Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (Johannes Cabal Series)

🌕🌕🌕🌖 Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is exactly what you get when you mix high-concept dark fantasy with a protagonist who is a complete, unapologetic prick. Cabal sold his soul to further his research, realized that not having a soul was a major career setback, and now he’s running a literal hell-train carnival to win it back from the Devil. It’s cynical, it’s dry, and it’s genuinely funny. The world-building is top-notch. Howard builds a version of the afterlife and supernatural law that feels lived-in and mechanical. Cabal himself is great—he’s not a hero; he’s a scientist with a god complex who is too smart for his own good. But, much like The Deep Sky, the structure is where it hits a snag. The "soul-per-chapter" format gets repetitive. It’s a series of episodic vignettes that start to feel like a grind halfway through. I loved the atmosphere, but the plot is so straightforward that it lacks the tension needed to push it into 4-star territory. It’s a solid, clever read, but the pacing keeps it from being a masterpiece.