Bastion

May 27, 2021
Bastion Book Cover Bastion
The Collegium Chronicles, #5; Valdemar #38
Mercedes Lackey
Fantasy
DAW Books Inc.
October 1st, 2013
Hardcover
346
Library
Young Adult

Mags returns to the Collegium, but there are mixed feelings—his included—about him actually remaining there. No one doubts that he is and should be a Herald, but he is afraid that his mere presence is going to incite more danger right in the heart of Valdemar.

The heads of the Collegia are afraid that coming back to his known haunt is going to give him less protection than if he went into hiding. Everyone decides that going elsewhere is the solution for now. So since he is going elsewhere—why not return to the place he was found in the first place and look for clues? And those who are closest to him, and might provide secondary targets, are going along.

Together they head for the Bastion, the hidden spot in the hills that had once been the headquarters of a powerful band of raiders that had held him and his parents prisoner. But what they find is not what anyone had expected.

(via Barnes & Noble)

 

And so we’ve come to the end of The Collegium Chronicles – Lackey’s only Valdemar quintet book series. Melanie @ Grab the Lapels and I both found the previous books to feel like more of the same over and over again. As we come to the conclusion of this quintet will we feel the repetition again? Or will Lackey finally break her streak as Mags’s story concludes?

11 books. 12 months. 3 series.
The journey concludes. 


Last time in Redoubt

Life is busy for Mags and his friends at the Collegium. Mags is learning to be a Herald during the day and a spy at night. Kirball is taking the kingdom by storm. Lydia literally married the prince of Valdemar. Bear and Lena surprised everyone by getting married quickly thereafter. But everything is thrown for a loop when Mags vanishes. Kidnapped by the same mysterious men who have been attacking Valdemar, they drug him and take him through Karse on their way home. But Mags outsmarts them. Taking advantage of a storm, he escapes. But now he’s lost, unable to access Dallen or his Gift, and deep in enemy territory. If he can survive long enough, he should be able to make it home, right?

The Collegium Chronicles Reviews
Foundation Intrigues Changes Redoubt Bastion


 

Picking up immediately where Redoubt ended, readers are even treated to Mags’s journey home from the Karse border. A slow start, but a memorable one after the speed of the last third in Redoubt

“But what’m I supposed to do with m’self when I ain’t bein’ questioned?” He asked, plaintively, his hands clasped between his knees.
“What do you *want* to do? The Dean replied.
It has been so long since anyone asked him that question that for a moment his mind was blank. “I- dunno-,” he managed.

My favorite parts of Bastion are the characters and their relationships. Melanie and I have both pointed out that these characters are all unique- something less common in the Valdemar books of the past where anyone who wasn’t our protagonist blurred together. Not so here. Dallen and Mags’s relationship has really grown over the past 5 books. It’s clear from their interactions and dialogue that they truly love each other. Plus, the sass the give back and forth is amazing. Every time Mags calls Dallen “horse” I laughed aloud.

:But, alas, there is no good way to store pocket pies.:
Mags laughed silently. :Guess you’ll have to suffer with plain old apples.:
:The horror.: Dallen mourned.

The secondary characters also shined. Well, where they had a part. Honestly, you could have removed Lena from this book entirely and nothing would have changed. The new(er) characters brought their best to the book. The relationship between Lita and Jakyr is the best part of this book. Their relationship is predictable but fun. I greatly enjoyed watching them bicker. As with Redoubt, introducing late-book characters I adored, Lackey introduced Bey in the last third of the book and he is my favorite character from Bastion. I’d love a book series in the future where Heralds come to the Shadao and we see how Bey has transformed his tribe’s life!

“Lemme say somethin’ about it, then you come up with all kinds of ideas why that won’t work,” he suggested. “Lita’s bound t’object, you fight a bit with her, then let ‘er get ‘er way.”
Jakyr eyed him favorably. “Mags, you are a manipulative young man. You have unplumbed depth to you. I like it.”

Amily is a character I have a strange relationship with. Lackey does a wonderful job setting her up as a quiet, intelligent, dedicated character. Amily has a personality unique to the other characters in Valdemar we’ve run into before. However, a lot of Amily’s character development doesn’t come from the actions Amily takes – it occurs through the perceptions others have of her. Melanie pointed out how strange Lackey’s depiction of Amily’s disability is during her Redoubt review. Once she pointed that out, I found Amily’s depiction, in general, to be quite frustrating. We’re “amazed” that Amily, as she learns weapons work, is so good with a bow. The exact quote is,

It’s as if a natural warrior was simply sleeping inside her ,waiting for her to be repaired before leaping out fully formed.

Uh. Sure, strong and stable footing will help improve bowmanship. But you don’t need to have able-bodied legs to be good at distance weapons. From that moment on, I started to notice that each time Amily’s traits are praised it’s always from the perspective of others. We never get to see much of Amily in action- just hear about it. She’s a wonderful character, so I found that distracting and frustrating.

:But this is extraordinary, and we must take extraordinary risks and be prepared to take extraordinary actions. We’ve never had an opportunity like this, to change an entire nation with just a single encounter.:

You might recall that I’ve been extremely frustrated with the portrayal of sex in the Valdemar novels. In Arrows of the Queen, we learn that Valdemar is sex-positive and believes in contraception from a young age. Healthy, consensual sex is totally normal! But in later books, Lackey gets into their weird thing where rape and sex are often used as strange plot points. It was gross and not always necessary. Well, we’re back to healthy, consensual sex now! One of my favorite parts of the book is when Herald Jakyr explains to Mags about how sex works. He even gets into the finer points of pleasuring a member of the opposite sex, to both Mags’s fascination and horror. This, obviously, leads to a beautiful moment where Amily and Mags lose their virginity in a healthy, safe, pleasurable way. The perfect start to their new sex lives. I loved it.

:Trust me, no one likes being forced to grow up. It’s damned unpleasant. You learn you are never safe. You learn that people you depend on to protect you might not be able to. Not even me. You learn all sorts of things you would really rather not have known. I hated it. You hate it. Everyone hates it.:

As with the previous Collegium Chronicles books, we don’t have much plot. And a fairly forced and convenient one at that. Much of Bastion is slice-of-life-Herald-style. Mags spending time with his friends at school, and then all together on the Circuit. Mags is sent on his Circuit to get him out of Haven – as he is potentially still a target for these unknown assassins and, as a result, a threat to the King. Let’s send him off with his closest friends and lover, too! Just in case they might also become targets due to their closeness with Mags. How convenient. And this circuit happens to include the location where Mags was discovered and his parents died. How convenient. And, despite taking intentionally circuitous routes to trick anyone who might be tracking them, a member of this assassin tribe with all the answers Mags is looking for happens to be there, too! How convenient.

“What it *meant* to be a Herald; how you were never weak, because there was always someone strong to prop you, as you would prop someone weaker than you. How it felt to make peoples’ lives better, every day, even when they didn’t know you were going it. How, in the end, blood was unimportant; it was the bond of brothers and sisters of the spirit that made you more whole than mere relations ever could.”

Now that I expect it, and as Valdemar fills a bit of my bucket as related to comforting readers, I enjoy the slower pace of these books. Sure, I’d love some actual plot but slice-of-life is also good. Lackey does a great job illustrating that a Herald’s life isn’t all just zooming around saving the day. We visit some villages (who rarely see anyone from Haven and happen to have a Master Bard, Master Healer, and Herald all visiting at once with their apprentices? Certainly THAT wasn’t suspicious. Cue eye roll), we spend the night in Waystations, we visit festivals and inns and guard barracks. I learned a lot about inn food vs festival food, the right sort of clothing and supplies you’d need for a long Winter trip, how to harvest a deer and use all its parts… In short, Lackey provides lots of details completely irrelevant to her overall story arc. But after a stressful day, I enjoyed reading these little bits about Valdemar.

 


What do you think?

  • Have you read Bastion? What do you think of this book?
  • Which is more important to you when reading: Characters or plot? Why?
  • Do you enjoy reading slice-of-life books? Why or why not?
  • Recommend your favorite slice-of-life books. Bonus if they are fantasy novels!
  • Are you participating in #ReadingValdemar this year? Share your post links below!

One Comment

  • Grab the Lapels May 28, 2021 at 9:51 am

    I guess I have a different definition of what slice-of-life is. Typically, in my understanding, it’s a chunk that gets pulled out of a plot with an arc. You don’t really “feel” the beginning, and there is often no conclusion because it’s just a moment, like a photograph. I though Bastion had a plot: start with life at Haven, then the classic fantasy journey to a strange place, which leads to the the final fight scene, and a conclusion where they’re all happily eating around a fire.

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