Read in 2020 (part 3)

 At the end of the year I also rushed through a few novella-length books, and among these was the Soul Drinkers Novella Daenyathos.

This one had been on my shelves for quite some time, since 2013 I think when the Soul Drinkers' new omnibi editions came out, but which books I both somehow missed out on, despite actually getting the separate hardback novella, which is just bloody typical isn't it?
The Soul Drinkers series of books concerns a space marine chapter which, despite remaining loyal to the Emperor, slowly succumbs to corruption and mutation. I remember the books being hugely entertaining, visceral and as creatively gruesome and imaginative as only Ben Counter could make them. The gist of the overarching plot is that the longer the series progresses, the more mutation crops up in the characters and the more their fall to Chaos becomes, or seems to become, inevitable. But despite this, these mutations and indications of corruption, for instance; their chapter-master losing his legs and growing spider legs in place, the Soul Drinkers remain a force loyal to Terra.
I have only read the first three novels, because when the omnibis for books 4,5 and 6 came out ( yes, TWO different omnibi's of books 4,5 and 6) they were pretty much immediately sold out, because Games Workshop is stupid and prefers to stifle its production to drive up the price, and so I actually never got to finish reading the series. And though I got the Daenyathos novella at that time, it seemed stupid to me to actually go read that when I couldn't finish reading the entire saga.
But stupid or not I've finished it now, and despite having become quite vague on the details of the rest of the series, I still actually enjoyed doing so. The novella's main draw is that it follows, shockingly, Daenyathos on his journey to entombment in a Dreadnought, with several shocking revelations along the way. It's quite action-packed but also frequently ruminative and though I was satisfied, I do wish I had read the damn thing right along with the rest of the series.

Another (very) short one was George RR Martin's The Ice Dragon, which technically speaking is more of a short story than anything else, but which, given the man's popularity at a certain point, was published a few years ago all on its own in a ridiculously lavish edition, wraparound dustjacket, internal artwork and all. It's a fairy tale set in the world of Ice and Fire and it's decent, though quite a little bit too short to warrant a standalone edition. 

The plot follows a young girl who has more in common with creatures of ice than anything warm-blooded, and so when an Ice Dragon shows up (I mean, my God, what a surprise, right?) she begins to spend more and more time away from her family and more with the alien creature. But war looms on the horizon, and the girl's Ice Dragon isn't the only dragon in the skies. The ending is quite poignant, unexpected, and very good. It's a real addition to the world, not feeling out of place and yet retaining enough "alien-ness" to set it apart from the main series.

I'd been a fan of 2000AD's Tales of Telguuth comics and I picked up this short story collection as soon as I knew it existed. Both comics and the writings here were written by Steve Moore, a long-time friend of Alan Moore (though not a relation).

Despite the change in format, from comics to prose, the tales here genuinely 'feel' like the world we've come to know in the Telguuth comics, and that's because it's really Moore's writing the brought it all to life. Again we're treated to beautiful, lyrical prose, gorgeous naming, both hilarious, heartfelt and horrific stories, with memorable pro and antagonists and a feeling that you're in one of the most vibrant creations in fiction. It's a shame there's so little of it, but I recommend anyone, those lovers of the English language at least, to seek out these perfect stories. A joy to read out loud.

Lastly, there's a few novels here that I feel I should be writing a whole lot more about, and they should at least have been giving their own posts. But as writing is really something that I'm having severe difficulties with these days, this is better than nothing.

The Tooth Fairy is the last of the Terror 8 I still needed to read, and it ended up being quite a different story than I was expecting. It was a disturbing and at times rather an uncomfortable reading experience, but with the uneasiness coming from real life elements, rather than from the horror-trappings I was expecting. The Tooth Fairy is essentially a coming-of-age story dressed in dark fantasy clothing. It's a very sexually charged story, and though it never gets as ill-conceived as some of those sections from Stephen King's It, there's nevertheless some strange stuff in here. It might be better than King's novel, but only barely. Summer of Night is still the best one in this genre.

Next up, another novel that I should've given more attention to, but that for more reasons than usual I don't. 

The Dragon Waiting is one of the novels of Gollancz's Fantasy Masterworks line and should really get its own post, exploring various aspects of the story, or an in-depth exploration of something that caught my attention or whatever, but both my disinterest on writing in general (for the moment) and my opinions concerning this book in particular have conspired to make me abstain from writing anything at all. You see, despite it being highly regarded by the literary world at large, and regardless of it being a beloved favourite by anyone who's read it, I don't actually think The Dragon Waiting is all that good.

Even though, yes, of course, it is.

But it certainly isn't a Masterwork. It meanders all over the place,  Hell, it isn't even conclusive, the story ends, or rather it doesn't, and instead sets itself up for a sequel. But there isn't one.

It does things masterfully well though: the characters, the time period... hell, even the feel of the whole thing is genuinely unique; from roman, to the celtic, to the dark ages, the periods that it visits all feel authentic, but despite everything that it does right one can't help but feel that there should be more.

By and large the Dragon Waiting feels woefully incomplete; you can not help but feel, and wishing that there was more to come. Alas.

Lastly, this awesome set of books.

Part horror, part sci-fi and fantasy, the Coldfire trilogy is a brilliant piece of fiction.

 It has a heavy focus on religion, an engaging world and memorable characters.

If there's one thing I didn't like about it, then it is the ending, which was just a bit too wishful for me. Most other people would be more than fine with it I guess, but for me the ending kind of undercut the gravity of the sacrifices made along the way.