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1.96 AVERAGE
1.96 AVERAGE
This is a bumper edition of danger, heroism, adventurous questing and a big bad nasty beast.
My son (age 8) has been reading some of these Beast Quest books, mostly from his school library. This particular one, part of the "Special Bumper Edition" series, was purchased from a street book vendor in Saigon. Sadly, the story of buying the book is probably more interesting than the book itself.
This is a bit longer than the original series, divided into two parts of seven chapters each with a short interlude from the point of view of the Kingdom of Avantia's apprentice wizard.
The villain is a Arax the Soul Stealer, fairly obviously a demon, although the text consistently refers to him as a "giant bat", I'm guessing due to nervousness about using the word "demon" in a kids book.
Arax is a pretty formidable opponent, both in person, and through the actions of Nemico, an evil magical clone of Avantia's hero, Tom. Both Arax and Nemico give Tom almost all he can handle in some pretty wild fight scenes.
Unfortunately, the book suffers from two huge problems. Tom's character is really inconsistent. Admittedly, some of this is the result of Arax messing with Tom's "Strength of Heart", but it doesn't entirely explain away some questionable decisions Tom makes throughout the story.
And then there's the issue of the horribly sexist handling of Tom's friend Elenna, who, in spite of being presented as a capable warrior and adventurer, is repeatedly reduced to being completely helpless every time she tries to assist Tom.
In fact, she goes into full-on damsel-in-distress mode three times.
In. The. Same. Scene.
It's 2016, "Adam Blade". We expect better than this.
This is a bit longer than the original series, divided into two parts of seven chapters each with a short interlude from the point of view of the Kingdom of Avantia's apprentice wizard.
The villain is a Arax the Soul Stealer, fairly obviously a demon, although the text consistently refers to him as a "giant bat", I'm guessing due to nervousness about using the word "demon" in a kids book.
Arax is a pretty formidable opponent, both in person, and through the actions of Nemico, an evil magical clone of Avantia's hero, Tom. Both Arax and Nemico give Tom almost all he can handle in some pretty wild fight scenes.
Unfortunately, the book suffers from two huge problems. Tom's character is really inconsistent. Admittedly, some of this is the result of Arax messing with Tom's "Strength of Heart", but it doesn't entirely explain away some questionable decisions Tom makes throughout the story.
And then there's the issue of the horribly sexist handling of Tom's friend Elenna, who, in spite of being presented as a capable warrior and adventurer, is repeatedly reduced to being completely helpless every time she tries to assist Tom.
In fact, she goes into full-on damsel-in-distress mode three times.
In. The. Same. Scene.
It's 2016, "Adam Blade". We expect better than this.