way of solving the conflict was a bit of a cop out.

Sometimes writing is descriptively compared to food - a meaty tome, a fruity novel, a frothy tale - to my mind this trilogy is a deep, rich, undercooked black pudding with a crunchy lemon topping !

For information, as a codex can be defined as a manuscript of ancient annals, the Codex is the history of Deepgate, there is no other relevance in the plot.