Once upon a time around 2014 I was a snarky internet reviewer and tore this book apart in one of my reviews, absolutely hating every aspect of it. Now, almost a decade later, I consider myself to be much fairer critic, so I decided to give this book another read. Will it still be bad, or does it hold up and was I too hash on it? Let's find out. Spoilers ahead.
This book introduces us to the fantastical world of Avantia, where mythical creatures known as Beasts live. We meet our young hero, an orphan boy named Tanner. Raised by his grandma in a tiny village, he is surprised to be chosen to be a Beast's rider, his being none other than the phoenix Firepos. After soldiers ransack his village and kill his grandmother in hopes of finding an artifact known as the Mask of Death, Tanner sets out on a quest to prevent them from getting the mask. On his journey he's joined by two twins, Gwen, who happens to have her own Beast, and her brother Geffen.
I would still say that, for a fantasy, this is pretty lackluster. Not because it's horrible or anything, but I can still see why younger and more cynical me really didn't like it (though I was definitely far too harsh on it back then). The main gripe I have with this book is that it's horribly generic. Bland. Cookie-cutter. Very much a copy-and-paste of common fantasy tropes with no real twists and turns to them.
Which, don't get me wrong, still can be executed well. I've read my fair share of fantasies which were generic, but still had enough good elements to make them stand out in other ways, such as unique executions of old tropes, or interesting characters. But this book? It's just whatever I think of when I think of "generic YA fantasy", and so far it just does nothing to really subvert the very common tropes that it uses.
The characters, too, are far too bland to be interesting or likable. Each character has one or two traits to them each, but that's really it. Even Tanner is just as basic of a hero as you can get. He's one of the four Chosen Ones to get assigned a Beast, something that's very rare, but the story doesn't even make it clear why Firepos chose Tanner as his rider. Heck, the prologue even builds this up that there'll be some reveal why she chose him, some special quality to him perhaps? But there's just...nothing. He's just your generic orphaned do-gooding hero teen character. No flaws or interesting quirks to speak of.There's not even a prophecy that's the reason why he's a Chosen One, which is a common trope explanation for why our hero is the hero in fantasy books.
Meanwhile Gwen's only trait is that she's a bit hot-headed, and that's also where her character ends (at least so far). She has a Beast (the winged wolf Gulkien) but again we don't know why specifically she or Tanner were chosen. And I can't even remember anything about her twin brother, Geffen. He got kidnapped but that's pretty much it, again nothing much to him. So we have very bland characters (both on the sides of good and bad) and honestly, Tanner doesn't even really go through an arc other than possibly the generic "be more heroic". But he and the others are mostly just...static.
I'm not saying that there's no potential here, I like the concept of the Beasts as being unique creatures higher than animals (they're sapient and can to an extent communicate with their riders, and usually they have special features or powers) that can be controlled by the one wearing the Mask of Death, but that's really the only interesting lore we have so far and the story doesn't do that much with it. Sure, Firepos and to a lesser extent Gulkien have some cool moments of action but that's just it. Aside from the fact that they have powers and can mentally speak to their Chosen Ones they are more like glorified animal companions so far they're kind-of underutilized. Not completely, but for such a cool concept the story once again doesn't do that much with it, at least not yet.
So yeah, not a super strong start to a series. For the record, I did not know going into this book that this is apparently a prequel series to another series called Beast Quest, but it should also be noted that this book can 100% be read without knowing anything about Beast Quest.
This book does do a good job at introducing newcomers to this world, because I wasn't lost at all and didn't know as I was reading it that it's a spinoff. Alas, this doesn't make the book itself any better. Perhaps later installments will be more subversive or add more unique or interesting elements, but this book was just far too cookie-cutter to qualify as good or memorable to me.
Rating: 2/5
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