The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix. I read it ages and ages ago but I remember enjoying it, and recall that the protagonist had power over dead thingies.
There's a series of Forgotten realms books set in Thay where there are several Necromancers. The books weren't great, but they weren't 'Sucky' either.
Have you read any of the Brian Lumley Necroscope books? The protagonist isn't a Necromancer per say, but he does talk with the dead. And there are a number of Necromancers throughout the books. I really liked the first three books and would highly recommend them. I got half way through the fourth and didn't finish it for some unaccountable reason. Not that it was 'Bad' but just bad timing on my part as stuff was going on in my life. I understand that the second series is supposed to be good as well.
Technically I'm the protagonist of my own life. Does that count?
Oh, also Hexan 2 I guess but that was a FPS with almost no story to speak of. He didn't even raise dead in that. I guess Diablo 2 also counts. If you're looking for something heavily story based I have nothing.
The manga Death Note is kiiiinda about necromancy. Magically snuffing out people's lives falls under the purview of necromancy I suppose.
Oh, and I haven't really read most of these so they could be crap, but here's a list from goodreads with reviews from readers where you may find something.
Both the novel and anime of "Overlord" has a lich as protagonist. Might be worth to check it out.
"Sankarea" is about a guy who loves zombies and even revives his pet cat with some sort of raise dead medicine. The manga dwells deeper into the darker zombie aspects than its anime counterpart though.
The manga "Franken Fran" is pretty close to medical necromancy. Involving a lot of strange operations, questionable ethics like combining people or raising the dead through science. Amongst many other things straight out of a horror movie. Not for the weak of heart, but still filled with a good amount of dark humour.
Other than that, you always got Goethe's Faust :P Though I never got around to read that one, so I don't know how much necromancy is actually in there.
Sabriel/Liriel/Abhorsen by Garth Nix, Reggie Lee Byers writes a series in the Forgotten Realms set in Thay where Szass Tam, the Zulkir of Necromancy, is a major character (with parts written from his POV) Undead/Unclean/Unholy. Maria V. Snyder also wrote a series with a Healer who dies and gains power over the dead through poisons/nectars she finds in two different flowers: Peace Lilies and Death Lilies. Her opponent also has power over the dead and raises an army of the dead to conquer the twelve Kingdoms. Touch of Power/Scent of Magic/Taste of Darkness, is the series.
L.G. Estrella has a series about a Necromancer who starts out evil and has to work for Good after his latest creation tries to eat him and he wants to leave the life. Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat and an Elf/Two Necromancers, an Army of Gnomes and a Demon Lord being the two I am aware of (and the Necromancer is named "Timmy"…) He also wrote one called "The Gunslinger and the Necromancer" which is first in a new series- all of these are Kindle books.
There is a book series by Lilith Saintcrow whose protagonist has powers over the dead. It's set in the modern day/near future in an Earth which isn't ours. Dante Valentine has powers over the dead, and is just one kind of magician in a world where many people have some kind of magical powers. This is a five book series: Working for the Devil/Dead Man Rising/The Devil's Right Hand/Saint City Sinners/To Hell and Back. There is another series starring the ex-prostitute Jill Kismet who has many of the same powers as Dante, and is set in a different part of the same world, but it's a very inferior series to the first one.
Another set in the more modern day is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. She starts out as a simple (but very powerful) animator, someone who can raise the dead out of their graves. But as the series goes on, she gets more and more powerful, and ends up even being able to control vampires. Beware that this series is very adult and erotic- as much or more time following Anita's love life as they do her adventures in later books. The first book is called Guilty Pleasures, and I picked it up based on the first lines on the back of the book. "I'm the Executioner. I don't date vampires. I kill them."
That's all I remember off the top of my head, but I am sure there are more. If I remember any more, I'll pass them on.
Reggie Lee Byers writes a series in the Forgotten Realms set in Thay where Szass Tam, the Zulkir of Necromancy, is a major character (with parts written from his POV) Undead/Unclean/Unholy.
That was the name of the one I mentioned earlier. It was a decent read. Thanks for having/finding the name.
It occurred to me that a lot of what HP Lovecraft wrote about would probably qualify. If not 'Strictly' necromancy there's a lot of dark rituals and piles of skulls and bones. HP is hands down one of my favorite writers. I don't like the man personally, nor some of the ideas he stood for, but his horror writing is AWESOME.
Brian Lumley's Necroscope - main hero of most books is a necroscope (Something like that. I did not read in in English) - someone, who can speak to dead people and learn from them. I believe they can also enter his body and move him in the first book, if he allows them to.
Furthermore, there was a book in Diablo (Blizzard's Diablo) setting, where a pretty female necromancer was one of the main heroes (a good necromancer, named Kara) - http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Blood
Penny Dreadful has Dr Frankenstein and he is the necromancer of science. His monster is a far interesting character than he is and the show is amazing overall so maybe give it a look if you like Victorian London filled with supernatural things.
As to games, @Vallmyr , you might enjoy the Necromancer campaign in Might and Magic Heroes 6. In the world of Ashan, necromancers are not necessarily considered evil. They're more like gatekeepers and mediums between the living world and the world of the dead. Sometimes they sentence murderers to be bound to ghoul bodies, or sometimes they communicate with ghosts to help them find peace, in return for fighting for a cause, and that kind of thing.
Even vampires and liches can serve good. The undead state itself is governed by the "dragon" (read "god") of death, Asha, and is considered neutral. It only becomes good or evil according to the uses of it by either the free-willed undead (ghosts, vampires, liches) or the necromancer who controls the unconscious, bound undead (skeletons, ghouls, zombies).
This is expressed in the gameplay of Might and Magic Heroes 6 though the list of necromancer heroes. Most but not all of the necromancers are themselves some form of free-willed undead.
The main hero of the necropolis campaign is Anastasya, the daughter of Duke Slava. Duke Slava has five children (including one bastard) who are the heroes of the various campaigns and factions. Anastasya, while still alive as a young woman, is forced to murder her own father, Duke Slava, right in front of the emperor and the entire ruling council at a public ceremony, through mind control by an unknown source.
She is tortured by the Inquisition to "purify her corrupt soul", until her brother Anton, the hero of the Haven campaign, puts an end to it with a quick, merciful death at his own hand, against the wishes of both the emperor and the archangel Michael.
Anastasya is then raised from the dead into undeath by her aunt Sveltana, the sister of Duke Slava. (Sveltana practices necromancy openly and has a title as the official court necromancer of the Holy Griffin Empire.)
Sveltana teaches Anastasya to wield necromantic magic, and Anastasya then begins to investigate and wage war on the Inquisition using her undead armies.
That's the backstory for the beginning of the campaign.
Anyway, I thought you might enjoy knowing about it.
The video for the last part of the backstory I just shared with you is at :10 in this Let's Play of the Necro campaign. If you have time to watch more of it, it will give you an idea of how the game plays.
@Valmyr , I have been playing Might and Magic 8. I think you might like that game, since you can start as a Necromancer, recruit vampires, minotaurs, trolls, and dragons, and get involved with a war between the Necromancers' Guild and the "Church of the Sun".
Necromancy is definitely not considered evil by default in MM8. The "knights" and "clerics of the sun" factions are implied to be Crusades and Inquisition like enemies of good who only "think" that they're good, while clearly serving evil to anyone with a true moral compass. The "good" factions in MM8 are mostly out to enforce a monolithic and unilateral vision of "good" for the world.
The real threat in the game story is absolutely neutral in the most absolute sense of Lovecraftian neutral, such that the player must decide how best to face that threat, including the possibility that the player will make war against the "knights" on behalf of the dragons, or on behalf of the "necromancers" against the "clerics of the sun", in order to face that threat.
If you can get past the primitive graphics and controls, I think you might very much enjoy playing a necromancer Charname in Might and Magic 8.
Well, I made it through Pool of Radiance so I should be able to make it through anything I think XD. I'll definitely give it a try. Probably right now. /goes to look for it on GoG.
Comments
Have you read any of the Brian Lumley Necroscope books? The protagonist isn't a Necromancer per say, but he does talk with the dead. And there are a number of Necromancers throughout the books. I really liked the first three books and would highly recommend them. I got half way through the fourth and didn't finish it for some unaccountable reason. Not that it was 'Bad' but just bad timing on my part as stuff was going on in my life. I understand that the second series is supposed to be good as well.
Oh, also Hexan 2 I guess but that was a FPS with almost no story to speak of. He didn't even raise dead in that. I guess Diablo 2 also counts. If you're looking for something heavily story based I have nothing.
Oh, and I haven't really read most of these so they could be crap, but here's a list from goodreads with reviews from readers where you may find something.
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/necromancers
"Sankarea" is about a guy who loves zombies and even revives his pet cat with some sort of raise dead medicine. The manga dwells deeper into the darker zombie aspects than its anime counterpart though.
The manga "Franken Fran" is pretty close to medical necromancy. Involving a lot of strange operations, questionable ethics like combining people or raising the dead through science. Amongst many other things straight out of a horror movie. Not for the weak of heart, but still filled with a good amount of dark humour.
http://epantiras.deviantart.com/gallery/10572556/Ask-the-Betrayer-parody-comic
Other than that, you always got Goethe's Faust :P
Though I never got around to read that one, so I don't know how much necromancy is actually in there.
L.G. Estrella has a series about a Necromancer who starts out evil and has to work for Good after his latest creation tries to eat him and he wants to leave the life. Two Necromancers, a Bureaucrat and an Elf/Two Necromancers, an Army of Gnomes and a Demon Lord being the two I am aware of (and the Necromancer is named "Timmy"…) He also wrote one called "The Gunslinger and the Necromancer" which is first in a new series- all of these are Kindle books.
There is a book series by Lilith Saintcrow whose protagonist has powers over the dead. It's set in the modern day/near future in an Earth which isn't ours. Dante Valentine has powers over the dead, and is just one kind of magician in a world where many people have some kind of magical powers. This is a five book series: Working for the Devil/Dead Man Rising/The Devil's Right Hand/Saint City Sinners/To Hell and Back. There is another series starring the ex-prostitute Jill Kismet who has many of the same powers as Dante, and is set in a different part of the same world, but it's a very inferior series to the first one.
Another set in the more modern day is the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. She starts out as a simple (but very powerful) animator, someone who can raise the dead out of their graves. But as the series goes on, she gets more and more powerful, and ends up even being able to control vampires. Beware that this series is very adult and erotic- as much or more time following Anita's love life as they do her adventures in later books. The first book is called Guilty Pleasures, and I picked it up based on the first lines on the back of the book. "I'm the Executioner. I don't date vampires. I kill them."
That's all I remember off the top of my head, but I am sure there are more. If I remember any more, I'll pass them on.
It occurred to me that a lot of what HP Lovecraft wrote about would probably qualify. If not 'Strictly' necromancy there's a lot of dark rituals and piles of skulls and bones. HP is hands down one of my favorite writers. I don't like the man personally, nor some of the ideas he stood for, but his horror writing is AWESOME.
Furthermore, there was a book in Diablo (Blizzard's Diablo) setting, where a pretty female necromancer was one of the main heroes (a good necromancer, named Kara) - http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Blood
Even vampires and liches can serve good. The undead state itself is governed by the "dragon" (read "god") of death, Asha, and is considered neutral. It only becomes good or evil according to the uses of it by either the free-willed undead (ghosts, vampires, liches) or the necromancer who controls the unconscious, bound undead (skeletons, ghouls, zombies).
This is expressed in the gameplay of Might and Magic Heroes 6 though the list of necromancer heroes. Most but not all of the necromancers are themselves some form of free-willed undead.
The main hero of the necropolis campaign is Anastasya, the daughter of Duke Slava. Duke Slava has five children (including one bastard) who are the heroes of the various campaigns and factions. Anastasya, while still alive as a young woman, is forced to murder her own father, Duke Slava, right in front of the emperor and the entire ruling council at a public ceremony, through mind control by an unknown source.
She is tortured by the Inquisition to "purify her corrupt soul", until her brother Anton, the hero of the Haven campaign, puts an end to it with a quick, merciful death at his own hand, against the wishes of both the emperor and the archangel Michael.
Anastasya is then raised from the dead into undeath by her aunt Sveltana, the sister of Duke Slava. (Sveltana practices necromancy openly and has a title as the official court necromancer of the Holy Griffin Empire.)
Sveltana teaches Anastasya to wield necromantic magic, and Anastasya then begins to investigate and wage war on the Inquisition using her undead armies.
That's the backstory for the beginning of the campaign.
Anyway, I thought you might enjoy knowing about it.
The video for the last part of the backstory I just shared with you is at :10 in this Let's Play of the Necro campaign. If you have time to watch more of it, it will give you an idea of how the game plays.
Well then.
Thank you! XD
Necromancy is definitely not considered evil by default in MM8. The "knights" and "clerics of the sun" factions are implied to be Crusades and Inquisition like enemies of good who only "think" that they're good, while clearly serving evil to anyone with a true moral compass. The "good" factions in MM8 are mostly out to enforce a monolithic and unilateral vision of "good" for the world.
The real threat in the game story is absolutely neutral in the most absolute sense of Lovecraftian neutral, such that the player must decide how best to face that threat, including the possibility that the player will make war against the "knights" on behalf of the dragons, or on behalf of the "necromancers" against the "clerics of the sun", in order to face that threat.
If you can get past the primitive graphics and controls, I think you might very much enjoy playing a necromancer Charname in Might and Magic 8.
I'll definitely give it a try.
Probably right now.
/goes to look for it on GoG.