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The Necromancer's House  By  cover art

The Necromancer's House

By: Christopher Buehlman
Narrated by: Todd Haberkorn
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Publisher's summary

"You think you got away with something, don't you? But your time has run out. We know where you are. And we are coming." The man on the screen says this in Russian. "Who are you?" The man smiles, but it's not a pleasant smile. The image freezes. The celluloid burns exactly where his mouth is, burns in the nearly flat U of his smile. His eyes burn, too. The man fades, leaving the burning smiley face smoldering on the screen. "Oh Christ," Andrew says. The television catches fire.

Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a handsome, stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock, able to speak with the dead through film. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago. Andrew has long known that magic was a brutal game requiring blood sacrifice and a willingness to confront death, but his many years of peace and comfort have left him soft, more concerned with maintaining false youth than with seeing to his own defense. Now a monster straight from the pages of Russian folklore is coming for him, and frost and death are coming with her.

©2013 Christopher Buehlman (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The logic of the plot is eclipsed by the eruption of characters who evoke Dickensian whimsy and range from the merely unusual to the bizarrely imaginative. Within this magical universe, rivalries, revenge, and self-seeking contend with the willingness to sacrifice." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Necromancer's House

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Finally - Magic / Fantasy Novel for adults.

I don't know about you but I've grown so very tired of looking for magic and fantasy novels. It seems like i'm always Pawing through trite, whiny tween books, and the predictable female power/porn/romance fantasy novels. Blargh.

Finally! A really good magic/fantasy novel written for adults. The main characters are dysfunctional, sometimes distasteful, but in the end realistic and ultimately interesting. There's real danger and they make mistakes. The writing isn't for kids, and its not all about romance/fantasy daydreams. It feels a lot like Peter Clines "14" with modern characters and classic fantasy mixed.

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Well-written book marred by an irritating reader

"The Necromancer's House" isn't Christopher Buehlman's best book ("The Blacktongue Thief" holds that honor), but it's still a solid, well-plotted story with interesting characters and a fascinating take on the existence of magic and a community of mages in the modern world. If you enjoy Niel Gaiman or Joe Abercrombie, you should find this book to be right up your street...

IF you can get past Todd Haberkorn's narration. I don't know if Mr. Haberkorn has dyslexia, or simply needs to take a vocabulary class, but I have never in my life listened to an audiobook that left me shouting corrections at my headphones.

"but the dezinens of Oswego..." ""Did you mean 'DENIZENS?'"
"they piled her with drinks..." "I actually think they 'PLIED' her with drinks, don't you?!?"
"not knowing the lyrics was no impeedment to singing along..." "Did you mean 'IMPEDIMENT," TODD? F-ing IMPEDIMENT???"

Etc., etc., etc. Probably every 10 minutes or so there's a mispronounced, misread or wholly invented word (that isn't in the text; I own the book) that changes the meaning of the sentence and pulls you out of the story completely. Haberkorn's characterizations are good, but damn he needs a remedial reading course.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Decidedly Worth It!!!

Having read his previous two books, I was eager to hear what Christopher Buehlman had in store for his readers in this, his third, novel. A story about witches and warlocks engaged in decidedly human bad behavior but on a scale that make the failings of mere mortals seem trivial.

I must admit that the style, pacing, and perspective of this story are unlike his other two. This style was off-putting to me at first. I couldn't find the story's rhythm. It had a way of jumping around in perspective, partially introducing things in short bursts – for example like the dialogue from a chat session or a dream. It made me feel like I was missing something, and I had to force myself not to put it down all together. I stuck with it, and I am so glad. There is so much payoff in the second half of this book! Things really get good!

The Necromancer's House is totally unique and is why I think that Christopher Buehlman is one of the great horror writers of our time. He brings deep thought to the genre and is one of my favorites. I can’t wait for his next book.

The narrator, Haberkorn, did an excellent job with this book considering the style and the Russian accents. His reading definitely brought the story to life.

This is book may be an acquired taste but it is taste that will leave you craving more once it gets under your skin.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

137 Chapters?

I really want to like this book, but it was broken down into 137 chapters. Some chapters are less a minute long, some are only 5 minutes long. All these breaks in the story made it difficult to keep my attention. Soon as something is about to happen, chapter break, waiting to something else to happen, another chapter break.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

It's Similar to The Dresden Files, But Better

Pros:
The characters. They are all fully fleshed out and thus, their motivations and reasonings for their behavior is always apparent. Some not instantly, but all eventually. Also, they are all extremely interesting. It is because of these wonderful characters and the magic "system" in the book that I wish Buehlman would makes this a series.
The Magic. What more can I say other than it is the best magic system I have encountered in over 50 titles of fantasy books listened to and read the past few years; It's fun and adaptive, mysterious yet still deep, and there's so much untapped within it that it left me wanting to know more and more with every instance of it. Seriously, Buehlman has a gold mine here that I wish he would set to excavating. I feel like we were just shown a few nuggets of a vast deposit, yet to be truly tapped.
Cons:
There's not a sequel. Trilogy. Series. Whatever. I want more!

On the title to my review:
If you are familiar with Dresden, you will feel right at home here. That being said, Andrew Blankenship and his friends are way more interesting than anything ever written in a Dresden book. Most importantly, Andrew doesn't make the same stupid mistakes that Harry seems to repeat over and over again. When Andrew does screw up, it makes sense. There is a method to the madness. It's not stupidity just to push the plot along like I feel we get in the Dresden books. No, if Andrew, or Anneke screws up, it's because they probably knew better but just couldn't help themselves (based on the deeply explored and fascinating histories we have been introduced to for them); whether it be because of vanity or a hangup on a lost love that changed their life and they just can't quite get over, they make relatable, believable mistakes. Harry's screw up are more often than not mistakes that he should have avoided based on what we have been told or shown.
Lastly, the "baddies" or morally gray characters in TNH are way more nuanced and relate-able. With Dresden's antagonists, they are often black and white with little relatability, and thus believability. Perhaps it's just Dresden books are a simpler, pulpy kind of modern fantasy noir whereas here we are given a real, adult telling of modern magic users. And that's nothing against people who enjoy Dresden. Heck, I enjoy the Dresden books (after book 2 especially). But I won't for one second listen to any kind of nonsense stating that Dresden is in any way a BETTER written telling of a modern magician. Not at all. The Necromancers House is a rare gem and I truly think that if anyone out there reading this, who enjoys Dresden, will LOVE this book.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Middle of Road

You take your chances with Christopher Buehlman. You could get Between Two Fires which was horrific and masterful or you could get The Blacktongue Thief that I found so filthy as to be unreadable. The Necromancer's House is kind of a middle road - entertaining enough, suspenseful enough to keep reading, but not that engaging or creepy to be entirely satisfying. I think my biggest challenge with Buehlman as a good horror writer is that he seems to confuse gross for grotesque. A sequence that is vulgar and revolting might make me want to puke and take a shower, but won't give me goosebumps or make me afraid to turn off the lights. The Necromancer's House has its fair share of gross, but there's enough of the truly creepy to keep the story moving. Unfortunately, the story moves in fits and starts with lots of flashbacks and is rather hard to follow. Buehlman tends to make his characters a little too weird and emotionally distant to attach to (love or hate), but then this book had a brief, but wonderful section near the end of book that had me on the verge of tears. (OK, it did involve a dog which gets to me more than people do, but it was still beautifully and evocatively written so I know Buehlman can reach a reader on an emotional level when he wants to and true horror should be hitting at an emotional level.)

I normally really like narrator, Todd Haberkorn, but I was a bit disappointed in this performance. Haberkorn has a nice voice, does decent accents, and doesn't make women or children sound stupid. However, there were several passages in this book where two characters were talking and Haberkorn totally lost me. He used the same voice for both characters and after a couple of exchanges I lost track of who was speaking. In addition, he repeatedly mispronounced some words (anachronism, oxidation are just a couple examples) which always bugs me since it pulls me out of the narrative.

If you have liked Buehlman before, you'll probably like this, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Plenty of guts and gore, but not a lot of actual tension, suspense, or horror.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Creative and engaging

Would you consider the audio edition of The Necromancer's House to be better than the print version?

Having read all three of Christopher Buehlman's published horror novels now, I can say that it has been a treat following his success. I know the author from his Renaissance Faire performances and have been a huge fan of his work there for years. I have to say that this book begins much like his performance work at Faire. "Unapologetic-ally Descriptive" was what a friend of mine and I came up with when we discussed the book over a few beers when we were both finished with it. Christopher Buehlman has a knack for painting a very detailed picture with his words. And that's how he hooks you!

In addition to his descriptive prowess, he is not afraid to delve into psychology and personal stories with his characters. And in this way, side characters who may not begin as characters you care about become Very important to you throughout the story.

The narrator on this work was great overall. The pacing and performance aided in a couple of "driveway moments" for me. However, I could not give the narrator a full 5 star rating like I wanted to because he MISPRONOUNCED the author's name. How does one mispronounce an author's name that they are narrating??? I am shocked that the narrator was not asked to re-record that one piece or that another voice was not hired to provide a recording of the book credentials.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

worth a read, but not his usual quality

not as good as his other books. between two fires and lesser dead are masterworks to me. this one however had some good points but it jumped around a little two much and had some very porny bits. sex is cool but reading every detail is cringe to me.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

You won't be disappointed!!

As I've come to expect, an excellent book!! The only regret is that it's over.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • JH
  • 08-22-17

Well performed, not ideal for audio.

The reading performance was excellent. It included multiple accents and easily distinguishable male and female voices. I would definitely check out more from the reader.

I am a fan of the author's other works, and it seems like this was the hardest of his novels to adapt to audio.

Unlike "Between two fires" or "Those across the river", this story bounces around to different locations and timelines, which makes it difficult to follow in an audio version.

I love the author, and the reader was excellent. I would still, however, recommend listening to one of the author's other books first, or just physically reading this one.

Trldr...good story, good reading, but the two don't match up well.

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3 people found this helpful