Literally Geeky discussion

Any comments / thoughts about our pick for June, post them here!

Johannes makes a pact with the Devil - that's Devil with a capital D that rhymes with T that stands for Trouble.

I found this version Old Scratch kind of underwhelming though, and wondered; what's everyone's favourite fictional portrayal of the Devil?

I'm fond of the Bowiesque Lucifer Morningstar from DC Vertigo, but for me it's a tie between the drifter of The Dumas Club; she has more than a touch of gap year student about her, and Milton's version Satan; he wouldn't know the meaning of hubris, even if you buried him with dictionaries.

Does Tim Curry in Legend count?

The Necromancer is like a jam sandwich made with horribly dry bread that takes awhile to chew. The jam is sweet and delightful, but the taste is lost with the final mouthful of bread.

I'll say no more for now. Y'all have a week still to read it.

I liked it. I think I know what Beth means about the "last bite," but overall I think it was a solid book.

As I said on the hangout, I wasn't a fan. I think it was an interesting pick: as stories concerning deals with the Devil are such fun, and I do love a good antihero but.... sadly this didn't do it for me. Maybe if Johannes had been something less than a massive tool....

Books on a similarish theme that I'd recommend :
Something Wicked this Way Comes
Eric (- as Donovan said it's short and sweet)
The Master and Margarita
Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits.

I'd be curious to know if Johannes is any less of a tool once he has his soul.

Ez wrote: "I'd be curious to know if Johannes is any less of a tool once he has his soul."

Read the next book in the series and see :-P

Sure, The Necromancer had its share of flaws, but I thought it was harmless and enjoyable. Certain things frustrated me, like the vagueness of the time period in which the story took place, but they were all forgivable.

Sydney wrote: "I'm the person who disagreed with most every thing you had to say, so bear with me here, because I'm going to toss in my two cents whether it's wanted or not. I hope you guys don't mind.

The two t..."

Hi Sydney,

We don't mind at all, this is what the forums are for after all!

I completely agree that Cabal wasn't meant to be liked, and that he didn't fall in love with Leonie. You also make a really good point about the time period, which I didn't think about - I'm not familiar with steampunk at all.

I definitely still think that we needed more from the carnival workers. They sounded so interesting, and one chapter or paragraph wasn't enough for me. I liked the ending, but I reckon if we'd spent a bit more time getting to know these side characters, it would have been much more of a twist when they all turned on him.

I had some issues this book, especially with how quickly we got to the last town, but I didn't dislike it at all - I thought it was enjoyable and I really liked Howard's writing style, enough to pick up the next one in the series when I have the time.

Overall, I think our opinions of the books have been pretty mixed so far. Apart from Redshirts, which we...... did not love.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Being a book club, it's kind of a given that we're not all going to see eye to eye, and that's fine. I really enjoy hearing what others took from a story that I myself recently read. Don't apologize for having a different opinion.

That being said, if you do like you said and go look at the overall ratings to find books we as a group didn't like, you won't find this one on it.

As I recall, The Necromancer received three 3-star ratings and earned the book club seal of approval. Granted, none of us fell head over heels in love with it, but we didn't exactly bury it alive either.

I actually thought we were pretty generous considering the flaws we discussed and agreed on. Your 'alternate universe' theory about the timeline is a good one and more than likely correct, but it doesn't discredit our general opinion of the plot's aspects being done many times both before and better.

Like I said in the hangout, I liked The Necromancer and I intend to give the next book in the series a go. Now that I've warmed up to the character of Johannes, I'm curious to learn more about him.

Thanks for joining our club and participating! Hope you stick around :-)