Johannes Cabal Books In Order

Publication Order of Johannes Cabal Books

Hailing from Britain, Jonathon L. Howard is known popularly for his novels revolving around the character Johannes Cabal. Since the early 90’s, Jonathon worked as a video game writer and scriptwriter. He has written a number of games including the Broken Sword series. He got fame after readers started noticing his black comedy novels which revolved around the character Johannes Cabal.

Other than Johannes Cabal series, Howard is also working on a science fiction series. Called the “Russalka Chronicles”, the events of this series take place on an ocean planet named Russalka. The first novel in the series generated favorable reviews from numerous critics. “Katya’s World” and “Katya’s War” are the first two novels in the Russalka Chronicles, being released in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Jonathon is also working on Lovecraft series and is expected to release the second book in the series called “After the End of the World” on 14th November 2017. He released a short story collection by the name of “Kyth the Taker” in 2017 and also writes a monthly comic known as “Goon Squad”. Currently, he is living with his daughter and wife near Bristol in England.

The Johannes Cabal series is full of black comedy and highly appreciated by fans of steampunk and Gothic romance genre. Based around the character of the same name, the novels are filled with exciting adventures. Johannes Cabal is a necromancer and slightly infamous for his actions. Despite his questionable profession and activities, Johannes has noble intentions at heart. He wants to resurrect the dead in a way so that they have the same spiritual, mental and physical health as before instead of being zombies.

Johannes Cabal is a well written character. He is highly intelligent and is always focused on the task at hand which makes him efficient at solving problems. Johannes doesn’t have a good sense of humor and possesses very little morality. He isn’t considered with what’s socially acceptable or legal and constantly breaks these barriers to get his way in the books. Despite his intelligence, Cabal often makes mistakes leading him into tough situations. Although Johannes severely lacks morality, his humanity often comes out despite his resistance. On his adventures, he also ends up saving the world a number of times in the series. There have been 5 books released and a total of 12 works published in the Johannes Cabal series.

“Johannes Cabal the Necromancer” is the first book in the series. In this book, Cabal initially makes a deal with Satan in exchange for his soul. He considers that a few sacrifices are necessary to help him achieve something great but soon realizes that he needs back his soul. Not only will his soul help in validating his research but also to be himself once again. Therefore, he goes to Satan to ask back his soul. Since Satan is extremely bored, decides to propose a wager for his amusement. Johannes makes a second deal with Satan to retrieve his soul in exchange for a hundred souls within one year. Cabal sets out with his brother Horst who is a vampire and a zombie crew to help him gather the souls. They begin roaming from place to place, operating a travelling carnival given to them by Satan. While Cabal is unconcerned about taking other souls, his brother Horst is a little concerned. During their adventures, they keep running into mayhem at every step of the journey.

The second book, “Johannes Cabal the Detective” fuses various genres together. After winning back his soul from Satan, Cabal is now on a run from local authorities. His adventures unfold in a rarely known part of the world in this book. After stealing the identity of a normal bureaucrat, Cabal gets on a passenger aeroship named Princess Hortense which is leaving the country. Cabal’s deception seems to be working perfectly until he faces an old enemy Leonie Barrow, who could easily blow his cover. Things take a different turn when a passenger on the aeroship jumps off to his death. While it appears to be a suicide, Cabal starts to investigate the matter due to curiosity. The small efforts at investigation result in a malicious attack on Cabal’s life kicking the story to full speed.
After much reluctance, Cabal and Leonie team up for unmasking the murderer. Leonie is the only woman Cabal has come across who can match him in intelligence. This book is considerably different plot and story setting with relation to the first book yet it contains ample amount of dark humor as the previous book. Over time, Leonie and Cabal have thrilling adventures and narrow escapes in the search of the murderer. A lot of destruction and resurrection of dead also happens along the way making this book a perfect amalgamation of mystery and steampunk genres.

The third book in the series “The Fear Institute” gets deeper into the character of Johannes Cabal. He is hired by three members of The Fear Institute to assist them in a hunt for Phobic Animus which is fear’s embodiment. The setting of this book is in a mythical place known as Dreamlands where Cabal and his companions face human flesh eating cats, walking trees having huge ticks and stone men along with tormenting phobias which can also devastate a person completely. Cabal begins to realize there is something wrong as his quest becomes increasingly heroic with each step. With numerous deaths and crazy experiments, this book takes the reader on a rollercoaster filled with excitement.

While the first three books were all highly appreciated by readers, the combination of Johannes and his brother Horst produced the most excitement in readers. Therefore, the fourth and fifth book of the series included both brothers. Horst is resurrected from the dead by an occult for leading an army and fulfilling the occult’s purpose of creating a horrendous country for monsters. The brothers fight together against the occult and their adventures continue further in the fifth book as Johannes continues his research in London for resurrecting the dead. The fourth and fifth books are rated higher than the previous books of the series due to excellent dialogues between the two brothers and their combined adventures.