Arax the Soul Stealer: Bumper Edition (Beast Quest) Paperback – August 1, 2014

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.

A great Beast Quest book. I really enjoyed this story. To must save not just his friend Aduro but his very soul as well.The part of this story that I though was superb was that even thought Tom was hurt and sapped if his strength, he showed true grit, courage and determination by not giving up and fighting through all the obstacles, trials and tribulations of this quest.I admit I have always been a big fan of the hero overcoming their darker sides and Tom managed to do that as well.this book is full of courage and great action, just an all round enjoyable story.

When I opened the book and saw the cards page, the page was tore, even in my recent beast quest books ordered from Amazon the cards page were tore, so please check the book and dispatch. This is a very poor quality of dispatching

My 11 year old son had lost interest in reading until he found the Beast Quest series. He can now often be found with one of these in his hands, he has now got quite a collection and keeps asking for more. I really recommend these especially for boys around the 10 - 11 age. Sorry, can't review the actual storyline but he is as happy with it as any of the others in the range.

Our 8 year old son loved reading this and got through it in about 3 hours..... He didn't want to stop reading it. Another winner from beast quest series.

These are great books. My son loves them so much, he wants the whole collection. They are full of adventure and thrills to keep young people reading. Very highly recommended