BOOK REVIEW: BEL, THE LAST DRAGON: JUNGLES OF HABBIEL BY JOHN BALTISBERGER

7/6/2022

Over the last few years, John Baltisberger has been a busy dude. I’m not gonna list everything he’s done in this intro because that would make for a pretty clunky start, but whether he’s writing, publishing, podcasting, or playtesting, he’s constantly adding cool shit to the worlds of genre fiction, splatterpunk, and Jewish literature. His own fiction runs the gamut from kaiju to poetry and from splatterpunk to pulpy revenge thrillers and works inspired by Jewish mythology. His latest, Bel, The Last Dragon: Jungles of Habbiel is another splattery, pulpy, testament to his creativity and versatility.

To be clear, Bel, The Last Dragon: Jungles of Habbiel, isn’t technically a horror book. Sure, it’s got horrific elements, including some seriously grisly scenes of death and destruction, but it’s more akin to fantasy than horror. Baltisberger himself refers to it as Splatterpulp and says it’s part of the same series as War of Dictates.

Distinctions aside, though, this is a hell of a lot of fun. Populated by angels, demons, dragons, satyrs, succubi, and loads more awesome creatures, this book wastes no time getting us into the thick of things. If you’ve followed any of Baltisberger’s Wandering Monster podcast, you’ll know he loves his tabletop roleplaying games, and this book has that feel right from the start.

The protagonist, Bel, like all good dragons, has been asleep for quite some time. And yes, Bel is a dragon, a shapeshifting dragon who’s most frequently in human form, but who is quite capable of spitting fire and making meals of his enemies – which he does! He’s also a famed warrior from The War of Dictates, and you’d better believe he’s going to put his ass-kicking skills to good use. As mentioned before, this book is good fun in all the best ways.

Once Baltisberger has built some pathos, introduced some more of his trademark characters, and allowed Bel to experience the joy of a hot dog, he sets his protagonist up with a party of fellow adventurers and a spicy little quest into the jungles of Habbiel. At this point, you should know that Baltisberger infuses all of this with a tremendous amount of lore, but it’s delivered in such a succinct way that the story doesn’t bog down. One of the complaints I’ve often had with fantasy is that between set pieces, there can be novella-length passages of exposition. This book doesn’t have that problem.

Instead, we’re allowed to feel our way through the world without needing to know the history of every tree or have some weird gumboot-wearing hermit sing us songs. Baltisberger eschews those tropes and focuses on moving his plot forward while drip-feeding us what we need to know. As a result, even though this was my first visit to the War of Dictates series, I never felt lost, and that’s the mark of a good writer. The characters speak for themselves, and so does the lore.

Once the quest is firmly underway, there are gruesome battle scenes, epic action, a fight of truly inhuman proportions, some of the authors trademark brutality, a touch of humour, and even a love (lust) story. Throughout this, we learn the scale of how much Bel has lost during his slumber. In turn, we can’t help but take great joy when he violently takes his frustrations out on his enemies in creative ways.

In summary, this is a delightfully grisly and gruesome fantasy novella that trims the fat from the genre and delivers on its promise to leave the reader with a splattery, pulpy tale about a famed hero getting back into the business of destroying those who’ve wronged him and his people.

It’s good stuff. Bring on the next one.

Bel, The Last Dragon: Jungles of Habbiel
by John Baltisberger

In 1865, Bel, in the service of Ashmandai and Lillith, fell in battle to one of the Grigori.

Nearly 200 years later, Bel has awoken to find that his people, the mighty Dragons of the Sheydim, are long dead, casualties in the War of Dictates.

Mind set on revenge, the last dragon ventures to a world hidden in mists to confront the fallen angel Habbiel and tear apart their empire in glorious violence and bloodshed.

"John Baltisberger nails another foray into the cosmic horror and epic fantasy realms with this one." --Nikolas P. Robinson, Author of May Cause Occular Bleeding

Zachary Ashford

Zachary Ashford is an Australian educator, a freelance writer, and the Aurealis Award-nominated author of When the Cicadas Stop Singing from Horrific Tales. He spends long periods of time surrounded by horror merch, listening to metal and conjuring Australian horror stories that represent our themes of isolation and conflict with a hostile environment.