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    Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: A Novel
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    Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: A Novel
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    Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: A Novel

    Written by Jonathan L. Howard

    Narrated by Christopher Cazenove

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Johannes Cabal, a brilliant scientist and notorious snob, is single-mindedly obsessed in heart and soul with raising the dead. Well, perhaps not soul . . . He hastily sold his years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. But now, tormented by a dark secret, he travels to the fiery pits of Hell to retrieve it. Satan, who is incredibly bored these days, proposes a little wager: Johannes has one year to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever.

    To make the bet even more interesting, Satan throws in that diabolical engine of deceit, seduction, and corruption known as a "traveling circus" to aid in the evil bidding. What better place exists to rob poor sad saps of their souls than the traveling carnivals historically run by hucksters and legendary con men?

    With little time to lose, Johannes raises a motley crew from the dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire, to be the carnival's barker. On the road through the pastoral English countryside, this team of reprobates wields their black magic with masterful ease, resulting in mayhem at every turn.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 7, 2009
    ISBN9780739383605
    Unavailable
    Johannes Cabal the Necromancer: A Novel
    Author

    Jonathan L. Howard

    JONATHAN L HOWARD is an acclaimed writer, video game designer, and BAFTA-nominated scriptwriter, well known for his darkly charming Johannes Cabal the Necromancer series, his Mythos-adjacent Carter & Lovecraft duology, and the YA science fiction Russalka Chronicles. He lives in the English West Country with his family.

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    Reviews for Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

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    533 ratings49 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Johannes Cabal is a douche. Yep, that's right, a douche. He lies, cheats, steals, murders, and does it all without remorse, putting his end goal above all morality. And now he has a problem, because he sold his useless--so he thought--soul to Satan and without it he just can't seem to perfect his experiments. So the brilliant Johannes Cabal makes a deal with Satan to get his soul back. All he has to do is get a bunch of other souls to take its place and Satan's going to help him do that...with a traveling carnival staffed by Cabal's own handmade zombies and run by his grudge-holding vampire brother.

      Johannes is a terrible person, he truly is, but somehow he's learning and changing. Not a lot, but enough to make reading his story entertaining. He remains a pompous ass, vexed by the stupidity of the world around him, challenged only by a man of great morality. And his daughter.
    • 3/5
      I didn't expect to care about Johannes as he is not a particularly likeable character but by about halfway through the book I really wanted to know if he would succeed in getting his 100 souls. Although I really liked this book I'm only giving it three stars instead of four as I found the scenes where he goes to hand over the souls to Satan a bit predictable. I will be looking out for the next book in the series.
    • 3/5
      I finished, but it didn't keep my attention very well after about the halfway point. Not bad writing, but I think this character seems to work better in short stories (of which there are several).
    • 2/5
      This was a cute book. While I enjoyed it, it felt like it was a bit off-balance. Some of the humor felt forced and perhaps out of place.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book. Very clever, very gothic. Not many characters to really root for but you will barrel through it to see how it all turns out.
    • 4/5
      Flawed but promising first book in the eventually brilliant Johannes Cabal series. Forgive the wobbles in pacing if you can, because what's good here gets better in books two and three.
    • 4/5
      To sum up the feel of this book, it is written in such a way that it would adapt easily to a Tim Burton movie. There is not a lot of backstory or exposition in the book. It takes off seemingly in the middle of the story and goes from there. This is not necessarily a bad thing as this can bog down the beginning of a story. It begins with Johannes Cabal descending into Hell attempting to gain an audience with Satan. Years ago Johannes signed away his soul in order to further his research into necromancy. But because his lack of soul is skewing the scientific results of his research, he is determined to win it back. Satan makes Cabal a deal -- have 100 souls signed over to him within a year and he will have his own returned. Satan even assists with providing Cabal with a carnival, certain to attract the most depraved people. The book was enjoyable and a page-turner within being very affecting. There was no real emotional investment in the characters, although the very end was touching and gave meaning to Cabal's motivation. I was happy to hear there is a followup with the further adventures of this character.
    • 4/5
      Necromancer Johannes Cabal enters into a bargain with Satan in order to get his soul back, but even with the help of The Carnival of Discord and his charismatic vampire brother, Horst, it'll be a tricky bet to win. I know he's not meant to be likeable (he's soulless after all), not even a little, but I do like Johannes so very much - he's just too sarcastic and acerbic for me not to get attached to. If you have a problem with characters that are pompous and immoral and rude and not endearing at all, you probably won't share my affection for Mr. Cabal, but the humor, both his and that of his irreverent fellow cast-members, redeems the story for me completely. The storyline unfortunately takes quite a few meanders and the worldbuilding is shaky to say the least, but for a debut novel, even those problems aren't unforgivable for me. It's not a serious story - more of a Faustian romp than anything else - but it does have quite a few poignant scenes to offer, including one at the end with Horst (a scene which actually made me shed a few tears), which adds a dimension to Johannes that is only hinted at earlier in the novel. I will be looking forward to following Johannes on his next outing and am hoping that the worldbuilding catches up to the humor.
    • 4/5
      Weird and entertaining. (Weirdly entertaining?) Read mostly over the course of a day sitting out at the river!
    • 4/5
      Johannes Cabal is, as the title says, a necromancer. He's a madman, that's for certain. But he's rather brilliant and a dedicated scientist. He's audacious in his single minded determination to continue his work, whatever the cost. And it has cost him -- his soul, for one thing, which he traded in the usual way to Satan. Only now he needs his soul back. Why should this be a problem?

      I liked this book much more than I expected, and perhaps a bit more than I wanted. Johannes Cabal is not what you might call a likable character. He's a very broken person, but he has no idea that he's so very damaged. He verges on to real evil as he tosses away anything he thinks stands between him and his goal. Yet I developed a real sympathy for him, which surprised me.

      Set in some indeterminate, alternate "now", Cabal takes a trainload of satanic carnies on a soul-gathering tour of the countryside -- it felt more English than American, but there are no real geographical points for reference, save that there is a Europe of some kind, and there's been at least one World War. Really, the time and place felt incidental to the plot. It's intended to be timeless, a fable.

      Now, the whole idea of the Evil Carnival is well known -- Howard includes a thank you dedication to Ray Bradbury on the acknowledgments page -- but this particular angle on it is new to me. The idea of selling one's soul to the Devil is well used, too, as is the idea of wagering with Satan, but, still, I liked this particular twist and turn of it as the story developed. The part of the book I found most difficult -- and the part that engaged me emotionally -- was the relationship between Johannes and his brother Horst. They are both monsters, you see, but I kept getting echos of Frankenstein here, in that even monsters have feelings, and it is perhaps actions that determine who is the monster and who is not. I can't go further without spoilers, but the relationship between the brothers was a rich mine which, while not fully exposed, was at least very involving. I'd have liked it to turn out differently, but it was authentic to the characters. However, there is a sequel and this is a rather magical world, so I can foster a tiny hope.

      As for the humor -- and this book is intended to be funny -- this isn't a laugh out loud sort of book, at least not for me. I'm fine with that. The humor was mostly dry and subtle, which is my preference, although Howard does take a few wild swings in his metaphor. It echoed Pratchett and Fforde with hints of Monty Python and avoided the sort of clowny winking and nudging I tend to find annoying.

      If I wanted to dig up a quibble (and I really am not driven to quibble about this book) I'd say that the rather obvious Giant Questions are left barely sketched in. Why is Johannes so obsessed about defeating death (we get a tiny bit of explanation at the very end)? What really caused Johannes' damage, his particular kinds of blindness? Why does he both hate and love his older brother? What happens to certain other essential characters in the book after their brush with the Carnival? There's also a bit of playing with the presentation of the story -- one chapter is told in odd pieces via intercutting the much accented/misspelled/dialect-ridden school report of a young boy with the author's third person voice. I understood what was being attempted (trying to create a boy's version of being tempted and saved in his own voice) but it felt like a lot of work to make the couple of points the author was going for.

      I guess I'll have to pick up the second book (sophomore efforts are so often weaker, but I'm rather hoping the whole story existed and was just broken into chunks). If any of the above sounds appealing, then you might want to take a peek into Johannes Cabal's journey, too.
    • 4/5
      Gleefully macabre little adventure, easy to pick up and hard to put down -- I have a terrible weakness for the how-do-we-trick-the-devil theme, and this is a fun take on it. POV shifts were a little odd in places, and Cabal was the only character to really get some solid depth, but an enjoyable read overall.
    • 4/5
      Six-word review: Witty, entertaining fantasy of the macabre.Extended review:Johannes Cabal enters upon a wager with Satan to regain his own forfeited soul by ensnaring a hundred others within a year's time. The means at his disposal is a carnival. Black humor abounds as zombies, ghosts, imps, and demons romp through an imaginary English countryside whose inhabitants furnish both Cabal's clientele and his prey.This inventive yarn doesn't quite seem to fit into a familiar genre, although it owes something to several, including fantasy, steampunk, gothic, and horror. Perhaps I might characterize it as Edgar Allen Poe meets Monty Python. It shouldn't be forgotten, however, that Poe himself wrote a number of humorous tales that were really pretty funny, or at least I thought so when I was 13 or 14.Early on, Howard's humor felt too strained and calculated for my taste, but further along it seemed to relax and flow naturally out of the characters and situations. There were even a few places where a sly literary joke appeared to arise unplanned and just snap into place in the moment. I could almost picture the author pouncing on them with glee like a collector finding a rare coin in his grocery-store change. A throwaway line alluding to Cold Comfort Farm was one that struck me that way.At the same time, I thought Howard did rather a nice job of making a relatively repulsive main character sympathetic, even while showing him failing a moral test that comes close to being the heart of the story.I can't give this short and fairly lightweight piece more than three and a half stars alongside serious, accomplished works that merit only four; but in addition to exhibiting skillful writing and an engaging style, it does meet my test of delivering what it promises, so those three and a half stars are solid. I was displeased by the cliffhanger in the final pages, but not enough so to refrain from immediately ordering the second Johannes Cabal title.
    • 4/5
      BRILLIANT book! So light hearted and easy to read. Evil and funny and just epic
    • 5/5
      If you like snark, Johannes Cabal is full of it. After selling his soul to Satan and then finding he needs it back, Cabal calls a meeting with Satan and agrees to a wager: collect 100 souls in a year and get his soul back or lose his life. Teaming up with his brother, Cabal sets off to get his soul back whilst sticking it to Satan. Cabal's snarkiness provides great humor and the ticking clock against him builds the momentum and keeps you hooked to the end. The collection of souls seems to have a gap and jumps from the first to the last few; however, the story is not affected and keeps the plot going while increasing the intensity. Johannes Cabal is a humorous mixture of Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein and will entertain you from beginning to end.
    • 4/5
      An awkward start to the story sees Johannes Cabal try to get his soul back from Satan to whom he exchanged it for necromantic skills. Satan agrees by way of a wager, Johannes must get a hundred souls to exchange for his own with a time limit set for one year. Satan will furnish a carnival to help him in his undertaking. If he wins the bet then Johannes gets his soul back, if he fails then he loses his life. By chapter three things pick up a little with the arrival of Johannes' brother, Horst, and chapter four had me laughing out loud at one point and by then I was hooked. Johannes is a driven character, not particularly that likeable, but often darkly humorous and the ending gives reason to his obsession with death and trying to outwit it. As the year passes and the souls are collected the tension rises can Johannes collect the 100 that he needs and at what cost? Will Satan ever play fair? (easiest question in the world to answer) And how will it all turn out as the year reaches its conclusion?So, a lead character who isn't particularly a nice chap yet you end up rooting for him in his quest which is quite an achievement by the author and is mainly achieved by the dark and intelligent humour. A lot of the back story is only hinted at or quickly glossed over as are the actual collection of the majority of souls but this makes for a quick read and you don't feel short changed with these at all. I will certainly be continuing with the series as it will be interesting to follow the further adventures of this particular necromancer.
    • 5/5
      Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, enters hell and makes a wager with the devil. He is given a travelling carnival and one year to gather 100 souls as payment for the return of his own soul. However, his meticulous and misanthropic nature make running a carnival a nightmare. Hijinks and difficult moral choices ensue. I thought that this was an entertaining introduction to the series and the character. Cabal combines the cool-headed logic of Sherlock Holmes with the mind-bending horror of Lovecraft, and the combination is one that I can't get enough of.
    • 4/5
      This a very amusing story about a necromancer who has sold his soul to the devil and wants it back. To do so, he makes a wager with the devil and has to collect 100 souls within a year. The devil gives him a carnaval to help him do so, and that's where the story really starts. My main description of the book is: absurd, but funny. It is difficult to describe the atmosphere of the book, but, as other reviewers have noted, it feels a lot like a Tim Burton movie. So if you like his movies, this is a definite recommendation!
    • 5/5
      The real strengths of this exercise in serio-comic gothic relate to the character of Johannes Cabal himself, who for all his determination and skill in the dark arts is a butt of cosmic jokes. You can call him a villain simply for the nature of his dark endeavors, or you can call him an anti-hero on the basis of his saving graces of his character, but for me the term that best describes him is fanatic. One can almost imagine Howard having produced a character study of a terrorist in gothic clothing.The other particular strength of Howard's approach to it all is his skill at writing the set-piece vignette, starting with Cabal invoking a demon to take him to hell, but not especially caring that all the forms are met. Let's just say that the author has impeccable comic timing, as he sends his protagonist through his paces, up until Cabal's year as master of the carnival of the damned has run its course.I have almost no complaints with this novel, in which Howard has done himself a favor by keeping things sharp and to the point; I don't think that this sort of story is ever served by sprawling immersion. I also think that the criticisms of the plot not being coherent enough are easy enough to overlook when writing a picaresque travel adventure. Is the climax a little weak, when Cabal finally faces effective human opposition? Maybe; but events are set in train that detonate in the follow-on story. Those who think that the plotting is a little weak here will be much more satisfied with the steam-punk thriller that is "Johannes Cabal the Detective."
    • 5/5
      Johannes Cabal has sold his soul to the devil in return for necromancy skills. However, his lack of a soul is throwing off his experiments, so he makes a new wager. If he can get 100 souls in one year's time (with the help of a circus from Satan that's powered by the dead), then he can have his soul back and keep his necromancy skills. If not, he dies.I know the concept of winning your soul back from Satan isn't very new, but I've never read a book like this, and really enjoyed it. Despite the fact that Johannes is soul-less (and it does show in his personality), he has wonderfully dry sense of humor. He's very driven, but he's not completely evil, as events later in the story will show. His brother Horst is very likeable too, as well as Bones, one of the undead carnival assistants. I thought the pace of the book moved along well, and I enjoyed the dark humor.As soon as I was finished, I ordered the sequel. Can't wait to read it.
    • 3/5
      I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did. It came highly recommended by more than a few people as a book I would enjoy.And I really should have enjoyed it. The characters were interesting. The concept was interesting. Sometimes the humor tried a little too hard, but it was still darkly funny. Something was lacking though. Maybe it was just too short, but I never really got immersed in any of it. I didn't get into the story, I didn't get to know the characters as well as I would have liked, and I wasn't intrigued enough to motivate myself to keep an eye out for the next book.
    • 4/5
      The sort of book Tim Burton would write, if he wanted to write a book about a necromancer who's bet his soul on a wager with the devil and then travels the country side with a hellish fair. So, really, Burton should adapt this book.
    • 5/5
      What an unusual, wonderful book! Brings to mind Bradbury's "Something Wicket This Way Comes", which is ok, since it's one of my faves, and the author lists it as an influence. Johannes Cabal sold his soul to the devil a while back to learn the secrets of necromancy, and now he wants it back. So he makes a deal with Satan that he will gather 100 souls for him in a years time, using a diabolical carnival that Satan provides, as his vehicle for gathering said souls. He also enlists his charismatic vampire brother, Horst, to help. Horst is, surprisingly, a very moral creature, but he loves his brother, and does his best to help him achieve his ends without helping him corrupt himself completely. Mr. Howard manages to create a sympathetic character of Cabal, amidst an evil carnival made of evil constructs designed to make the weak sign over their souls for eternal damnation. It's also touching in parts, and the writing moved along so well that I just about couldn't put it down. This was a fast read for me, but only cause it was just that good!
    • 4/5
      Inspired by Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (my fave ever) by posing the question: where do dark carnivals come from anyway!? Johannes Cabal, a necromancer, sold his soul to the Devil for research secrets and now, several years later, he wants it back. He enters into a wager with Ol' Satan and borrows a dark carnival to gather souls. There's some dark/light humor, a good Faustian story, and it's interesting to see what Cabal will do to fulfill the bargain. Not the best read ever, but certainly still held its own.
    • 4/5
      Necromancy, Satan, a demonic traveling carnival, and a protagonist that's described in a way that reminds me of David Bowie?! I'm in. By turns hilarious, creepy, irreverent, disgusting and clever, it had all the things I like in a novel. It really was a delightful little romp, and I'm looking forward to reading more about Johannes Cabal.
    • 5/5
      I got this book on loan from a friend. It sounded right up my alley, a darkly humorous book about a necromancer. It was a wonderful book; creative and intriguing, with just the right touch of dark humor combined with thoughtfulness to give it a darkly ironic, yet meaningful feel.Johannes Cabal sold his soul to Satan in return for the knowledge of Necromancy. Now he finds that not having a soul is causing problems with his research and he wants his soul back. He makes a deal with Satan...if he can sign over 100 souls to Satan in the time of one year than he can have his soul back. Johannes gets the help of a dark carnival and proscribes his undead brother to assist with the set up. Now him, his brother, and a carnival of dark things are wandering the landscape in search of souls. Of course, nothing ever goes how Johannes plans and Satan never plays fair.This was a wonderful book. Johannes is a conceited and somewhat bad man, but he isn't evil. Howard gives Johannes enough feeling and humanity that you always kind of understand where Johannes is coming from. Johannes isn't after power, he merely wants to defeat death. The cast of characters in this book is fabulous; they are all well characterized with interesting histories. Even the briefest characters really come alive on the page. A number of darkly humorous things happen on their journey. Of course the story is incredibly engaging and quite the page turner. The whole time you are wondering what will happen to Johannes; will he get 100 souls? will he find a loop hole in the contract? To add to these questions, as the journey continues Johannes's brother becomes increasingly upset about the morality of what they are doing and this adds a lot of tension to the story.Howard's writing style took a little bit to get used but after the first couple chapters I found it to be very readable and loved the detail he puts into describing his surroundings.While, for the most part, this book is a darkly humorous story about one necromancer's quest to outwit Satan; it touches on a number of issues dealing with morality and death. And despite Johannes's cold and abrupt manner you can't help but understand him by the end of the book and perhaps even find him somewhat likable.Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. There is not a thing I would change about it. I think this is something that most adults would find an interesting read. If you like dark humor you are sure to get into this, if you like reading about the supernatural this is a great read too. I recommend picking it up because it is engaging, creative, humorous, different, and yet meaningful. The sequel to this book Johannes Cabal the Detective comes out on July 13th, 2010 and I am eager to read it.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely loved it! So entertaining that I didn't want it to end. I just looked and found out that author is writing more Johannes Cabal books and I feel so vastly relieved, I cannot wait for more!
    • 3/5
      Interesting read. A little hard to read (sometimes confusing). Have to finish to appreciate.
    • 3/5
      An entertaining and solid book, it has a fascinating life to it that keeps one reading. I must admit, this is one of the more unique books I've read, definitely one worth checking out.
    • 3/5
      This book tended, like the carnival train Cabal rides from town to town, to run off into abandoned sidings leading nowhere. This happened a few times: suddenly we're reading about peripheral characters with no introduction (who is this guy? and why do I care?). Cabal himself gets little introduction, just a sentence of description (which I missed on the first read - I went back and found out he's towheaded and twenty). Why does he mutter German expletives? No idea (I guess he's from Germany). Why is his brother a vampire? No idea, though the book seems to assume we know the backstory. What is Cabal trying to discover with his researches? This last is kept hidden until the very end, when we at last get a look at the man's motivations. The droll, sardonic tone carries the day, fortunately, and the story itself (though it sputters and smokes here and there) is fairly amusing. It is sort of like a funny Jonathan Strange, but not very much. More like the Henghis Hapthorn books by Matthew Hughes: a misanthropic loner who is not much afraid of anything. I'd go with the Hughes books, if you haven't checked them out. Much better than this.
    • 4/5
      Johannes Cabal needs to collect 100 souls in less than a year to get his own soul back from the Devil. See, he sold it to get insight into necromancy and the ability to understand life and death. Unfortunately, what he thought was a hindrance in his work - his soul - turns out to be needed after all and he's got to get it back, and he's even been given the Devil's carnival to make it happen.Part Faust, part Something Wicked This Way Comes, with a dash of dark humor, Jonathan Howard's Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is a pretty darned good novel. There's more than a hint of Neil Gaiman here, even some Terry Pratchett, without being derivative. And there's an interesting study of our human nature, how we can lose it in the process of attaining an ultimately unachievable goal, and how we can get it back again.