- If you were to ask Jim Harris where he is at this very moment, he would not answer you. Not out of rudeness, but there are only two ways you can ask him.
One would be asking his corpse. Corpses are generally not obliged to answer, and Jim is no exception.
Two would be asking his soul. And his soul doesn’t know where he is.
- Knights of Jebalot Chapter One: And We'll Do the Paperwork
Knights of Jebalot is a completed Science Fantasy web novel published from March 25, 2023 to August 6, 2023 and written by Connor Farrell.
The plot follows several characters as The End Of The World unfolds in the small town of Hilston, Florida. Notable plot threads include:
- James and Axel, Reapers from the Afterlife Office, are on the hunt for a runaway soul. It’s a standard job, but as the target shrugs off their every attack, they realize something is wrong.
- Chris and Ally, supers-in-training, flee their high school under attack by Drones to find those who sent them.
- Adam Westchoke and Jess Lee, having escaped a mind control prison where they believed themselves to be office workers, seek to save their co-workers from their former boss, Mara.
- Jebbie prepares to host a new episode of his Talk Show, dodging the efforts of his producer Jennifer to get him to take responsibility, and the five-hundred-year-old wizard Paylor to get him to take up a mystical destiny.
- Rose Silverson is on a quest for vengeance, but she finds her target to be harder to kill than she anticipated, and involved in something bigger than she could have ever imagined.
All parties converge on the two-square-mile town of Hilston, their problems more interconnected than they realize and the danger greater than anything they’ve ever faced.
Based on the concepts and characters from short films created by Digital Video Technology Class of 2020 at Suncoast Technical College in Sarasota, FL. While not required viewing, they can provide a fun bonus.
This novel contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Girl: A fair few. Jess the cyborg, Rose the gun-toting vigilante, Ally the super-screamer, among others.
- Adaptational Badass: By virtue of being filmed by high schoolers, in the original films the characters don't do a whole lot. In this book, wow!
- Special mention to Rose, who goes from Innocent Bystander who watches her boyfriend get killed to badass gun-wielding vigilante.
- Assassins Are Always Betrayed: The Crew is attacked by the Devourer of Souls, killing Frank and Rye and turning Clem into one of the Soulless.
- Badass Normal: Adam is just a normal office worker, fighting against soulless killers and dating a cyborg. But he was the first person to escape Mara's office, and fought off Drones for a year.
- Same goes for Jennifer.
- And Rose.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: The Afterlife Office. Upon death, a human soul is brough before a Clerk, which weighs its moral life and sends it to the Paradise Suites, Hell Floors, or the Reaper Office.
- The Chosen One: Jebbie is the only one who can wield the mystical sword Bababaluga and save the world. Except, not quite.
- Deader than Dead: Those killed by Drones and the Devourer of Souls are, well, devoured. Even the Afterlife Office, which is supposed to keep track of souls, completely misses this.
- Defends Against Their Own Kind: Alluded to by Mara, Liam was seemingly the only Soulless who was able to defect against the Devourer of Souls, passing on crucial information to Paylor. Because of this, he was killed.
- Dirty Coward: Chris feels he is this, running away from the Institute while it's attacked by Drones. Ally calls him out, but eventually realized he was right.
- Distressed Dude: Adam is shot and kidnapped by Jacob.
- The Dragon: Jacob to Mara, and Mara to the Devourer of Souls.
- Jacob turns Clem into a Soulless to be this to him.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Devourer of Souls, a being older than humanity that feeds on souls and creates obedient soldiers out of the husks.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Jebbie after unlocking the power of Bababaluga.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The ultimate plan of The Devourer of Souls.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mara and Axel. Jacob and Rose, in his own twisted way.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: We have wizards, robots, superheroes, and ghosts running around. And that's just getting started.
- Fiery Redhead: Ally.
- For the Evulz: Fagan. Just... Fagan.
- The Grim Reaper: Or, multiple Reapers. If a soul damned to Hell decides otherwise, they can volunteer to work time off their sentence by becoming a reaper to find runaway souls and bring them to the Afterlife Office. Or volunteer, in Axel's case.
- Healing Factor: All the Soulless have the ability to regenerate their wounds, because their souls are being manipulated by the Devourer of Souls.
- Hired Guns: Clem, Frank, and Rye, "The Crew", who specialize in hunting down supers.
- Lemony Narrator: See the page quote for the opening line.
- The Man Behind the Man: The Devourer of Souls to Mara.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Jim's death at the Janitor's hands leads Axel and James to discover a large plot involving soul manipulation and the end of the world.
- Medieval European Fantasy: Paylor hails from Jebalot, which is basically this in an Arthurian sense. King Jebbie is Arthur, and Paylor is Merlin.
- More than Mind Control: What the Devourer of Souls does to its minions. After Clem is converted, she thinks:Thoughts race through Clementine’s head. She should flee. She should find her teammates. She shouldn’t be here.Another voice steamrolls the first, and it sounds like hers. This Devourer of Souls chose her. Before this interaction, she was hunting supers for money. And she wasn’t that good at it, either. What’s the point of anything if you’re not exceptional at it? This thought repeats in her head, like Friday on a loop. At least now, she can put those skills toward a better purpose.“Is there something I can do?” Clementine asks.
- Redemption Equals Death: Mara frees Adam and passes on vital information to Adam before being killed by the Devourer of Souls.
- Old Flame: Axel and Mara.
- Older Than They Look: Paylor looks like he's in his teens. He's five hundred years old.
- Playing with Fire: Chris and Ally mention their friend Aidan, who has the ability to shoot fire from his hands. When the Devourer takes his soul, it gets this ability too.
- Ridiculously Long-lived Family Name: Jebbie shares the same name as his ancestor from a thousand years ago, King Jebbie of Jebalot.
- Precision F-Strike: Ally drops the only F-bomb after seeing Jacob standing with a bullet hole through the head.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Devourer is ultimately defeated by being stuffed into one of its own soul canisters and thrust into an interdimensional void.
- Socially Awkward Hero: James. He gets harassed by his co-workers and constantly reveals private information about the Afterlife to the living, much to Axel's annoyance.
- Soul Jar: When a Drone kills someone, it draws their soul into itself, causing white light to shoot from their eyes and mouths.
- The Starscream: Jacob actively yearns for Mara's downfall, to the point that he offers to spare Adam if he'll join his side and turns Clem into a Soulless for this reason.
- Super-Scream: This is Ally's ability, used to great effect to decimate the front of a school.
- Superhero School: The Institute is a high school dedicated to training kids with superpowers.
