Book Review: Bastion by Phil Tucker
Bastion was an incredible progression fantasy that continually build its world, characters, and stakes through each chapter. I was always left wanting to know what would happen next.
The reader is thrown right into the action as we witness main character Scorio walk into a tomb with no memory of who he is and what he means to the world around him. As he and three others take on their first gauntlet run to test their skills, it becomes apparent, everyone here, has no idea where they fit in. Hearts race as the group tackles increasingly difficult challenges waiting for them beyond every door. Without training, no member of the group makes it very far through the trials and each undergoes a painful death. But death isn’t the end in Bastion, and they awake in room full of hundreds that have just undertaken the same trial.
Each person who has undertaken the gauntlet run is a warrior, with no memories of their past lives, reincarnated as a soldier to be trained to conquer the ten layers of hell. While his friends move on into the academy to be trained in the ways of war, Scorio is thrown out, deemed what is called a “red lister”. He is to be sentenced to a life of doom, to be forgotten with the scraps of the cohort. But Scorio won’t stay down for long. He will fight his way from dire circumstances, make advantageous friendships and never take no for an answer. Scorio wants to be the best, and he will stop at nothing to get into the academy and come out on top.
Bastion was an incredible tale of determination, hot headedness, friendships, life and never giving up. If you are a fan of morally grey characters with meaningful arcs, found families, magic schools, leveling up, or just love interactive worldbuilding, you are going to have a good time here.
There was so much to love in this 827 page beast! The worldbuilding, the characters and the way consequences for actions were explored were my top picks. Let’s start with the worldbuilding. This gigantic world is given to the reader in snippets, through the ways each character interacts with the world around them. As each chapter progresses so does the readers (and characters) knowledge. As Scorio fights his way into the ruins we learn that those in the Academy are given higher treatment and access to pills, potions and training that will advance them in the war for hell. But in a world without memories and unwilling to give in to defeat Scorio will not be stopped. He must interact with the ruins, the people he meets and gain as much knowledge as possible in order to progress himself if he has any hopes of making it into the Academy. Through his actions we learn that the world is full of ways to progress, albeit slower than those being fed pills each morning. Each action Scorio takes to level up or learn opens a way for the reader to do the same. Through this format we learn about the world at night, what creatures inhabit it, what life is like outside of the academy for people who had never made it in and so on. This slow worldbuilding continued throughout the entire story and provided a rich, lived in experience for me as the reader, but saying too much more would give away spoilers. The last thing I will say about the worldbuilding is clever foreshadowing for future instalments. Throughout this tale, the reader is given glimpses into so many areas this story could potentially go in, and each time I was excited for these areas to be explored.
Next up we have the character work. Tucker again does this slowly, but each character leaves their own impact. Scorio, shockingly was not my favourite character, but as the reader I was allowed to make that conclusion by getting to know him and how he operates completely before another character would come on to the page and be explored in much the same way. There is a remarkable found family dynamic amongst the four main characters. Each person brings something new to the table, has their own hang ups and insecurities, has learnt how to survive in a different way. My favourite character of the book, and maybe all time was Naomi, The Nightmare Lady. We are introduced to her early in the book as a standoffish lass in nightmare form. Trapped in one of Scorio’s schemes she reluctantly agrees to give him a week of her time in order to train him about the rough world he has found himself in. Throughout this time, we her mind change around Scorio from begrudging curiosity to realising maybe she does not need to move through life so alone. These two characters had such a strong non-romantic connection that blossomed through the pages, and from here she was able to become a major part of the story. There were so many incredible characters in this book, not only our main four but those around them which made the story feel almost complete within itself.
The last praise I will mention is the way in which consequences were explored in Bastion. Being a progression fantasy, characters died, and they died a lot, but death was never an end game. Each time the character died they would respawn ready to take on another tournament or gauntlet run. Death seemingly had no consequences, in fact, our crew had to die in order to level up. The title of Cinder, Emberling or Tomb Spark weren’t going to come to those who didn’t take on the challenges that would get them killed. So why am I talking about consequences? There is more than one way to level up in this world, some take the easy route, and some must fight like hell to make it past level one or “char” status. Doing this without the proper training will significantly decrease your chances of rising to the top as some of our characters find out the hard way. Heart damage, slower healing, banishment, lost friendships and so much more could await the careless. I thought this was an interesting way to explore consequences in a world where death meant little.
Like I said, I liked a lot about Bastion, I could go on and on about the cool abilities that comes to each person as they level up, gaining various powers or forms, more incredible worldbuilding elements that made this fictional place feel so real, the side characters which have more to say in future instalments or that in terms of progression we are only at level three! Luckily for us book two is already out and we can read it right now!
This is progression fantasy at its finest and I highly recommend everyone giving this a go if you are even remotely interested in the subgenre!
