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Johannes Cabal the Necromancer Jonathan L Howard 9780385528085 Books

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Johannes Cabal the Necromancer Jonathan L Howard 9780385528085 Books

This book was recommended to me by a friend who compared the writing to Douglas Adams, writer of the wonderful Hitchhikers Guide series. I can see where my friend is coming from but if anything Jonathan L. Howard seems to be inspired more by Neil Gaiman than Adams in particular with the way he names his chapters as short, witty descriptions of upcoming events. However, to say someone has similarities to another author does not mean they produce the same quality. The story of Johannes Cabal is a roller coaster ride in that it starts off weak, builds in quality slowly but surely until it reaches a fevered pitch before dropping off quickly in the last few pages with a conclusion that is overly obvious and lacking in creativity. Likewise the score I planned on giving this book peaked at a solid four before plopping like the ending down to a weak three.

It feels like Jonathan Howard wrote a hundred or so ideas down on index cards, tossed them onto a table and tried to compose a story around them. Douglas Adams was also accused of lacking in plot but he more than made up for it with clever writing. Howard is not clever enough to pull that off. There are chapters that seem almost completely detached from the central storyline like something you might find in the deleted scenes section of a DVD. In other sections it seemed like the author was trying to build to something only to drop the idea or cut it off quickly. Suffice to say the story could have used some serious tightening.

Unlike Douglas Adams everyman protagonist Arthur Dent, Cabal is a character that's very difficult to relate to. He's rather pompous and full of himself and even when he's talking to the Devil keeps up an air of superiority. When the protagonist in the story is in a battle of wits with the Devil and you find yourself rooting for the Devil that's a bit of a problem. Apparently years ago Cabal willingly gave up his soul to the Devil for what appears to be no good reason and now wants it back so he makes a wager that he will acquire 100 souls for the Prince of Darkness within one year to get his own soul back. In other words he will commit an unspeakably evil crime in order to get back something he stupidly gave up and that's the premise of the book. Johannes Cabal, ladies and gentlemen, our hero.

There is a lot of one on one dialogue between Cabal and other characters and these interactions tended to irritate me the most as, like I said, Cabal is just supposed to be so clever and too cool for the room that you kind of wish someone would smack him. The Devil gives him a mobile amusement park in order to lure in unsuspecting souls and this was where the book started improving. There was even one part where I spontaneously laughed out loud and I rarely do that when reading a book. Howard tends to throw a lot of jokes against the wall and every once in a while one of them sticks. I do see occasional flashes of brilliance. In one section Cabal is trying to lure an unsuspecting woman into a trap using a diabolic machine in the parks arcade and I actually found it quite riveting and spooky but these moments just didn't amount to enough to convince me to invest in another Johannes Cabal book. The final nail in the coffin for me was the ending and if the final few pages had been better I might have given the series a second chance.


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Johannes Cabal the Necromancer Jonathan L Howard 9780385528085 Books Reviews

Howard’s portrayal of Johannes, and his vampire brother (Horst), makes for a hilariously dark read that takes you from graveyards, from town to town, and directly into the pits of hell itself. Johannes is a scientist who previously made a deal with the devil to learn the art of necromancy. Now, he wants his soul back and makes a second deal with the devil in order to win it back. One that involves a dark carnival (read as inspired by “Something Wicked this Way Comes,” by Ray Bradbury) in which Johannes must get one hundred souls signed over to the devil in order to win his soul back.

You will see just how far over the line Johannes is willing to step as far as getting evil/corrupt people to sign over their souls (people who are arguably damned anyway) vs. tricking innocent souls into signing their lives away. It makes for an interesting ponder over what you might be capable of doing to others if it meant saving yourself or someone you loved. Would you damn an innocent in order to save yourself? If you say that you wouldn’t, I bet when push came to shove, you would. The fight for self-preservation in order to live is very strong, and is an ingrained instinct that would be hard to change, even if you wanted to.

The writing is full of wit, and the darkness of the subject matter is balanced with the humor of both the situations themselves, and by the dialogue between the characters.

I loved it! We learn at the end of this book exactly why necromancy is so important to Johannes. He doesn’t want to create a zombie army to do his evil bidding, nothing like that. The point isn’t that he wants a bunch of animated corpses to provide free labor to work in his lab. He has a reason for wanting what he wants that isn’t based on an evil desire to harm the world, and this reason is what makes him a sympathetic character.

This is the first book of a series, and I have already ordered the remaining books, with the exception of the fifth (because it hasn’t been released yet).
This book was recommended to me by a friend who compared the writing to Douglas Adams, writer of the wonderful Hitchhikers Guide series. I can see where my friend is coming from but if anything Jonathan L. Howard seems to be inspired more by Neil Gaiman than Adams in particular with the way he names his chapters as short, witty descriptions of upcoming events. However, to say someone has similarities to another author does not mean they produce the same quality. The story of Johannes Cabal is a roller coaster ride in that it starts off weak, builds in quality slowly but surely until it reaches a fevered pitch before dropping off quickly in the last few pages with a conclusion that is overly obvious and lacking in creativity. Likewise the score I planned on giving this book peaked at a solid four before plopping like the ending down to a weak three.

It feels like Jonathan Howard wrote a hundred or so ideas down on index cards, tossed them onto a table and tried to compose a story around them. Douglas Adams was also accused of lacking in plot but he more than made up for it with clever writing. Howard is not clever enough to pull that off. There are chapters that seem almost completely detached from the central storyline like something you might find in the deleted scenes section of a DVD. In other sections it seemed like the author was trying to build to something only to drop the idea or cut it off quickly. Suffice to say the story could have used some serious tightening.

Unlike Douglas Adams everyman protagonist Arthur Dent, Cabal is a character that's very difficult to relate to. He's rather pompous and full of himself and even when he's talking to the Devil keeps up an air of superiority. When the protagonist in the story is in a battle of wits with the Devil and you find yourself rooting for the Devil that's a bit of a problem. Apparently years ago Cabal willingly gave up his soul to the Devil for what appears to be no good reason and now wants it back so he makes a wager that he will acquire 100 souls for the Prince of Darkness within one year to get his own soul back. In other words he will commit an unspeakably evil crime in order to get back something he stupidly gave up and that's the premise of the book. Johannes Cabal, ladies and gentlemen, our hero.

There is a lot of one on one dialogue between Cabal and other characters and these interactions tended to irritate me the most as, like I said, Cabal is just supposed to be so clever and too cool for the room that you kind of wish someone would smack him. The Devil gives him a mobile amusement park in order to lure in unsuspecting souls and this was where the book started improving. There was even one part where I spontaneously laughed out loud and I rarely do that when reading a book. Howard tends to throw a lot of jokes against the wall and every once in a while one of them sticks. I do see occasional flashes of brilliance. In one section Cabal is trying to lure an unsuspecting woman into a trap using a diabolic machine in the parks arcade and I actually found it quite riveting and spooky but these moments just didn't amount to enough to convince me to invest in another Johannes Cabal book. The final nail in the coffin for me was the ending and if the final few pages had been better I might have given the series a second chance.