The Brothers Cabal

August 11, 2014
At the conclusion of The Fear Institute, necromancer Johannes Cabal lay nearly dead at his own front gate. At the start of his fourth adventure, he wakes, nursed to health by his brother, Horst, a vampire who was last seen as a pile of ash. Johannes and the resurrected Horst must stop the Ministerium Tenebrae, a confederation of supernatural beings—at least one of whom holds a deep grudge against Johannes—bent on turning the country of Mirkarvia into a kingdom of monsters. The brothers team up with arcane secret societies and a troupe of female stunt-pilots, and confront discomfiting parts of their own natures: Horst battles his vampiric instincts, and Johannes is beset by his nascent conscience. Where Johannes is prickly, Horst is charming, and they are an enjoyable double-act. But most of the novel is a flashback to Horst’s episodic journey to his brother’s gate. Even if more of the brothers together would have been welcome, Howard nevertheless ably spins an entertaining and surprisingly emotional yarn that promises entertaining future trials for the Cabal brothers.

October 1, 2014
Johannes Cabal, the twice-dead necromancer, is very sick, facing still another (and this time perhaps permanent) death. He's rescued by, of all people, Horst, his (until recently, dead) brother. Readers of earlier Cabal novels will know that Horst is a quite likable vampire, and it turns out he has a compelling story to tell, about his own resurrection, his recruitment into an army of megalomaniacs determined to take over the world, and his eventual realization that he must stop their plans at any cost. But he needs a partner, a talented necromancerhe needs, in other words, his brother by his side. Deft mixtures of black comedy and sorcery, the Cabal novels (of which this is the fourth) are wonderfully daftin the vein of the comic horror/fantasies of Tom Holt and Christopher Moore, but substantially weirder. Although it's part of a series, the book can be read as a stand-alone, and fans of the genre should definitely be encouraged to give it a look. Needless to say, fans of the first three books will rush to get their hands on this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)