Review of Bastion: Prequel to War by A.L.Collins

The day Rigil is to take his final challenge to become a city guard is the day his life changes forever. And not in the way you may think. The challenge was a distraction and while he (and his team) were distracted; Rigil’s home, his city, his friends and colleagues burn to the ground or fight trying to escape. Seeking the root of the problem and justice, Rigil uncovers a plot to, in a sense, take over the world. He meets up with a cast of characters and sets off to right the wrongs. The first bit of the book essentially describes the history of the world that the author has created. Throughout the novel we generally follow Rigil and his crew, but occasionally we get either another history lesson or meet a new cast that Rigil and team has yet to be introduced to. As a result, these changes can be a bit confusing, especially when trying to piece everything together – we are given only the pieces of the puzzle and somehow, we have to fit them together to make sense of it all. Most of the book is written through Rigil’s point of view. However, other than the instances mentioned previously, sometimes the point of view shifts within a scene (several times at that), and it’s confusing as to whom the she/he being referred to actually is. The plot, after the first history lesson, moves pretty fast and there are a lot of action (and magical) scenes. However there are a few instances where the plot really dragged, so I think there is some room for tightening up the plot. There is an interesting host of characters with witty (and sometimes awkward) dialogue. The conclusion – there is not one. There is no cliffhanger. The story is incomplete. A. L. Collins is a young author from the state of Maryland. He recently graduated High School and has a love writing stories. This is his first novel. I think there is potential here for a really good story, but it still needs a little bit of work. It’s still considered a good read by: Margaret Orford, Allbooks Reviews. http://www.allbooksreviewint.com/index.html Title: Bastion: Prequel to War Author: A. L. Collins Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN: 978-1-4670-7636-4 Pages: 333 pages Price: $27.95 US Feb 2012