Book Review: Johannes Cabal, The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

Johannes Cabal is a cynical, antisocial main character with dubious morals who somehow still manages to be entertaining and somewhat likable. He has sold his soul to the devil, but now wants it back. Under a time limit and with the help of his vampire brother and a traveling carnival from Hell, he has to get one hundred people to sign away their souls before Satan will return his.

This is a fun read with very little to criticize or complain about. The premise is intriguing, and this book has a dark humor to it that makes for a hilarious read. For example, those condemned to Hell must begin their eternal punishment by filling out endless paperwork with meaningless minutia that they must get absolutely perfect. Hell is paperwork. Absolutely hilarious. Satan, as a character, was also strangely entertaining. I loved the structure of this book. Written largely in chapters that could stand alone as short stories, it gives the tale an episodic feel, like a TB show. If someone were to make a Johannes Cabal TV show, I would be its first viewer, by the way. The ending was very satisfying in some ways, but not in others. There was sufficient drama and action, and we finally learn why Cabal got into necromancy in the first place. Some of the characters did seem to show up at the very end just to add to the drama, and for no other purpose. This book definitely needed a sequel, but, when I picked up the next book in the series, I wasn't at all interested in the plot, which barely related to the previous book and didn't explore Cabal's world as it should have. I got bored and put it down after slogging through a few chapters. I don't know what went wrong there. I highly recommend Johannes Cabal, the Necromancer to anyone who likes dark fantasy, wry humor, and depictions of the afterlife. I also recommend this Johannes Cabal short story, which first got me to read the novel. As for its sequel and the rest of the series, though, read at your own peril.