By Bibek Gurung

Imagine reading about a demonic circus, about a necromancer who commands the dead, about his quest to reclaim his soul from the Devil… and yawning. Such is the effect that Jonathan Howard has achieved with Johannes Cabal the Necromancer.

The premise of the story had a lot of potential. The story’s protagonist, Johannes Cabal, is a necromancer. Necromancers can raise the dead and liaise with demons from Hell. This dominion over the dead came at a price however: Cabal’s soul, which became the property of the Devil.

Pretty soon, Cabal starts having buyer’s remorse and wants his soul back. The Devil agrees, in exchange for 100 other souls. Cabal has to lure in victims as the ringmaster of a demonic circus with his estranged brother Horst.

The book’s biggest flaw is the lack of freshness. Howard tries to straddle the line between dark fantasy and comic whimsy, but is not as successful as many other writers who had better results with it. An example is Terry Pratchett’s Eric, whichexplored Faustian archetype in comedic form back in the 90’s.

Also, in this book, Howard depicts hell as a particularly diabolical (pun intended) bureaucracy, where souls have to wait in line for literally centuries. I did find this mildly amusing, however it is nothing new in the comic fantasy genre. For a more original take on Hell-as-bureaucracy, read Tom Holt’s JW Wells series.

The book does have its strengths. The relationship between Cabal and his brother was quite engaging, which involves a conflict I shall not spoil here (hint: vampires). Unfortunately Howard does not spend as much time on this sub-plot as he should have.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer can be entertaining for those uninitiated in comic fantasy. And despite the book’s flaws, Johannes Cabal’s character has promise. Perhaps we shall see more in the sequel.

The UrbanWire gives it 3/5 stars.

Title: Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

Author: Jonathan L. Howard

Genre: Comic fantasy (fiction)

Publisher: Headline

Book courtesy of Penguin Books Singapore.