Two New Reviews

Hi,

So I just finished up a couple of books. One is fantastic and the other wasn't.

Let's start with the fantastic first. If you like humorous fantasy, rush right out and pick up a copy of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard. This is a wonderful story that had me laughing out loud in several spots and reading the dialog aloud -- which is a pretty good indicator that I'm very entertained.

As you might guess from the title, Johannes Cabal is a necromancer. He sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for the secrets of necromancy. His lack of soul causes freak phenomena which upsets his necromantic experimentation. Considering this unacceptable, Johannes travels to hell in order to get his soul back. Satan considers this brash request and finally agrees to a wager -- Johannes will be given a carnival and has one year in which to get 100 souls to sign up for damnation.

Although Johannes has considerable magical power and a keen scientific mind, he has absolutely no grasp of normal human interaction -- such as the reasons why anyone would ever go to a carnival. In order to make a go of it, Johannes enlists his brother Horst -- who is now a vampire thanks to Johannes. After a bit of recrimination, they get their hell ride under way.

The traveling carnival gives the author lots of room to showcase the different people who show up and how they are tempted (or not tempted) to sign their souls away. Satan and his minions are, of course, trying to stick in the boot as well. Johannes struggles to get his hundred souls and retain his composure.

Basically, if Adjo were a necromancer and lived in modern-day(ish) England, this is what his memoirs would be like. A lot of fun.

The second, far less successful book is called Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold. These editors have a number of short play collections. Their first Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays was great and I directed a couple of plays out of there for NWRep. So I had high hopes going into this one.

Most of the plays? Not funny. Maybe they just needed to be staged rather than read, but nothing really reached out and grabbed me. A lot of them just sort of meandered or were just odd for oddity's sake and some were flat-out sad. There were a couple of decent ones in there, but most of them really fell flat. Very disappointing.

But nothing for you to worry about because now you know to pick up the excellent Johannes Cabal.

later
Tom

Two New Reviews

Hi,

So I just finished up a couple of books. One is fantastic and the other wasn't.

Let's start with the fantastic first. If you like humorous fantasy, rush right out and pick up a copy of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard. This is a wonderful story that had me laughing out loud in several spots and reading the dialog aloud -- which is a pretty good indicator that I'm very entertained.

As you might guess from the title, Johannes Cabal is a necromancer. He sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for the secrets of necromancy. His lack of soul causes freak phenomena which upsets his necromantic experimentation. Considering this unacceptable, Johannes travels to hell in order to get his soul back. Satan considers this brash request and finally agrees to a wager -- Johannes will be given a carnival and has one year in which to get 100 souls to sign up for damnation.

Although Johannes has considerable magical power and a keen scientific mind, he has absolutely no grasp of normal human interaction -- such as the reasons why anyone would ever go to a carnival. In order to make a go of it, Johannes enlists his brother Horst -- who is now a vampire thanks to Johannes. After a bit of recrimination, they get their hell ride under way.

The traveling carnival gives the author lots of room to showcase the different people who show up and how they are tempted (or not tempted) to sign their souls away. Satan and his minions are, of course, trying to stick in the boot as well. Johannes struggles to get his hundred souls and retain his composure.

Basically, if Adjo were a necromancer and lived in modern-day(ish) England, this is what his memoirs would be like. A lot of fun.

The second, far less successful book is called Laugh Lines: Short Comic Plays edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold. These editors have a number of short play collections. Their first Take Ten: New 10-Minute Plays was great and I directed a couple of plays out of there for NWRep. So I had high hopes going into this one.

Most of the plays? Not funny. Maybe they just needed to be staged rather than read, but nothing really reached out and grabbed me. A lot of them just sort of meandered or were just odd for oddity's sake and some were flat-out sad. There were a couple of decent ones in there, but most of them really fell flat. Very disappointing.

But nothing for you to worry about because now you know to pick up the excellent Johannes Cabal.

later
Tom