Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan Howard is pretty hilarious mashup of Faust, Wicked and Something Wicked this way Comes.

Cabal has long ago sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for sorcerous power but discovers that the lack of a soul is interfering with his experiments. So he travels to Hell in order to retrieve his soul from Satan, who not unsurprisingly takes the viewpoint that a deal is a deal.

Nevertheless, since the Devil is nothing else if not a greedy sort, He agrees to return Cabal's soul to him if Cabal can , within one year entice another hundred people to sell their souls to the Devil. In order to assist with this the Devil gives him an enchanted carnival.

Of course both the Devil and Cabal have some hidden interests. It's a fun read. Cabal is assisted by his older brother,Horst, who Cabal accidentally turned into a vampire in another experiment gone wrong. The book is written in a very sardonic tone, not unlike that of Terry Pratchett or Simon Green but is a little darker. Cabal is a self-centered, egotistical, immensely practical man who doesn't suffer fools lightly.


"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungleā€”as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.