Talk:The Soldier's Tale

Many people think Bond is one of the best writers on this site, if not the best. When reading things like this, I'm inclined to agree with them.

Now, this isn't his best work; that title goes to Dark Realities, one of the best BIONICLE epics I've ever seen. Still, it's not every day that a work of fan fiction is on par (or above it) with the source material, even if the source material is generally aimed toward young children. I sense a bright future for you as a novelist, young one.

The plot isn't amazingly complex; it basically jumps around between the major points that lead to the climax, focusing solely on the important parts and not much else. Still, that doesn't stop it from being entertaining, though it does lead to the feeling that it was over too soon. In my opinion, the tension should have been stretched a lot more, but despite that, it's still far from bad.

Interestingly enough, this work generally lacks the high rate of action that mot BIONICLE-related works are known for. There are just about three shots fired at the climax, a comparatively small amount. Again, it seems that the third act should have been stretched more, milked for all it's worth rather than resolving itself so quickly. Luckily, judging from the brilliant tension-stretching in DR, it seems like Bond has learned his lesson by now.

The writing, as usual, is good for a fiction based on children's toys. No surprise there; this is CB we're talking about, after all. Still, it seems like a little more detail could have been built into certain points (the Agori's death, for instance), so as to—you guessed it—stretch the tension. Despite this, there's very little else to complain about, so I'll end my review here.

Is The Soldier's Tale worth reading? If you're a BIONICLE fan of any sort, yes. Is it the best thing I've ever read? Far from it. Still, it's more than competent, and certainly far from mediocre.

Grade: A-

Sli cer   Out  21:01, January 30, 2011 (UTC)