The Brothers Cabal

There was some bad news and good news for me with The Brothers Cabal. The bad news: there's not a lot of Johannes in this book. The good news: Horst is back and the first three quarters of the story revolves around him.

It was great fun to see the story from Horst's point of view. It's an omniscient POV as the meta-narrative points out, but we get Horst's thoughts, see his insecurities and inner conflict with his vampiric nature, instead of him just playing a contrast to Johannes. In Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, we learned that he is attractive and charming enough to incite Johannes' envy, and empathetic and caring enough to conflict with Johannes' cold and pragmatic nature.

In The Brothers Cabal, Horst gets a handle on what it means to be a vampire. He struggles with the way he sees himself and the supporting characters who view him, whether friend or foe, as a monster. He also fights with an “inner voice” telling him to be a vicious predator(you know like, an actual vampire). Johannes, in contrast, holds himself apart from most people and could care less how they see him.

All of Horst's inner turmoil is occurring alongside lots of action; The Brothers Cabal might be the most fast-paced of the series thus far. He allies himself with a monster/supernatural hunting society and an all-female flying circus. There are several chase scenes and monster battle scenes with were-creatures and cosmic horrors. Eventually this all leads to Horst getting Johannes involved.

I had mixed feelings about the brother's nemesis. I like that she's a call back to Johannes Cabal the Detective, but from what we saw of her, I'm not convinced of her transformation to a worthy opponent in such a short time. Maybe tragedy can focus the mind, but the spoiled and vacuous person we saw would have had a long way to go.

As always, the Johannes Cabal series has a lot of humor and homage/reference to other pop culture, but there was one moment in here that especially tickled me:
“It's in the trees! It's coming”

Probably a reference to the British 1957 horror film Night of the Demon but I'm choosing to think it also refers to the intro to Kate Bush's song, “The Hounds of Love,” which samples the line from the movie.

It's the little things.

The Johannes Cabal series continues to be my new favorite escapist entertainment.

The fourth Johannes Cabal novel sees the return of his brother Horst, a vampire who would rather not be. Horst takes a major role too, especially in the first half of the book and he's a fun character to tag along with. Mr. Howard has a definite way with words and often made me snicker at his droll wordplay. And The Brothers Cabal is in top form. (I may have to re-read the first two someday. The third not so much.) Anyway, I won't spoil the story for you. Suffice it to say that this outing includes steampunkish airships, zombies, and werewolves and tons of witty remarks.