#jonathan l howard

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: GOODREADS, WEEK 21b

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (Johannes Cabal #1) by Jonathan L Howard

Should I keep this book on my tbr?

Yes

No

(see results)

Voting ended onApr 3, 2025

I'm trying to trim down my tbr list(s) and I'm asking for your help! Descriptions and more info under the cut. Please reblog and add your thoughts!

* * * * *

In this uproarious and clever debut, it's time to give the Devil his due.

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 (an unfortunate side effect of Johannes's early experiments with necromancy), 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.

Johannes may have the moral conscience of anthrax, but are his tricks sinful enough to beat the Devil at his own game? You'll never guess, and that's a promise!

Brilliantly written and wickedly funny, "Johannes Cabal the Necromancer" combines the chills and thrills of old-fashioned gothic tales like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the mischievous humor of "Wicked," and the sophisticated charms of" Jonathan Strange &Mr. Norrell "and spins the Faustian legend into a fresh, irreverent, and irresistible new adventure.

Date added: 2020

Goodreads: 3.93

Storygraph: 3.85

PRO:

Sounds like a hoot!

Entire series is available from the library in my preferred format (audiobook)

CON:

???????

[acerbaa]

the transgender subtext of oroboros ouzo possessed me. i wrote something around it.

link (registered users only)

[what-life-is-really-like]

Giving into the feminine urge to read books where the protagonist is a horrible little man

[gaydelgard]

ok so we did best cabal book, now lets do best cabal short story

but first let me start with a piece of propaganda trivia

Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day, if you didnt know, is named after the story Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

and i think we can all agree that casting cabal in the role of winnie the pooh is very very funny

ok now to the poll

best johannes cabal short fiction?

Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day

Exeunt Demon King

The Ereshkigal Working

The House of Gears

The Death of Me

Ouroboros Ouzo

A Long Spoon

Voting ended onJul 6, 2023

i know a long spoon is going to win bc of our girl zerenyia but like i love her but theres better stories here

maple durham probly coulda given it a run for its money if it was real but sadly it isnt

[abybweisse]

Latest HPB haul

Silly me, I went back to Half Price Books, this time armed with a 10% off coupon. Spent even more than last time anyway. 😭

I'm not sure whether I already had some of these titles in the collected works (I have bought at least one book from the series before), so before I bought these, I made sure to ask about the return policy. It's very important that I find my "missing" boxes of books soon, so that I can get a refund, if I find out I have some repeats.

Since I'm not sure about extra copies, I left the price tags on. In case I forget and start removing all the tags, I didn't remove any just yet. But I don't want to showcase prices, so I've censored the tags.

HPB used random boxes they had laying around, since I bought so many books (and Giant Microbes).

Here's the contents of the Xerox box:

Some "Gothic Fantasy" and "Epic Tales" collector volumes; a nice set of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Poe stories; a box set of F. Scott Fitzgerald; a funny cookbook I actually hope to use pretty soon; a human anatomy stamp set; and some Giant Microbes: DNA, RNA, Zombie Virus, and two Brain Cells. Had to get two... so I can rub them together.

And the contents of the "Lou Goodman" box:

I probably have the vast majority of the "Gothic Fantasy" series from that collection now and several of the "Epic Tales" series. I know for certain that I already have Christmas Gothic Short Stories from that "Gothic Fantasy" Series. Oh, and looks like I now have at least one from their "Classic Stories" series. 🤔 Good grief, how many books did they publish like this? 😅 They-- they don't even all fit on one of my shelves... and I'm sure I still don't have the entire collection. 😭 Anyway, these books don't have dust jackets, and they are super shiny.

The Virgil book is also jacketless and very shiny; that one and all these other shiny ones are published by Flame Tree.

The Alchemist goes along with a collection I bought some of last time I went to HPB -- Chartwell Classics, I think. The Jonathan L. Howard books (soft covers) just look like a really fun read. And I'm excited to have this lovely copy of A Study in Scarlet with a bunch of illustrated contextual information, even though I probably have a basic copy of the story in an old "Sherlock" collection, like one I saved from my parents' house. For protection, they sell it in a thick clear plastic dust jacket; I guess it's something that publisher just... does. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway, that's the haul.

Now to do my best to just plain avoid stepping inside a HPB for a while... like the rest of the year. 😮‍💨 😅

[froodlemonkey]

Johannes Cabal and Tales from the Gas Station

Jack Townsend is just Johannes Cabal with added depression and apathy. Johannes Cabal is Jack if he turned his rage outward.

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

Cabal Cabal sketch dump  in honor of starting The Fall of the House of Cabal!

In order of appearance - 

Horst, Leonie, Johannes, Miss Smith, Bose/Nyarlothotep 

[critcrockett]

Re-read my favorite series over October, needed to do Gorey-styled crosshatching for anxiety relief.