Dane Wooster

Heed Not The Naysayers

Revisado: 09-10-22

Fair warning: this is a truly lovely novel for Lovecraft enthusiasts; a perplexing novel for those who aren't.

Suffice it to say, Rawlik does a rollicking (get it?) good job of not only crafting a fascinating narrative replete with Lovecraftian characters and scenarios, but also manages to at once build on the Mythos canon and render his original creation, Dr. Hartwell, into an integral player in the events of several of Lovecraft's most beloved tales. Truly a wonderful exercise in creative mythography.

My major gripe is this: footnotes. Seriously, footnotes. Even for those intimately familiar with the canon could use a reference guide to keep track of the veritable plethora of characters and events utilized here.

Also, for those slapping this novel with the singularly derisive and puerile label of "Lovecraft Fanfiction," I have two things to say:

Firstly, Lovecraft opened his mythos up to other writers fairly early on in its development. Thus, carrying on in this tradition is not "fanfiction," it is simply another effort at expansion.

Secondly, this isn't Goodreads. Have some class.

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Absolutely Remarkable

Revisado: 05-26-22

Stop reading reviews and buy it. Believe me, it's worth it.

Have you bought it yet?

Why are you still reading this?

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Narration is Severely Lacking

Revisado: 02-13-22

The narrator here isn't explicitly bad, but he sounds as if he's reading somebody's else's lecture at a conference, not a novel. The quality of the production even sounds as if it is a second-hand recording taken at the side of the podium.

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Dancin', Prancin' and Necromancin'

Revisado: 11-13-21

I'm going to be honest, I'm not typically fond of series which extend past four entries at the most. It's not necessarily that I dislike them, but I don't often finish them. By the third or fourth novel, I find myself in a hurry to move on to something else. This isn't always the case, but it's certainly a trend. On the rare(ish) occasion that I finish a series extending past four entries, I almost never find myself wanting more.

When I finished The Fall of the House of Cabal, the sixth and final installment in the adventures of Johannes Cabal, after having read four novels and a short story collection, my shriveled little former literature major heart broke. No more necromantic shenanigans, no more witty Lovecraftian segues, no more Satanic sleights; what horrific extrusion of the Dreamlands have I fallen into?

I've probably read thousands of books in my lifetime (hyperbole aside, at least a thousand) and very few have so thoroughly engaged me from start to finish as these. From the constitution of the prose to the magnificent subtlety of the character development to one scene where Horst Cabal stakes Varney the Vampire (no, really) I can find little fault with these wonderful, sardonic and frequently hilarious tomes.

If you haven't read these books, you're probably despicable. Perhaps even contemptible. But, most likely, you're simply a victim of our lovely bookish-internet-culture's many blind spots. Rectify this at once. I implore you.

It's with a heavy heart that I bid Johannes Cabal adieu. I sincerely hope we will see him again someday, but for now...woe is me.

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Superb Story, Wonderful Character, Bad Narration

Revisado: 11-06-21

A humanizing and intricate examination of the lives of a detached regiment of British soldiers in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. For some reason, however, the narrator chooses to depict every British character as something of an anachronistic caricature of Victorian nobility in intonation, every Spaniard as speaking with some odd gutteral bark, and narrates the whole thing as if he were essentially rushing through it. I wish they'd redo these audio recordings with a different narrator, perhaps Simon Vance or Nicholas Guy Smith.

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A Terrific Alternate-History Sequel to Dracula

Revisado: 10-18-21

If you've read Stoker's Dracula and thought to yourself, "What would have happened had Dracula won?" then this is the novel for you. Wonderful.

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This Buttered My Croissant

Revisado: 09-09-21

A good helping of Jerry Cornelius, a smidgeon of Oswald Bastable, a heaping tablespoon of European History, two cups of Esoteric Mysticism, and a lovely sprinkling of Science Fiction to top it all off and you've got yourself a delectable Luther Arkwright confection to tickle your palette.

Disclaimer: this is essentially after the fashion of classic radio dramas, which means that the composition of the piece follows the general structure of a modern graphic audio rendition sans the descriptive narrative voice. As such, I would recommend either A) reading the graphic novel first, or B) having the graphic novel handy while listening so that your mind's eye is supplied with visual representations to reference, as this particular production doesn't supply many aesthetic details.

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More Glorious Necromantic Shenanigans

Revisado: 09-02-21

As always, the inimitable Mr. Howard knocks it out of the park and into a gloriously decrepit bog of zombified delight.

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Listen To It

Revisado: 07-19-21

Don't ask questions. Don't contemplate it. Don't wonder at the vivacity of the narrator or the context of the narrative. Just listen to it. Thank me later.

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For Moorcock Fans

Revisado: 06-30-21

A lot of people are rough on this book, and I think that's primarily because they went into it with the wrong expectations. If you've been initiated into Moorcock's multiverse (which is practically a genre and category of fiction unto itself) then you will appreciate this introspective, epic, pseudo-historical and semi-autobiographical chimera of a novel. If you haven't, then maybe consider familiarizing yourself with his work first, before coming back around to this one. It's brilliant, but perhaps not overly kind to newcomers.

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