''Johannes Cabal the Necromancer'' is a 2009

supernatural fiction Supernatural fiction or supernaturalist fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that exploits or is centered on supernatural themes, often contradicting naturalist assumptions of the real world. Description In its broadest definition, supe ...

and

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by

Jonathan L. Howard Jonathan L. Howard is a British writer and game designer, known mainly for his novels about Johannes Cabal the Necromancer. He lives with his wife and daughter near Bristol. Work Howard worked as scriptwriter and video game writer since the earl ...

. It is the first book of an ongoing series chronicling the ventures of Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy.

Summary

Johannes Cabal is a necromancer who has sold his soul to

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

in order to gain his abilities. His goal has always been to completely restore the dead to their previous living state, but Cabal has now found that his lack of a soul is standing in the way of his research. Bored with running Hell and dealing with bureaucracy, Satan offers Cabal a deal: if Cabal can get 100 souls, Satan will return his. However, this deal is not without its difficulties: Cabal only has one year to gather these souls, and he must run a carnival during this time as well.

Reception

Critical opinion has been mixed. ''

The Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...

'' was mixed in their opinion, as they felt that the work had some initial promise but "loses a bit of steam partway through". '' AudioFile'' praised the audiobook narration by Christopher Cazenove, who they felt "delivers a wickedly clever, macabre tale of horror and suspense."

Awards

*''Alternative Realities Award'' at the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards (2014, won)

References

External links

*
Indie Bound entry, selected as July 2009 "Indie Notable"
American horror novels 2009 American novels Doubleday (publisher) books {{2000s-horror-novel-stub