Arax the Soul Stealer: Bumper Edition (Beast Quest)

This is a five star book, I recommend it to all. (Not too scary!)I think this item is one of the best Beast Quest books.

The book is good. The Beast Quest books are interesting because a 12 year old boy fights a mean beast and the 12 year old boy wins.The main characters are Tom, a swordman, Elenna, Tom's companion, Ferno, a fire dragon, and Arax, a man-bat and a soul stealer. When Arax takes someone's soul they turn evil. The book is scary because Arax takes Elenna, but Tom saves her. Arax also takes Aduro, a good wizard's, soul.Tom fought Nemico his evil double. Nemico was falling on the cliff but Tom tried to save him. Tom did not even want his evil self to die.My favorite part was when Tom chopped off Arax's horn. Arax is a little bit less powerful than other beasts because he has a whip and nothing else. Other beasts have poison, fire, and turning to stone. This book is a pretty good Beast Quest book but not the best like Tusk, Vipero, Cypher, or Kaymon.

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.