6.
Bastion
by Simon Clark
About the Book:
"
I didn't know where I was or why I was there. I didn't even know my own name.
The first thing I heard was a boy shouting at me. He was about sixteen, had sticky-up ginger hair, freckles like a spatter of brown gravy over his face, and these huge green eyes that were full of fury.
The rush of the arrival disorientated me so much I couldn't even understand what he was yelling at me. At least, not at first.
My face burned. My eyes were sore.
At least I was awake. The dream was over.
I had been chosen. It was an honor. There's a great deal of horror to come..."
My Thoughts:
Another nice looking book from Cemetery Dance. The cover artwork by Alan M. Clark captures the feel of the book, and that face in the corner there reminded me of the 1929 cartoon character Tintin by artist Hergé. Very detailed black and white art included, although not nearly enough IMO.
This one surprised me. Given the cover, I thought this was going to be a genre story that I wouldn't much care about, but I found it to be a great read.
A little bit
Lord of the Flies (because of the boy-in-charge dynamic), a little bit
Logan's Run (because of the enclosed city and the rules that are followed "just because"), a little bit
Mad Max (futuristic survival although this isn't a man vs. man scenario as
Bastion's bad guys are giant bugs, dust devils that sing a siren's song, and mutated gator people?), and a little bit,
A Boy and His Dog (my reason for this one is a little more elusive to me, but the
feel of the writing and the story itself just kept giving me this vibe.)
For the record, this book isn't about a dog, or the constant pursuit of sex and food. In
Bastion, food is plentiful, and the boys are so young, they really haven't started thinking about girls -- the older ones do, and girls eventually make their appearance in the book, but not in any tawdry way.
I think it was just the futuristic world and youth of the characters -- I'm going to fall short on my reasoning here. Again, just the bleak, repetitive vibe of the respective worlds in these two works (
Bastion/A Boy and His Dog), plus the fact the characters were discouraged in digging deeper to what was going on....
And having made all those comparisons, it is very much its own work, its own world.
Good writing that pulls you through an interesting landscape.