So, this is my review of Bastion and let me just say up front that I absolutely LOVED this book! To an almost irrational degree. I am about to spend the next several hundred words describing and gushing about how much I love love love everything this book does and how everything worked and resonated with me. So, I will be talking about the Plot, Characters, world building, and action/magic system. (WARNING THIS POST IS VERY LONG) PLOT: I have so much to say that I don’t even know where to begin. Let me start off by saying I am a plot over character reader. I think I am in the minority but I do not care about characters in general, in that a bad or good character doesn’t make or break a story for me normally. To the point that I actively hate the term “Character Development” when using it to describe why someone does or doesn’t like a book. I say this to say that the plot of this book really worked for me. One of the biggest critiques I heard about this book before I picked it up is how the first 400 pages are notoriously slow and that it only gets good after that. I want to say up front how much I vehemently disagree with that statement. To the point I thought I was reading a different book from everyone else. From the moment Scorio opened his eyes on that first Bier I was hooked. The progression elements were really interesting with the black seed plants, his learning about the city, navigating the ruins and its monster,his brief stint as a criminal and all the training with Naomi. I was very happy Scorio didn’t go straight to the academy, I personally have always hated any school setting in my stories(from an overabundance of it in anime growing up) so the most interesting parts were when he was in the final door and then the ruins. Which is why I’m also super happy he chose not to return to the academy at the end, it makes me that much more excited for the next book The stuff with the gauntlet run from the beginning to the end was always so engaging for me each and every time they did it. By the end I just wanted to see the new creative rooms and just how far they would get. I was not disappointed with those last 100 pages in the gauntlet.
Though I admit when Imogen attacked and the story took a crazy exciting turn I was drawn in completely immersed in what was going to happen, how they were going to survive and just the imparators as a whole.
One of the most important things this book did was the level of intrigue and attention grabbing tactics it stuffed in this book. From the different advancement lvls, the different parts of Hell, the past lives of the great souls, the lore we got sprinkled in about the past 1000 years and all the great souls who’ve come and gone, and a small glimpse of the overall goal and threat of the pit and hell. The incredible awe inspiring, goose bump inducing ending! The warnings made by past Scorio to not trust no one was so tantalizing that I could taste it. Them forming a band at the end to travel together immediately made me love everyone there. Just SO SO SO many different components that I can't wait to see explored and developed. It honestly makes my head spin with everything coming and I just pray that we get to see 10 huge books like this one come out over the next decade.
CHARACTERS:
Like I said above I am not normally a character reader but I loved almost every character and have something to say about almost all of them.
Scorio: The man of miracles himself, the badass on the cover, the epitome of everything I love about fantasy. Little known fact; I didn’t like Lindon from the Cradle series for the first 3 books(he grew on me eventually tho). Rei from Iron Prince I didn’t have any particular feelings towards at all, he was fine but he just served his purpose the protagonist well enough. None of this was the case for Scorio though. I absolutely loved the man from the start, his personality just felt so realistic. Not the paragon of morality that so many protagonists are but a person who can be selfish, obsessive, quick to anger, brash, a little pig headed but also determined, clever, loyal, able to acknowledge his faults and sincerely work to try to be better. I empathize so much with his journey through this book. Even when he was getting obsessive about the 2nd academy's gauntlet run and was scaring everyone with his selfish pursuit to get stronger I couldn’t help but still root for him no matter how crazy it was. When he made tomb spark and he came to that realization that his past is his responsibility, it was so profound with such depth that it literally brought a tear to my eye. I can’t wait to see how he grows and develops from here on out.
Naomi: You know what's crazy? She actually reminds me a lot of Vin from Mistborn. The difference is I hated Vin but I love Naomi. I think the biggest difference is because we didn’t spend as much time in Naomi's head as opposed to Vin, it was a less is more situation. Other than that I liked her stubbornness, her awkwardness, her badassery and just her general role in the story. She’s adorable and I can’t wait to see more from her. In fact, my theory is that she’ll be the one to become the Infarnach to save everyone by the end of the series. If I’m right please remember you read it here first.
Leonis: This man was hilarious, every speech, every joke, every teasing of Lianshi and every epic “Golden King moment” was memorable. He actually might be my favorite character(aside from Nox obviously). I just want him to succeed in everything he does. I have the sneaking suspicion that he’ll be left behind by Scorio and Lianshi at some point, I hope that doesn’t happen and he stays around.
Lianshi: She is definitely the heart of the group. Without her I honestly don’t think the rest of them could function. I especially like her lil mini arc about her past and juniper. Sometimes I felt like she cared more about Scorio than he really deserved but that just says something about how amazing of a person she is.
Praximor: I loved how much I hated him. He was an unique antagonist because I felt completely helpless against him. I knew there was nothing Scorio and his friends could do against a Pyre lord no matter how desperate they or the situation got. Most other series you kind of know that the villain will get their comeuppance by the end but we knew that wasn’t going to happen to him, at least not in this book. But the ending was super satisfying to see him shut up and looking like an idiot. I smiled so hard.I hope later on Scorio comes back and whoops him up and down those academy hallways.
I really grew a fondness for Jova and her friends at the end. It didn’t take much but I like their group and I can’t wait to see more of Juniper and Zala too!
WORLD BUILDING:
Now when I tell you the city of Bastion and Hell itself is one of the most unique and bizarre worlds I've ever been in. Please believe that I do not say that lightly, I have been reading Manga and watching anime for 17 years. I love this world. I really hope each book (apparently a 10 book series I hope) takes place in a new location with its own fauna and fiends. Made in Abyss is a manga/anime series that does something similar and I love that aspect of it.
The idea of reincarnation, past lives, epic heroes that tied their soul to some all powerful system that governs the world is so epic and cool. It reminds me of how it works in the servants from the Natsu verse from Fate Stay night/unlimited bladework. It’s a mechanic that I think is utilized to its full potential here with so much room to explore and evolve.
I am crazy interested in seeing the history behind each and every Great Soul and why they decided to go to hell. I can’t wait to delve deeper into Scorio's and friends' past and even Jova Pike. I also wonder if we’ll get to see Scorio’s 6 other incarnations lives. Imogen said once they reach Imperator you get to see all the memories of your past lives, so I can’t wait for that.
There were also a lot of mentions of organizations, factions, towns, locations from hell and on their original planet that I find so fascinating. WTF are the Herdsmen?? I don't know what they are but they’re my favorite thing in the world now, No I will not elaborate.
The creatures in this book are all the stuff of nightmares. I was genuinely scared of that purple monster that chased Scorio through the bronze door when he had to hide in that crack in the wall and that he fought later. They also all have a majestic and natural feel to them, like they're supposed to be there and the humans aren’t. It's fascinating. Nox is my spirit animal now in case you were wondering. In those are only the ones we saw ourselves. There are still crazy creative creatures like The living mountain Cazador, The Dying Dreamer and his white knights, The winged Plinth, and the Viridian Heart. I don’t know what exactly they are but just their descriptions alone had mereally excited
ACTION/MAGIC:
Now this is the most exciting part of everything for me. Like I keep mentioning, I grew up reading manga and watching anime, specifically shonen. I loooooove action and a good magic system. In fact I would go so far as to say most of the reason I read these progression fantasy books is because I ran out of cool action manga to read. So action is a very big deal to me. In fact I posted a question on reddit a couple months ago asking for a very specific type of magic system and action long before I ever heard of this book. It was like Phil Tucker saw that and decided to create a whole series just to grant my wish. The reddit post in question: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionF...
Mana: This is an aspect I can’t say I’ve seen explored before. Of course, I’ve heard the term mana used plenty of times but the idea of different mana types existing at the same time with various effects and characteristics. The fact that each mana type has its own specific roles in the advancement of great souls is crucial to the way I view the advancement. I think it is done better than even series like Cradle, where the quality of the mana (aura in cradles case) itself influences the upper levels just as much as the quantity and implementation of it. It just adds a different dimension to the whole thing.
Ingenious heart: I’m really curious on how Mr. Tucker came up with the idea of Igniting. It feels so organic and badass Having to change the depth, size and reservoir. I can’t wait to see all the tricks of the upper lvls with their heart. My guess is at one point you’re going to be able to open your heart completely and ignite the mana around you even as it flows toward you.
Specific abilities: Now this is the most fun aspect for me. For some reason fantasy novels have a habit of having a magic system that either is just a bunch of vague unexplained spells that anyone could use(Harry potter, malazan) or being one where everyone just does the same thing to various degrees of skill (Mistborn, Rage of Dragons), both of which I find so boring but is something I’ve don’t normally come across in manga. A lot of Shonen manga, The Cradle series, Storm light Archive and now Bastion don’t do this. Instead, they focus on individual abilities that are still grounded by fundamental rules and laws that govern the base lvl powers. It's more fun because it allows for more creative fights and solutions as we see how the different abilities interact with each other while still keeping power and skill as a primary factor. Again, this is exactly what my reddit post was asking for. Scorio’s form and Imogens’ shadow ability and that one character who could cause chunks of the ground to circle around her and explode in white flame to protect her are all my favorite abilities so far.
Trials: The trials are both confusing and enticing to me. Confusing cause I don’t quite understand the implication that you can make different decisions to get different abilities but only one is the actual thing they did in the past. It’s enticing because of all that I just said and the fact that it helps them learn about their past while helping them advance. It's so wonderfully complex. We get to see character work and advancement at the same time, it's almost too perfect.
Advancement: I loved the nameing convention of the advancement ranks but they confused me at first, they seemed arbitrary and I couldn’t remember the order(I had to make a note to keep track of it) but once I got used to it and they explored more of the different abilities and skills I fell in love. I literally jumped up and down when Scorio made Tomb Spark. Even seeing the Pyre Lords and Charnel Dukes showed me how well thought out the system actually is.
Can we talk about how cool the imperators are?? I immediately started to imagine how they would compare against the monarchs of Cradle. Like who would win between Imogen the Woe or Akura Malice, Two invincible shadow users? Sol the Just vs Northstrider, two badass macho men? I just love those types of comparisons.
If you’ve read all that I really appreciate it cause I said a lot but all in all I love this book. I also want to mention just how well written I thought it was. It felt like the perfect book in every way for me. Such an amazing book to start the year off with. I can’t wait for the sequel!!
