Donald Tyson, Alhazred. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2006. ISBN: 9780738708928.
The book starts pretty strong, As a young man, Alhazred is an adopted prince. When he is caught having an affair with the king's princess, the king tortures, castrates him, and then leaves him to die in the desert. Disfigured, Alhazred manages to survive. From there, he does anything necessary to survive, becoming a necromancer along the way in the hope of restoring himself.
Necronomicon was a relatively fun to read book and interesting at times. Alhazred after a few chapters just goes off the rails. After a while, the story just keeps meandering and going on and on. . . and on and then on further. I speculate the author lacked a good editor to help him cut out some of the filler. This book does feel like it has a lot of filler. Alhazred is an interesting character, and his dive into necromancy and dark magic could be a good story. However, the novel's length and meandering just gets tiring.
I read this book also because I have Tyson's Necronomicon Tarot deck, which I hope to use soon. I'd say you can likely read the book Necronomicon, and skip Alhazred unless you are a completist. The Tarot deck does have a good companion book if you want to dive in.
Overall, this is a book I do not recommend. I would consider it highly optional. Tyson has written other Necronomicon works, and I may try to read them down the road, but I am no rush to do so.
1.5 out of 5 stars.
This book qualifies for the following 2026 Reading Challenge:
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