BOOK REVIEW: Johannes Cabal The Necromancer

by Jonathan L. Howard

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I recently just completed this book after devouring it for about a week. I love it. I love the bone-dry humour, the witty repartees and the whole morbidity of it all. I freely admit that I am a fan of the zombie/living dead/walking dead/arisen dead/undead/come-back-from-the-dead genre. I love it more than I love eating chocolate. But I digress.

The protagonist in the book is a necromancer (how excitingly cool and original is that?) and absolutely devoid of human morals and human emotions. He lives in the human world but plays the game of life by a different set of rules. It is the lack of a moral compass and the absence of a common-sense understanding of his fellow human beings that makes this read a total delight!

The story begins with Johannes Cabal (the protagonist, the anti-hero, the all-out bad boy) on an insane mission to reclaim ownership of his soul. Long ago, he sold his soul to the devil in order to learn and acquire the secrets of necromancy. Now, he has to travel into the inner circles of Hell to demand for his soul. But so happens that Satan himself is bored with all his fiery infernal work in the pits and so decided to have a little bit of fun with Cabal. A wager was set up; if Cabal can get a hundred souls in one year’s time, he can have his soul back. Satan throws in a carnival (The Carnival of Discord) to help Cabal with his task. Since Cabal has no inkling and dealings with the ordinary folks in the living breathing world, he enlisted the help of his brother, a charismatic and fetching vampire, to help run the carnival together.

The story starts to get deliciously funny the moment Cabal descended into Hell, which is actually the beginning of the story (read: story funny right from the start). And the story remained deliciously funny throughout, with little bits of sanity, humanity, redemption and the undead thrown in for good measure.  The novel culminates with a little heart-wrenching drama (Cabal is, after all, still human) but all in all a jolly good ride of morbidity and dark humour.  

Howard’s sarcastic dialogues and witty writing will appeal to all readers looking for a little milk-snorting belly-bursting laugh.