Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute (Johannes Cabal Novels)
Comedy meets high-concept fantasy in Howard’s latest Johannes Cabal outing. As readers familiar with Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and Johannes Cabal the Detective know, the supercilious Cabal is more than a little obsessed with all things macabre, including the dead; therefore, when he gets the opportunity to visit the Dreamlands (à la H. P. Lovecraft) on behalf of the Fear Institute, he jumps at the chance. On a mission to understand and eradicate fear by slaying the Phobic Animus, he encounters the wild, the wooly, and the weird with unambiguously hilarious, albeit often frightening, results. Genre fans will appreciate Howard’s attention to world building, while more general readers will simply enjoy all the horrific fun. --Margaret Flanagan