#jonathan l. howard

[see-arcane]

Every time I blink there's some new Jon, John, or Johannes taking up space in my head. I plan to add to it by finally sitting down and reading through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in the coming year. Still missing a Johanna, though.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[whovian223]

Friday Night Shots - Patreon

Friday Night Shots - Patreon @playersaidblog @gzBlitz @HeavyCardboard @JonathanLHoward @IncorrigiblePar

Welcome back to the bar! It’s been a month, but I’m happy to welcome you back. It’s always nice to get just a little bit of income from it, since nobody else really comes in here. Other than Bob in the back, who’s sharing a drink they call loneliness, but for some reason he’s drinking it alone so I’m not sure what that’s about. That kind of defeats the purpose! Anyway, have a seat and let me…

[sffinsiders]

Review: The Shadow on the Glass by Jonathan L. Howard — SFF Insiders

[theshadytree123]

Here’s a little ramble on why I think the best Johannes Cabal books are the ones where Horst is also in them. Spoiler warning for basically the whole series.

Johannes Cabal by nature is a character who works fine by himself but is really only at his best when he has a partner.

Now, that isn’t to say he isn’t a good character on his own. He’s still plenty entertaining even if he’s doing evil deeds by himself. But his evil deeds and tetchy attitude tends to become a little one-note when he’s the only major player. Personally, this is exactly why the Fear Institute was my least favorite in the series. It was still good, but after a while I got used to Johannes’ general vibes and it started becoming less interesting after a bit. Honestly, by the middle of the book I was pretty bored. It wasn’t until near the end when everything started falling into place that my attention was recaptured.

He needs a foil, someone who is genuinely a friendly and nice person so that they can work off of each other. Having a good, moral person as a contrast makes both of their personalities shine.

Now in the series he has multiple different foils, but I will likely always like Horst the best. And it isn’t just because he’s my favorite character.

Leonie Barrow works fine as a contrast. She got the job done in The Detective, and she was pretty good at it. But she’s not the best. She just doesn’t have enough personal drama with Johannes. Sure, she’s has a past with Johannes (*cough* cough* circus *cough* *cough*), but it just never felt personal enough to me. She is someone who Johannes wronged, very badly in fact, but there’s frankly thousands who have been wronged just as badly or even worse than her.

Horst on the other hand is super personal. He’s practically the only family member who still talks to Johannes, and he was literally locked in a crypt by him for eight years, with nothing to do but sit with his own thoughts and be bored. This mix of bitterness because of what Johannes did to him, protectiveness because at the end of the day he’s still his little brother, righteous rage as Johannes continuously does horrible acts without a lick of remorse, and hope that maybe, just maybe, he can redeem himself and get better, is just so overwhelmingly entertaining and creates such a tense but at the same time loving dynamic.

My favorite example of this might be in the Brothers Cabal, which fun fact is my favorite book specifically for this scene. Throughout this book, Horst is very obviously conflicted about his relationship with Johannes. He is constantly in struggle between his righteous fury and… I wouldn’t call it regret per se, but it was certainly sadness over the general situation. He thinks he did the right thing, but at the same time, Johannes is his brother and he just doomed him to an eternity of suffering. Then there’s the added wrench of being told that Johannes has saved the world multiple times since Horst died, and now there’s this tiny flicker of hope that maybe Johannes can be redeemed.

And then, at the end of chapter ten, after Horst gets a bunch of dreams of what Johannes is up to in the Fear Institute, we get honestly what I consider to be the best lines in the entire series, “At 14:35, with the sun up and storming down rays of purifying light that pitter-pattered hopelessly upon the darkness, the vampire Horst Cabal awoke. He awoke in fear and mourning for a death too close, and with tears filling his eyes. He awoke with the name of his brother, Johannes, on his lips.” (Howard 121).

And this line is honestly what truly gave Horst the Best Character Award in my eyes. Because even after Johannes shoved him into a crypt for 8 years, and even after Horst tried to doom Johannes to eternal suffering, and even after all these two have done to hurt each other, at the end of the day, Johannes is still his little brother whom he loves very, very dearly, and if he’s in trouble and needs Horst’s help, Horst is going to try and save him.

[nuttersincorporated]

Yes! He should defiantly adopt Minty. I think she probably is still alive but very poor and without anyone who cares about her.

Horst could spend a few years living in one place raising Minty and making sure she gets a proper education. Then he could join the circus. Minty comes too because she wants to.

Every now and again, Leonie, Miss Smith and/or Zarenyia turn up asking for his help with something. He’s always happy to help. Minty is allowed to come about a third of the time when it’s those three asking for help. She can come 90% of the time if Zarenyia isn’t part of the group.

Sometimes Cabal turns up demanding Horts help him with something. 90% of the time Minty is not allowed to come along. However, Horst and Minty always visit Cabal at Christmas. Cabal sends Minty scientific birthday presents

reading brothers cabal for the first time was so funny bc i went in only having seen the silly parts like memes about the cake

and then u read it and horst is just "i miss my brother. i miss the carnival. what country am i even in. this sucks. i wanna go home. i dont have a home anymore. im so miserable all the time. i want friends. my clothes keep getting covered in blood and acid and grass stains and i hate it. i miss sleeping in a cramped clothes chest. oh hell yeah train lesbians. i am a horrible monster with no redeeming qualities. im so sleepy. i miss my brother"

[gaydelgard]

ok so we did best cabal book, now lets do best cabal short story

but first let me start with a piece of propaganda trivia

Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day, if you didnt know, is named after the story Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

and i think we can all agree that casting cabal in the role of winnie the pooh is very very funny

ok now to the poll

i know a long spoon is going to win bc of our girl zerenyia but like i love her but theres better stories here

maple durham probly coulda given it a run for its money if it was real but sadly it isnt

[queerstuffonscreen]

Only Murders in the Building (2021-)

Episode length: 26-38 min.

Country: USA

Genre: Comedy, Crime

Language: English

Three strangers who share an obsession with true crime suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one.

Season 1

Episode 1: True Crime

Episode 2: Who Is Tim Kono?

Episode 3: How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?

Episode 4: The Sting

Episode 5: Twist

Episode 6: To Protect and Serve

Episode 7: The Boy from 6B

Episode 8: Fan Fiction

Episode 9: Double Time

Episode 10: Open and Shut

Season 2

Episode 1: Persons of Interest

Episode 2: Framed

Episode 3: The Last Day of Bunny Folger

Episode 4: Here's Looking at You

Episode 5: The Tell

Episode 6: Performance Review

Episode 7: Flipping the Pieces

Episode 8: Hello, Darkness

Episode 9: Sparring Partners

Episode 10: I Know Who Did It

Season 3

Episode 1: The Show Must…

Episode 2: The Beat Goes On

Episode 3: Grab Your Hankies

Episode 4: The White Room

Episode 5: Ah, Love!

Episode 6: Ghost Light

Episode 7: CoBro

Episode 8: Sitzprobe

Episode 9: Thirty

Episode 10: Opening Night

Watch on Hulu

[abybweisse]

Latest HPB haul

Silly me, I went back to Half Price Books, this time armed with a 10% off coupon. Spent even more than last time anyway. 😭

I'm not sure whether I already had some of these titles in the collected works (I have bought at least one book from the series before), so before I bought these, I made sure to ask about the return policy. It's very important that I find my "missing" boxes of books soon, so that I can get a refund, if I find out I have some repeats.

Since I'm not sure about extra copies, I left the price tags on. In case I forget and start removing all the tags, I didn't remove any just yet. But I don't want to showcase prices, so I've censored the tags.

HPB used random boxes they had laying around, since I bought so many books (and Giant Microbes).

Here's the contents of the Xerox box:

Some "Gothic Fantasy" and "Epic Tales" collector volumes; a nice set of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Poe stories; a box set of F. Scott Fitzgerald; a funny cookbook I actually hope to use pretty soon; a human anatomy stamp set; and some Giant Microbes: DNA, RNA, Zombie Virus, and two Brain Cells. Had to get two... so I can rub them together.

And the contents of the "Lou Goodman" box:

I probably have the vast majority of the "Gothic Fantasy" series from that collection now and several of the "Epic Tales" series. I know for certain that I already have Christmas Gothic Short Stories from that "Gothic Fantasy" Series. Oh, and looks like I now have at least one from their "Classic Stories" series. 🤔 Good grief, how many books did they publish like this? 😅 They-- they don't even all fit on one of my shelves... and I'm sure I still don't have the entire collection. 😭 Anyway, these books don't have dust jackets, and they are super shiny.

The Virgil book is also jacketless and very shiny; that one and all these other shiny ones are published by Flame Tree.

The Alchemist goes along with a collection I bought some of last time I went to HPB -- Chartwell Classics, I think. The Jonathan L. Howard books (soft covers) just look like a really fun read. And I'm excited to have this lovely copy of A Study in Scarlet with a bunch of illustrated contextual information, even though I probably have a basic copy of the story in an old "Sherlock" collection, like one I saved from my parents' house. For protection, they sell it in a thick clear plastic dust jacket; I guess it's something that publisher just... does. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway, that's the haul.

Now to do my best to just plain avoid stepping inside a HPB for a while... like the rest of the year. 😮‍💨 😅

[professor-of-predators]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Johannes Cabal - Jonathan L. Howard Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Leonie Barrow & Johannes Cabal, Leonie Barrow/Johannes Cabal Characters: Horst Cabal, Zarenyia (Johannes Cabal), Johannes Cabal, Leonie Barrow, Frank Barrow, Other Character Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: I'm erring on the side of caution here, ratings and tags subject to change, Non-Canon ReDo of Canon Events, i thought it would be fun, Post Fall of The House of Cabal, There will be Water Summary:

If Leonie had a nickel for each time she'd been asked to pretend to be Johannes Cabal's lover on an international journey, she'd have two nickles. Which is really far too much odd currency for someone who has yet to visit the United States.

[see-arcane]

Little doodle of two of my favorite blorbos from my books, Johannes Cabal and Jonathan Harker.

Johannes Cabal and the series named after him is the first and only book series I've read and loved in its entirety. 100/10 if you like cagey necromancers, jovial vampiric siblings, alternate timeline period pieces with devilish and eldritch elements, and an ongoing thread of humor cutting through the horrors. (Also, look up the digital short stories!)

Johannes himself is very, very different in temperament compared to Jonathan...apart from certain matters of the heart and what each man will resort to for the sake of love. For the purposes of the above image, I expect they have a common enemy on that front. Or at least some irritating party trying to take over and/or end the world or whatever, ughhh. Always something.

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[lorientours]

Every single book I read about necromancers I hope it’s going to be like Johannes Cabal. And generally isn’t. They just do MAGIC and don’t even examine it !!! Like Johannes would be so annoyed and I’m sad bc my ideal career would be a mixture of occultist and biologist and I get to live vicariously though Cabal.

I know it’s probably past the deadline but : Johannes Cabal!!! He’s THE Necromancer(of no little infamy)

He does necromancy not for power or glory but just to bring back his dead fiancé

He frequently smells faintly of formaldehyde bc he spends so much of his time in the lab

Please please please

thank FUCK someone FINALLY said my boy johannes cabal! for fucks sake!

i mean i was gonna include him regardless obviously hes one of the guys of all time

what a terrible little man i love him hes so funny

thank you for submitting him i love you

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Carter and Lovecraft, by Jonathan L. Howard (2015)

I really wanted to like this book.

I've read a few Lovecraft novels and stories, and I liked them. So when I saw this on my friend's bookshelf, I borrowed it, and read it.

Tried to.

The first real fly in the ointment? NYPD protag sees his partner take a 9mm retirement in front of him on a creepy case, and becomes a private detective. Mysterious lawyer shows up at his office one day and says there was a bookstore owner in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been missing and just declared dead.

The protag gets the bookshop. He's not sure why.

Protag goes to the bookshop. Owner's niece, Emily, is there. She's been running the shop alone since the owner vanished, and she co-ran it when he was alive. Also, she's biracial. Would be played by Zoe Kravitz in the movie, he thinks.

Her name is Lovecraft.

As in, she's a descendant of ol' Howard Philips.

She notes the irony; a black-ish "mulatto" descendant of an anti-black racist.

"Okay," I think, as I checked the publication date. "You've gotten that token bit out of the way. Now, can we move on?"

Apparently not.

As protag starts looking into the disappearance and other weird stuff, he decides he needs to get his eye in. So he goes to a gun range, where he needs to sign up for the NRA first

and ends the session by "re-engaging the safety" on his Glock.

Fun fact: stock Glocks don't have manual safeties, AFAIK.

In the next chapter, protag thinks about how he used the gun. He hates the NRA and the whole "gun fetish" thing, but he needs the iron, just in case.

Two strikes. Three if you count the safety thing.

Yes, I know an NYPD cop might be a bit bigoted about the issue, especially considering how his partner died. But it really feels like the writer's opinion.

In fact, let me just-

Yep. The writer is British. This sounds awfully familiar.

It was about this time that I realized something. The protagonist has no traits that aren't directly related to being a cop or detective. Absolutely none.

I don't think we know what he does in his off hours. No friends. Nothing but the job.

Heck, Miss Lovecraft has more personality than him, and she takes up a lot less screen time.

Protag decides to give Lovecraft half the business, so he can become a silent partner. People start dying in physically impossible ways - like the dude who drowned in his dry car in a parking lot - our hero looks into it.

He also ends up learning about a local family, the Waites. Rich, keep to themselves on their own land, been around since before the area was officially settled, apparently.

The local who tells him about all this says the younger ones are oddly attractive. The family has distinctive big eyes.

Anyone remotely familiar with HP Lovecraft just went "Oh, right, they're fishmen. Got it." I've seen this trope done better before, like in the comic Shadowgirls.

Hero looks into the archives, finds records of a racist Town Council rant by an early Waite, back when they were still into trading. Including slaves. Specifically, patriarch Newton Waite went to a council meeting and said black people should serve others, and shouldn't have self-determination.

The archivist intern says it's was "a different time", and that's just how people were back then.

Of course, he adds "People who talk like that now - no pass for them."

End scene.

Like this extremely mainstream, boring opinion is some kind of

In the next scene, protag chats about the fit he had near the Waite place. Learns about another mysterious death. When he chats about it with Emily, he suddenly realizes she's hot.

Then the narration tells us that he was a racist bigot in his teens, though he thought he was being sensible at the time. He now knows he was wrong, but he still feels sparks of it when he reads about some black kid doing some stereotypically black thing, which gives certain white people "a hard-on of righteousness".

And, of course, his time spent walking away from "instinctive racism" means his dating pool opened up. Like Emily Lovecraft, for example.

The most stereotypically black thing would probably be crime. Or being a single mom or deadbeat dad.

 Sadly, I know of plenty of black people - from my black majority home country - who fall into one of those categories. Or two. Three if you include "poverty", but we're Developing, so that barely even counts.

Also, this basically came out of nowhere. Not Emily being hot - I mean, look at Zoe Kravitz - but his unsolicited thoughts on racism.

All of these issues have also been issues for many concerned black people. For decades. The 'stereotypically black things' might be bad themselves, not because they make racist white people feel smug.

This is precisely where I closed the book for good. I would've put away the bookmarks, but I needed the page so I could write this rant.

Honestly, writing all this made me realize that I should've given up long before I made it halfway through the book. But I just kept hoping it would get better.

Doing the same well-worn cliches in a modern setting doesn't really make them interesting. Neither do the little 'racism is bad, mmmkay?' bits.

[fave-fight]

ROUND 1: FIGHT!

I’m keeping the order a surprise. :) I’ll update as each poll is posted.

This tournament is Round Robin, which means EVERY CHARACTER WILL GO UP AGAINST EVERY OTHER CHARACTER! So, don’t worry when you’re voting. Your blorbo will be here for every round. You will get to vote against Elon Musk every round.

Master Post

Rounds

Harry Du Bois vs Obi-Wan Kenobi

Cutting an onion vs Plato

Kirby vs George Costanza

Spiders Georg vs Medic

TBH autism creature vs fave-fight

Archibald vs Candace Flynn

Oliver vs Cecil Palmer

Diogenes the Cynic vs Kokichi Oma

Utatane Piko vs Jonathan Sims

Kaz Brekker vs Isabelle

V1 vs Jerma

Goose vs Arven

Magikarp vs Jesus Christ

Proinsias Cassidy vs You, the Voter

IT’S ME BOY IM THE PS5 vs a lot of spiders

Kanatsune Ame vs Nana Hiiragi

Elon Musk vs Groundskeeper Willie

Reigen Arataka vs Vi

Inigo Montoya vs Franziska von Karma

Little Mac vs Volo

Yuzuki Yukari vs Dick Grayson

Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz vs Rainhaze

Elaine Benes vs Harley Quinn

Alejandro Burromuerto vs Stanley Pines

Wheatley vs johnsonofdonut

Dr. Coomer vs Floyd Leech

Your mom vs vFlower

Kiryu Kazuma vs Minamoto Tiara

Perry the Platypus vs Inej Ghafa

Jughead Jones vs Finfin

Alex Louis Armstrong vs Howard Hamlin

Apollo Justice vs Connecticut Clark

Cave Johnson vs Ea-Nasir

prinxe-with-no crown vs The Knight

Peridot vs Susie

Ace Trappola vs Kanade Yoisaki

Guzma vs Mr. Rogers

Kim Possible vs JJ McGermanotta

Gomez Addams vs Fukase

Half Light vs Miss Piggy

L Lawliet vs a horse

Peri Dubois vs Sam Vimes

Sakurai Haruka vs socks-wizard-money-gang

Chuuya Nakahara vs Kevin

David Xanatos vs Light Yagami

Odysseus vs Miette

Duck Newton vs Mei Dragon

Nino Lahiffe vs Goose

“Me” The Aspiring Anime Character Puncher vs Sunny

Conan Edogawa vs Domovoi Butler

[palmviewfm]

mw?

there's a ton of mw faces that we'd love to see here ! i put it under a read more since it's a large list. but bring us whoever you've got the muse for, ofc !

taylor zakhar perez, nicholas galitzine, noah lalonde, danny griffin, jonathan daviss, drew starkey, darren barnett, elias kacavas, emilio sakraya, evan mock, eli brown, glen powell, zane phillips, john boyega, jordan gonzalez, austin butler, henry zaga, felix mellard, thomas weatherall, miles teller, sam claflin, penn badgely, chace crawford, lewis tan, lucas bravo, kit harrington, joseph morgan, josh segarra, harry shum jr, chris pine, ryan gosling, alex saxon, theo james, andrew garfield, gregg sulkin, ben levin, adam brody, logan lerman, pedro pascal, tom holland, mason gooding, lucien laviscount, ryan gosling, rege jean page, froy guiterrez, tanner buchanan, xolo mariduena, robert scott wilson, carson boatman, ross lynch, algee smith, cody christian, adam dimarco, alex fitzalan, daniel ezra, anthony keyvan, keith powers, keiynan lonsdale, joseph quinn, aramis knight, antonio cipriano, derek luh, leo howard, leo woodall, brandon perea, dacre montgomery, diego tinoco, mena massoud, maxence danet-fauxel, lorenzo zurzolo, michael cimino, paul mescal, callum turner, d'pharoh woon-a-tai, jordah fisher, josh heuston,l alex meraz, kiowa gordon, tom glynn carney, avan jogia, dylan minnette, josh hutcherson, assad zaman, gabriel basso, ross butler, robert buckley, james lafferty, david casteneda, brandon soo hoo, grifflin gluck, grant gustin, dylan wang, asa germann, alejandro spietzer, colin ford, alex landi, alfred enoch, aria shahghasemi, anthony turpel, cha eunwoo, aj saudin, danny ramirez, david iacono, chris briney, sabrina carpenter, ayo edibiri, madison bailey, samantha logan, kim doyeon, nichola coughlan, madison davenport, indiana evans, india eisley, lyrica okano, virginia gardner, liana liberato, kiersey clemons, lindsey morgan, liv hewson, emma d'arcy, victoria pedretti, logan browning, lola tung, louriza tronco, lorenza izzo, lovie simone, luca hollestelle, hunter schafer, zion moreno, taylor russell, laura harrier, lana condor, lauren tsai, anna sawai, jane de leon, kylie bunbury, kathryn bernardo, chienna filomeno, phoebe dynevor, simone ashley, maitreyi ramakrishnan, courtney eaton, nicole maines, jessica alexander, peyton alex smith, ella purnell, sophie neilsse, dev patel, rahul kohli, natalia dyer, danielle campbell, ella balinska, bailey bass, jessica sula, emma mackey, mia goth, melissa barerra, alva bratt, kiana lede, kiana madiera, olivia scott welch, kiernan shipka, meg donnelly, camila mendes, brianne tju, maddie hasson, dianna agron, emilija baranac, danielle rose russell, kaylee kaneshiro, isabella gomez, jenny boyd, lulu antarisksa, josephine langford, lizeth selene, marina ruy barbosa, kaya scodelario, katherine mcnamara, chloe rose robertson, kathryn newton, kristine froseth, pat chayanit, davika hoorne, mint ranchrawee, rabia soyturk, hande ercel, aslihan malbora, melisa pamuk, katie stevens, meghann fahy, merrit patterson, adelaide kane, alexxis lemire, adria arjona, amanda arcuri, sadie soverall, sara waisglass, chelsea clark, blu hunt, antonia gentry, brianne howey, bianca santos, bianca lawson, phoebe tonkin, shelley hennig, bruna marquezine, brittany o'grady, crystal reed, charithra chandran, jessie mei li, halston sage, carlson young, willa fitzgerald, halle bailey, chloe bridges, chloe bailey, margot robbie, anne hathaway, lisa yamada, raven bowens, olivia rose keegan, camryn grimes, gideon aldon, tiera skovbye, amy adams, jane levy, angela bassett, anya taylor joy, anya chalotra, ashleigh murray, lucy hale, troian bellisario, sophia bush, bethany joy lenz, shantel vansanten, hilarie burton, shay mitchell, sasha pieterse, janel parrish, malia pyles, bailee madison, chandler kinney, jordan alexander, zaria simone, auli'i cravalho, bebe wood, angourie rice, renee rapp, ashley moore, ashley park, aisha dee, alisha boe, elizabeth lail, alia bhatt, reina hardesty, victoria justice, liz gillies, bahar sahin, amber midthunder, gemma chan, madchen amick, marisol nichols, madison mclaughlin, malese jow, maris racal, maya hawke, jessica chastain, ana de armas, angela sarafyan, and anna lambe !