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Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion brings together tales from the
light and dark sides of steampunk. Living ghosts, walking ferns and
ingenious androids populate visions of the city of Bristol at once
familiar and peculiar. Above them soar magnificent men, and women,
in their flying machines. Whether they are seeking release, revenge
or adventure, the characters in these stories will draw you down
the side-streets of Bristol to the brass and steam-filled worlds
you never dreamed were there. "As rich and varied as the true
history of this great British city" - Gareth L. Powell
In this uproarious and clever debut, it's time to give the Devil
his due.
Johannes Cabal, a brilliant scientist and notorious snob, is
single-mindedly obsessed in heart and soul with raising the dead.
Well, perhaps not "soul" . . . He hastily sold his years ago in
order to learn the laws of necromancy. But now, tormented by a dark
secret, he travels to the fiery pits of Hell to retrieve it. Satan,
who is incredibly bored these days, proposes a little wager:
Johannes has one year to persuade one hundred people to sign over
their souls or he will be damned forever.
To make the bet even more interesting, Satan throws in that
diabolical engine of deceit, seduction, and corruption known as a
"traveling circus" to aid in the evil bidding. What better place
exists to rob poor sad saps of their souls than the traveling
carnivals historically run by hucksters and legendary con men?
With little time to lose, Johannes raises a motley crew from the
dead and enlists his brother, Horst, a charismatic vampire (an
unfortunate side effect of Johannes's early experiments with
necromancy), to be the carnival's barker. On the road through the
pastoral English countryside, this team of reprobates wields their
black magic with masterful ease, resulting in mayhem at every turn.
Johannes may have the moral conscience of anthrax, but are his
tricks sinful enough to beat the Devil at his own game? You'll
never guess, and that's a promise!
Brilliantly written and wickedly funny, "Johannes Cabal the
Necromancer" combines the chills and thrills of old-fashioned
gothic tales like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the mischievous
humor of "Wicked," and the sophisticated charms of" Jonathan
Strange &Mr. Norrell "and spins the Faustian legend into a
fresh, irreverent, and irresistible new adventure.
The start of a fantastic new series. Johannes Cabal has never
pretended to be a hero of any kind. There is, after all, little
heroic about robbing graves, stealing occult volumes, and being on
nodding terms with demons. His purpose, however, is noble. His
researches are all directed to raising the dead. For such a prize,
some sacrifices are necessary. One such sacrifice was his own soul,
but he now sees that was a mistake - it's not just that he needs it
for his research to have validity, but now he realises he needs it
to be himself. Unfortunately, his soul now rests within the
festering bureaucracy of Hell. Satan may be cruel and capricious
but, most dangerously, he is bored. It is Cabal's unhappy lot to
provide him with amusement. In short, a wager: in return for his
own soul, Cabal must gather one hundred others - in one year. One
year to beat the Devil at his own game. And isn't that perhaps just
a little heroic?
Johannes Cabal and his rather inexact powers of necromancy are back
once more. This time, his talents are purchased by The Fear
Institute as they hunt for the Phobic Animus - the embodiment of
fear. The three Institute members, led by Cabal and his Silver Key,
enter the Dreamlands and find themselves pursued by walking trees
plagued with giant ticks, stone men that patrol the ruins of their
castles, cats that feed on human flesh and phobias which torment
and devastate. The intrepid explorers are killed off one by one as
they traipse through this obfuscating and frustrating world, where
history itself appears to alter. Cabal, annoyed that the quest is
becoming increasingly heroic, finds himself alone with the
Institute's only remaining survivor, and after a shockingly violent
experiment, begins to suspect that not everything is quite as it
seems...
Johannes Cabal is back - a little older, a little wiser, but just
as sharply funny, cuttingly sarcastic, and unexpectedly violent as
ever. For necromancer Johannes Cabal, dealing with devils, demons
and raising the dead is pretty much par for the course. But when
his attempt to steal a rare book turns sour, he is faced by a far
more terrifying entity - politics. While awaiting execution for his
crime, Cabal is forced to resurrect an inconveniently deceased
emperor. Seizing his chance, the cunning Cabal engineers his
escape, fleeing the country on a state-of-the-art flying ship. But
the ship has more than a few unpleasant surprises, including an
unwelcome face from the past and the small matter of some
mysterious murders. Cabal may work with corpses but he has
absolutely no intention of becoming one. Drawn into a deadly
conspiracy, is he shuffling dangerously close to the end of his
mortal coil?
Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion brings together tales from the
light and dark sides of steampunk. Living ghosts, walking ferns and
ingenious androids populate visions of the city of Bristol at once
familiar and peculiar. Above them soar magnificent men, and women,
in their flying machines. Whether they are seeking release, revenge
or adventure, the characters in these stories will draw you down
the side-streets of Bristol to the brass and steam-filled worlds
you never dreamed were there. "As rich and varied as the true
history of this great British city" - Gareth L. Powell
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