Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

Witty and fun Steampunk fantasy.

Let's start with the title character, Cabal himself. Not exactly likeable or relatable–but so much fun. First of all, he's very cold, superior, manipulative. As the plot takes off I wasn't actually sure if I wanted to root for this guy to win or see him fall on his face. Of course his nemesis was the devil himself, so as unpleasant and badass as Cabal may be, he's still the underdog in the competition. Howard absolutely brings this guy to life. I can imagine his appearance, voice, facial expressions. He carries himself with such gravity that when incidents occur to thwart him or even just humiliate him, it creates a lot of humor. For Discworld fans, (like myself) he brought to mind both Vetinari and Moist; an odd combination but it works.

I enjoyed the story too. Cabal had forfeited his soul to the Devil but finds he needs it back for professional rather than spiritual reasons. His deal with the devil–to get one hundred souls to replace his own–is off and running. Cabal goes after his goal mercilessly as you'd expect, and this is the point where I wondered if I really wanted to see him succeed. A plot that offers a little conflict in the reader is a fine thing. The other characters that balance Cabal (his brother, the retired police chief) give the book a moral center. Ironically, his undead vampire brother has a lot more warmth than Cabal. He at least didn't want Cabal to win at the expense of the innocent.

I had a little trouble getting oriented to the time the story took place. It felt sort of Victorian, but then the styles, technology, culture, and so on were more advanced. It's definitely a fantasy world where necromancers, demons, and so on exist. It has a pulp adventure type of vibe. Steampunk-pulp-fantasy is a good way to describe Cabal's world. (The follow-up book, Johannes Cabal, Detective solidifies the Steampunk vibe for me.)

There were a lot of influences present from other classic works. Lovecraft, Through the Looking Glass, Faust, and Something Wicked This Way Comes all come to mind along with a nice dose of Discworld-style humor. Not to say I don't think this is original; all those allusions and resonances of other stories made this even more enticing.

“Cabal dimly recalled that the musical genius who'd decided to put on Necronomicon: The Musical had got everything he deserved: money, fame, and torn to pieces by an invisible monster.”