Book Review

[kenjari]

Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute
by Jonathan L. Howard

This light fantasy novel concerns the adventures of Johannes Cabal, a necromancer, as he joins an expedition to discover and eliminate the spirit of irrational fear. Howard sets his story in an alternate version of the early part of the twentieth century in which Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos is quite real. Thus, the expedition takes Cabal and his companions into Lovecraft's Dreamlands for the majority of the book, where they explore quite a lot of the place, deal with a lot of strangeness and a little horror, and have a run-in with Nyarlothotep himself.
Despite all the promise of the set up and premise, Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute was quite disappointing. Both the characters and the setting (even the Dreamlands) were woefully underdeveloped, which made everything a little flat. The attempt to combine Lovecraft and dry British humor was incredibly unsuccessful. Worst of all, large swathes of the book were surprisingly boring. The mystery and reveal at the end had potential, but it didn't tie in well with what went before, and, frankly, by that time, I'd lost interest and only wanted to get the book over with. There was a great deal of potential here, but the execution was decidedly meh.

Comments

[aquafolius.livejournal.com]

Is this the third or fourth book in the series (maybe that had something to do with the characterization issues)?

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Third. That certainly may have counted for the issues with Cabal, but not the flatness of the new characters. If you want to read it though, I'd be happy to give you my copy.