The poaching part makes sense, crazy as it is. During medieval times, "higher" game like deer was restricted to the nobles, but "lesser" animals (like rabbits) were still free for everyone. So she was correct...and I now have to wonder how an obscure-ish historical fact managed to make it into a book like this.
that part about smaller animals being free for everyone heavily depends on where and which time period though. I remember learning in school that all animals belonged to the nobility, so nobody was allowed to hunt them, which meant fields couldn't be protected and meat was even harder to get.
@@ShRkDa yeah there's been a lot of variety. I think some UK hunting laws still specify what counts as 'vermin' (=legal to hunt) as small game, more or less based on the follow-up of extremely strict feudal poaching restrictions.
I click on the video looking for a monster hunter clone .... yo !!! just watching this so bizzare a wizard like here a magical Sword & Shield 🛡 gives it to a 12 year old ... the wizard couldn't kill the beast he got to send a child out to die 😂
When I was younger I was OBSESSED with Beast Quest. It completely skipped my mind though until this video brought back all of the memories. I just liked the concepts of all these cool monsters, and I don't know if it was just a British thing but the book covers were different to any of the covers shown in the video and they didn't just made the monsters look cool, they looked straight up BADASS. I couldn't tell you what any of them were about though, I'm such a fast reader than I could get through a book in less than an hour, but I followed the series for years with so much excitement. It doesn't surprise me to hear all this time later that it probably wasn't actually that good but hey, I was entertained as a child and it was a series for children so I can't knock it there.
Yeah, i think i had the a similar experience. It seems like they used the same covers in the UK and the rest of, at least, Europe. I remember really liking them, you'd pick up 3 - 4 from the library, usually not even in order, just the ones that had the coolest monsters on them, finish one in a day, enjoy the illustrations that showed the most important moments and then pick up the next one the next day. In hindsight they really weren't anything noteworthy, but yeah i still enjoyed them and they hold an important place in my childhood.
the UK covers were AMAZING they’re honestly the only thing I remember about the series, my favourite BQ book wasn’t even one of the novels lol it was this ‘Beast Manual’ with art of all the monsters in it, I read it to death
Your description of how these books came to be is my irl villainous origin story. Those trashy romance novels you see in the pharmacy that are a dime a dozen are made the exact same way. I wrote up a draft for a cheesy period piece romance story where a Viking raider and kidnapped French princess fall in love (ooh the originality) and sold it for $600 dollars to one of these companies. I only wanted to get my foot in the door so I might write about what I actually care about. They took the rough outline and with I don't know how many ghost riders managed to stretch it into a three book series, each only 240pages long. But now, now my little name is known to do this so I have to work twice as hard to get what I want to even make it to the desk of publishers because I'm seen as a part of the factory line book writing process.
I assume you meant to type 'ghost writers' but now I'm imagining a dozen leather clad flaming-skull-headed men sat at desks poring over a draft while their hell-powered motorbikes are all propped against the wall.
@@zygardegodslayer4750 You are absolutely right, I guess that I participate in so many comic book discussions here on TH-cam that spell check automatically finishes 'ghost - ' with riders. Now I'm not going to edit out such a mistake because its funny
I remember seeing these books all the time as a kid, but can’t ever remember actually reading them. I always thought they looked cool. You just triggered a memory from like elementary school I didn’t know I had lol
I remember in like books 10-20 ish, the evil wizard got his own child with a sword called Seth to fight tom. Seth just turned up every book and sabotaged tom every book as a reoccurring henchman. Then the wizard turned him into a scorpion monster called sting for failing so much and he became the final boss of that arc. I also vaguely recall that tom got real edgy that arc. Then Seth's sister turned up to replace him and guilt trip tom every time they fought blaming what happened to Seth on him. So the writers did add a little bit more depth to tom later on as well as give a bit more build up to the over arcing story but not much.
I think around the 50th or so book Tom’s father was murdered in front of him by a beast made by the evil wizard and he was really edgy and bent on revenge for a couple books after that until he beat the wizard. I don’t know if it had any lasting effect on his character but I do remember that happened. I sold all my childhood books a few years back though so I wouldn’t be able to go back and check.
I think I might be misremembering a lot of things? But... 1. the beasts didn't all have control collars, it was different magical attatchments for each one. 2. Tom is the son of basically the kingdom's best knight who is long missing, and Hugo can recognise a case of protagonist when he sees one 3. Ferno, sepron, arctus, nanook, tagus, epos. That's series one. Who the heck are all these book covers constantly popping up? Makes me think I'm remembering a different series entirely, particularly since the art for the beasts I do know is so different to the books I own copies of. 4. From what I recall Tom's entire personality is basically just determination. Not great characterisation but it is there. 5. I think a shield having all these powers makes sense too since they were used as symbols of identity way back, heraldry and all that for knights. Also it's representative of a hero's role as a shield for the kingdom too. The golden armour's magic is kind weird tho and it only gets worse from there. 6. One of my biggest gripes about the series is Tom basically gets all his powers plotted away every six books, so the complaint that he can stomp every challenge doesn't ring true. 7. Malvel isn't a real intimidating threat because it's designed for little kids. The hero can struggle of course, but having the villain be an ever present, successful and intimidating threat isn't something I often see in that kind of story. Also, the monster designs are cool and interesting, and there they are, right on the cover, so you know what you're picking up the book to read about. It sure isn't a great series, but I don't think it's nearly so bad. Though the fact that I read the shit out of it as a little kid has something to do with it.
It might be different covers in the US, because I've seen this series in a few libraries across Europe and they all that the same, preety unique cover with the name on the top, the moster painted in a circle on the middle with usually Tom fighting it and it's name on the bottom, with a descriptor underneath it. I don't think i needed to go that in detail about the covers, whops.
1 - True... Arcta's, I'm assuming it was his blindfold. His book was the only one of the first series I didn't own or even fully read. Tagus and Nanook's were a horseshoe and a ringing bell, respectively (in Nanook's case, I remember the bell kept her from falling asleep, so it made her even more irritable than just possessed by evil magic, always found that neat), and fragments of those items are what's used for Tom's shield. Epos, it was a brass ring around his foot, I think. And I think it was crushed by Tom with his father's old gauntlet, not slashed by a sword, just wanted to add that in. 2 - Yeah, exactly! More than that, Taladon was the Master of Beasts, a high title in the kingdom for the one person that has forged a connection with the Good Beasts of Avantia, to both protect them and fight alongside them, so it makes sense that it makes part of Tom's legacy to become the hero of the kingdom, and even a Master of Beasts himself! 3 - Yeah, I was wondering about that too! But hey, they look pretty cool, ngl. 4 - Yeah, pretty much. I remember always said "by the blood that runs in my veins, I will [do this heroic thing and save the kingdom]" or something along those lines. Though it's more of a direct translation from my country's version. It ain't much, yeah, but it does make him likeable. 5 - Good point! I also remember that the shield sometimes did have a more direct use. With Sepron's tooth, Tom could use the shield as a surfboard, hilariously enough! And with Tagus' horseshoe fragment, it could be used as a board to quickly go down hills and sand dunes. Plus, whenever they needed a more direct use of the item, usually Epon's claw, the could just remove it from the shield. So it's also a way to carry these artifacts, and it's definitely more unique than the typical pendants, necklaces and rings (something that couldn't be said for the later series, but hey, they could only keep it fresh for so long). I always found that striking, and a good symbol of the series. 6 - I'm not sure I fully get your gripe with this one, could you explain further? But yeah, he basically gets a power at the end of every book, and... they're not always the best ones. Like the golden chainmail, which makes you "strong of heart". As in, braver. Uh, great, I thought Tom was already brave? It's a very "passive power" that, unlike some of the others, doesn't get a very defined use. It's like a minor boost of power or defense to a weapon in a game. It... exists, but you kinda forget you even have it anyways. That's my main gripe with some of the powers. 7 - Eh, I found him more intimidating in the second and third series (the last ones I did read), and the first special book was pretty cool as well in that aspect. But I do think he drags on in his ploys and threats a little too much. But, such is the nature of a series of six short stories. He can't do much in each story, but they're enough to extend the adventure a lot, so he ends up not making much progress in each book.
Got the sea serpent book at a book fair in elementary school. It came with a necklace that I think I still have stowed away somewhere. I remember absolutely NOTHING about the story.
I loved Beast Quest! Not sure why you expected him to be clever or strong, hes like 12. As an 11ish year old reading them he felt relatable because he thought how i did.
Beast Quest was my "Harry Potter", it was my go to choice to read when told to during morning school assembly, I would collect the cards when I bought them just for collection, even go to libraries just to search for those cards, I would try to read every book (including bumper editions) at least once, up to the 13th series, then it kinda eased off me. But yeah, Beast Quest was my childhood fantasy book of choice
Same, I stopped the sought for them around the 13th season - The Warrior's Road. After that, the series seemed to fall really hard.. either that or I just grew up
same here, I read the first 4 series and some of the special spin off stories. until the library in my school had no more of them. so I spent months searching for the other books but could never find them. Eventually, I forgot about them until today.
I read the one with the Sea Serpent. At one point there was a leak in the boat and the girl character had to tear part of her shirt to patch the leak. That night was my first night dreaming about a woman. Thanks Beast Quest 😂😅
I always have fond memories of beast quest, it even got me interested in creating my own fictional worlds, and I also wrote my first "book" because of bq, though it was a crazy rip off, with the main characters names being Tom and Elena, but the crazy part is that it was a interplanetary journey with cameos of the clone soldiers from star wars and the avengers coming to get Tom out of the antagonists prison and help him defeat him, yeah...
I read a lot of these when I was a kid, but I stopped caring when it was obvious it was being milked, even from the perspective of a kid, amd completely forgot about them. I honestly forgot the beasts were supposed to be secrets, I assumed they were mostly common knowledge because how do you hide this shit? Also, the covers we got in the UK are leagues better than the ones shown here.
Deltora Quest was my jam as a kid. Loved all the riddles they had to solve to overcome the challenges that you could try to figure out on your own before the characters did.
I remember reading these mainly because the later beasts were powerful and terrifying. Kaymon the Gorgon hound and Nixa the Death bringer were both freaky
I remember reading them when I first came to the UK and they helped me to learn English, so they hold a special place in my heart for that. Still can’t really remember what happened in them though.
Completely forgot about this series. Read up until the ghost beasts arc and then stoppped. I used to be a voracious reader so just wanted more to read. Beast Quest is dwarfed easily by much better writings such as Ranger's Apprentice, anything by Darren Shan, Percy Jackson, and Spooks Apprentice.
I remember seeing these at my local library when I was like 9, I never looked at them because I thought they looked boring but I always liked looking at the covers. I had one friend who I met at a summer camp recommend them to me and that was literally the only person who I’ve seen ever talk about these books. But his family was British so I don’t think his opinion even counts
Beast Quest was a series I never read, nor heard anyone talk about, but I was definitely aware of its existence. It was the sort of book series you'd see packed in boxsets in budget bookshops like The Works and this you could get a whole stack of them pretty cheap, certainly cheaper than the Harry Potter of Goosebumps sets they were placed alongside. It was this affordability that likely appealed to parents of young kids who just wanted to be occupied with simple whimsical stories.
I remember Warriors, my sister red a few of them some girls in my grade got really into them to the point they played it at recess, which meant they just crawled around and attacked people. I saw half of them at a furry convention the other day
God I loved these as a kid. I was always buying each new book until the bookstore I went to just stopped supplying them. I thought the author was dead.
Oh god, my brother loved those. He's never read a book since, but those were his absolute FAVOURITE when he was like, 7. God. You've made me remember them now.
You talking about Deltora Quest just reminded me that I still have these books somewhere at home, and how much this series influenced me into getting into puzzles, fantasy in general and geology to some extent. It's not my field of study nowadays, but it is something I try to engage with on surface level from time to time, if only to look at the fancy minerals with weird shapes, colors and properties most of the time. That being said, I don't know if I ever saw any Beast Quest when I was younger.
Something to note is that in the third series, after he's claimed the golden armor, as each beast is defeated in the country of the evil wizard guy, he loses the power of one piece of the golden armor, until eventually it has no power to him. Can't remember why, something about resurrecting his dad? There were some details in that particular series that I enjoyed looking back, like the map to traverse the region sometimes just lying to the protagonist.
Yeah I remember that really well. Series 3 was great. Of the 140+ books in the series I only read the first 4 series (24 books) because I could never mind the books in the 5th series
Pretty sure kids only brought these for the covers. I think I had about fifty before I got bored and ended up giving them away. It didn't help that I'd already read the Deltora Quest books and even as a child I could tell one series was much better written than the other.
I remember liking these books mainly because i could read through an entire one in a few hours and it would get my mom off my back for those summer reading assignments
Towards the end of this video you perfectly described what indie publishing has become. House names fronting dozens of ghost writers churning out content with huge ad spends, and social media campaigns designed to lend "authenticity" to what is actually a soulless, artless, money-driven, and ultimately cynical, enterprise.
Me and my friends grew up with this book series in grade school. We all agree on one thing: Trillion the Three Headed Lion is the strongest of the beasts because he's the last to show up.
Damn, I never thought I'd hear anyone talking about these. When I was little (maybe around elementary school age) I often got the books from the library, but I can't recall to have noticed someone else picking one of the books up. Never mind bringing them up in conversation. From time to time, I like getting back into the stuff I read or did as a child to fuel my nostalgia. For example The Three Investigators (Die drei ??? in Germany. The series is still getting produced here and it's huge. Especially the audio drama has a ton of fans and actually delivers by quality rather than nostalgia only), the Goosebumps series, Conni and some others, which are likely not known anywhere else outside of Germany. From time to time, Beast Quest also crossed my mind. I remember enjoying the books and considered rereading them, but when I went into the children's section of my central library, I was a bit taken aback by the sheer number of books on the shelf. When I last read the books, there were maybe 25 entries to the series and not the well over 140 ones in the main series alone.
I got the second book at my School Fair in Elementary and fell in love ever since, the book even had a poster in it but I dont have the book or poster anymore.
I never picked them up but I remember always seeing these in the same section as deltora quest. Which i really hope James covers one day. It has an anime which is the most 2000s thing to come out of the 2000s and was made in Australia (and its available here on youtube last I checked)
This book series is how I got my son to read. He read one page then I would. He had a speech problem so it was twice as helpful. My son still loves the series and has the first 2 sets. From what I've read of it it's a good series for younger readers just starting out. It's not meant to be this awesome layered world. It works to start kids on chapter books with big bold print and a picture on almost every page.
I loved this series as a child, I still have fond memories now. Wish it had been written for a slightly older demographic though, the 6 beasts for 6 pieces of a macguffin/6 macguffins got pretty old.
These were some of my favorite books as a kid but they were also a book series I never read in order. I would read one book where he saved a yeti and then in the next book he would be traveling through hell and teleporting through shadows and I was just like “ok I guess were doing this now”
Beast Quest is such a memorable read for me. When I was 10 it was the series that sparked my passion for reading. I remember a good chunk and now I need to reread tbem
I remember seeing them at my library, and they had a ridiculous amount of them. I guess it was due to chance that I didn't pick them up when I was really young, but I remember coming across them at twelve or thirteen again while searching the library for something to read and by then feeling 'better than that' (which I know in retrospect was really snobbish, and a little hypercritical because I loved the Warriors series and other equally long series without a particular plot like TKKG)
The title is so funny to me because the first time this popped up in my recommended, it was about a week after a friend and I had been talking about books we liked as children, and I remembered and brought up Beast Quest. 😁(For what it's worth, though, I've gotten into a lot of things because I was promised cool monsters and the quality of those has...varied wildly. I watched Supernatural because it started as monster-of-the-week and I can't in good conscience recommend that to anyone, but I also first got into D&D because I got my hands on a copy of the Monster Manual, and I'm still into D&D.)
Though I haven’t read any of these books. Though from what you described, it seems that these book are so okay it’s average. But if I were to rewrite the main plot of the story, it will go something like this: have it be about Tom who is an inspiring young kid who always wanted to slay monsters. Monsters that he and the other kids have heard tales about. His dream seems to come true when his king, Hugo. Picks a select few of kids to take upon a few tasks. One of these tasks Tom takes is to be the squire for one of the kings best knights. As they’re tasked to seek out the dragon, Ferno. At first Tom is excited, he is finally going to see a slay dragon along with his new knight master. Only to find out that his knight master just leaves him for dead, when they reach the dragon. Tom is nearly eaten by the beast, thankfully he is rescued by a wizard, who gives him the tools that needs to defeat the dragon. But tells him, don’t kill the dragon. Just unlock the collar around its neck. Tom mange’s to break the dragons collar, freeing the creature. Once freed, the dragons attitude goes from aggressive to gentle. Tom is shocked by this. Awhile ago the dragon was trying to burn him alive, but now that the collar was off, he is now suddenly acting friendly towards Tom. The wizard explains, but very briefly, that king Hugo put that collar on the dragon and the many beasts in this world as a way to keep him in power. He uses these beasts as either a scapegoat or as his own personal attack dogs. (For example whenever his kingdom needs military action, he’ll just secretly call upon one of his beasts to attack his village. To make it look like that these beasts are a real threat to the kingdom. Or use people like Tom, to sacrifice in order to feed the beasts. And play it off like he “fought valiantly” when in reality the king used him as beast food and wanted no one to notice). Tom is devastated by this information, he couldn’t believe that all these years, he thought the beasts that he was told about, weren’t big bad monsters that would attack his homeland, but are really just enslaved creatures being used by a corrupted king in order to remain in power. Tom also asks why the wizard doesn’t stop the king. As it turns out, the king had him on a collar for a long time too. Hugo used the wizard for his own personal gain like the other beats he keeps enslaved. It’s just that he recently broke free. But doing so, made him a wanted man. And to make matters worse, the kings knights are armed with weapons so powerful that they can kill a wizard. No magic in the world can be rid of such weapons. So the two must work together in order to defeat Hugo, free the beasts and save the other kids like Tom who were sacrificed. But they have to go through a lot obstacles, not just fighting off the beasts that are under Hugo’s control but they also have to find the right key for each beast, and keep the wizard a secret in order to not draw attention from Hugo.
Holy hell man, you reinstalled a core memory in me. I had completely forgotten that I'd purchased the book about the serpent with the matching poster from my school's book fair as a kid. I actually read the whole series after that, but I'd entirely forgotten about it. (Or so I thought because holy shit there are 142 books in this series, I thought there were only 6)
I never saw this one, which surprises me since the name and concept would probably have appealed to me back then. Oddly I never knew of Deltora Quest before the anime either. Besides Animorphs the only one I ever really got into was Diadem. Though I was never able to find books 7-12 back then, I assume they were released later because it certainly wasn't for lack of looking. Really should hunt the rest of those down one of these days. Kind of stunned there doesn't seem to be a single youtube video on Diadem actually, that series really needs more love. I genuinely cannot believe there are this many of the books though, even compared to Goosebumps and Animorphs, that's just insane. It honestly makes me wonder how many other massive series like this I'm totally unaware of.
I remember reading Beast Quest in Primary School. I loved them but the school library didn't have any full series. The books were enjoyable at the time but they are definetly books that a child would enjoy but when you get more critical they fall apart.
I completely forgot this series existed until this vid came in my recommendeds! I had Sepron the Sea Serpent as a kid (probably is still kicking around somewhere in my room, I wanna go look for it) and always thought it was ok but not amazing. The concept seemed interesting to me more than anything.
I remember this series well. My third grade Teacher read the first six to the class. I loved it. I had (and still have) low standards for my fantasy. If it takes place in a medieval European fantasy land and has people hitting eachother with swords, Chances are Ill be into it. I remember that My favorite of the Series was one of the Ones in the Second part, where Tom fought a two headed snake. I just like snake people.
I remember having every deltora quest book, but for the life of me I can’t remember anything from them except that I was obsessed for a bit and pictured all the main characters as the main cyberchase characters
Bringing up warrior cats in the beginning as if it follows any kind of formula besides whatever the think tank of old british ladies could come up with at that moment
In about 2nd grade would read these to kill time in the hour I had waiting after school because they were around in my grandma's classroom from kids in the class getting them from the school library and because I could get the whole thing done in that time. I'm pretty sure I was aware of how bland they were, even as young as I was.
I loved the books and still do. Honestly I still have an, at least, 60 book collection. I've seen many people claim they can't remember anything about the books but its been at least 5+ years since I've last read them and I can probably remember most of the beasts, season gimmicks and other franchise stuffs. I think the story was great and interesting character development does happen (a lot more after the first 6). My favourite thing though was the prologues and endings. The prologues were really intense as nobody in it was safe and you were often built up to the monster before the main character is even mentioned in the book and the endings felt satisfying and made me want to read on most of the time. So that's my experience.
I remember seeing these at the scholastic book fair, picking them up, then shrugging and putting them down. I don’t think I know a single person who actually read them.
As soon as I saw the title I instantly got a ton of flashbacks from when I was obsessed with these books. I remember bringing a guide book about the monsters and stuff to a school camp and stuff and a choose your own adventure book and discovering the series in class when I was bored, looked at the bookshelf and thought “oh this book looks cool” and read it. Although I do remember the covers being different
The most I remember about this series is I once had a book project due the next day so I sat down and read the serpent book in almost a hour. When I look at what I had to do for the project it needed to be about a book with 100+ pages. I was quite disappointed and pretended to be sick for the next few days Edit: Deltora Quest was 1000x better. Haven’t read shadowlands or the other but the OG book 1-8 and anime were amazing
You describing all those different fantasy series reminded me of one of my favorites: Secrets of Droon. It fits your description to a tee and I remember being obsessed by them as a kid. Never did finish them....
The poaching part makes sense, crazy as it is. During medieval times, "higher" game like deer was restricted to the nobles, but "lesser" animals (like rabbits) were still free for everyone. So she was correct...and I now have to wonder how an obscure-ish historical fact managed to make it into a book like this.
that part about smaller animals being free for everyone heavily depends on where and which time period though. I remember learning in school that all animals belonged to the nobility, so nobody was allowed to hunt them, which meant fields couldn't be protected and meat was even harder to get.
@@ShRkDa yeah there's been a lot of variety. I think some UK hunting laws still specify what counts as 'vermin' (=legal to hunt) as small game, more or less based on the follow-up of extremely strict feudal poaching restrictions.
I click on the video looking for a monster hunter clone .... yo !!! just watching this so bizzare a wizard like here a magical Sword & Shield 🛡 gives it to a 12 year old ... the wizard couldn't kill the beast he got to send a child out to die 😂
When I was younger I was OBSESSED with Beast Quest. It completely skipped my mind though until this video brought back all of the memories. I just liked the concepts of all these cool monsters, and I don't know if it was just a British thing but the book covers were different to any of the covers shown in the video and they didn't just made the monsters look cool, they looked straight up BADASS. I couldn't tell you what any of them were about though, I'm such a fast reader than I could get through a book in less than an hour, but I followed the series for years with so much excitement. It doesn't surprise me to hear all this time later that it probably wasn't actually that good but hey, I was entertained as a child and it was a series for children so I can't knock it there.
I though I rembered those titles but yah the book looked different so I was confused I was like huh this is familiar
i remembered collecting the bookmarks HAHA
Yeah I noticed that the book covers in the video were different to how I remember them
Yeah, i think i had the a similar experience. It seems like they used the same covers in the UK and the rest of, at least, Europe. I remember really liking them, you'd pick up 3 - 4 from the library, usually not even in order, just the ones that had the coolest monsters on them, finish one in a day, enjoy the illustrations that showed the most important moments and then pick up the next one the next day. In hindsight they really weren't anything noteworthy, but yeah i still enjoyed them and they hold an important place in my childhood.
the UK covers were AMAZING they’re honestly the only thing I remember about the series, my favourite BQ book wasn’t even one of the novels lol it was this ‘Beast Manual’ with art of all the monsters in it, I read it to death
Your description of how these books came to be is my irl villainous origin story.
Those trashy romance novels you see in the pharmacy that are a dime a dozen are made the exact same way. I wrote up a draft for a cheesy period piece romance story where a Viking raider and kidnapped French princess fall in love (ooh the originality) and sold it for $600 dollars to one of these companies.
I only wanted to get my foot in the door so I might write about what I actually care about.
They took the rough outline and with I don't know how many ghost riders managed to stretch it into a three book series, each only 240pages long.
But now, now my little name is known to do this so I have to work twice as hard to get what I want to even make it to the desk of publishers because I'm seen as a part of the factory line book writing process.
I assume you meant to type 'ghost writers' but now I'm imagining a dozen leather clad flaming-skull-headed men sat at desks poring over a draft while their hell-powered motorbikes are all propped against the wall.
@@zygardegodslayer4750 You are absolutely right, I guess that I participate in so many comic book discussions here on TH-cam that spell check automatically finishes 'ghost - ' with riders. Now I'm not going to edit out such a mistake because its funny
What was the book series called?
Was it harlequin publishing?
I loved these as a kid. I even used “Ferno” as a name for laser tag. I don’t really remember what happened in the books, but I did really like them.
I remember seeing these books all the time as a kid, but can’t ever remember actually reading them. I always thought they looked cool. You just triggered a memory from like elementary school I didn’t know I had lol
I remember reading like two of them.
Yeah same here lol. I think I might've read one of em, then dropped because I thought it was boring and promptly forgot about.
I only liked the cover art, I use to draw them when I was younger
I read like 60 books so far they get better and better imo
Finding out these were written by different people was crazy to me, they were sooooo consistent.
I remember in like books 10-20 ish, the evil wizard got his own child with a sword called Seth to fight tom. Seth just turned up every book and sabotaged tom every book as a reoccurring henchman. Then the wizard turned him into a scorpion monster called sting for failing so much and he became the final boss of that arc.
I also vaguely recall that tom got real edgy that arc. Then Seth's sister turned up to replace him and guilt trip tom every time they fought blaming what happened to Seth on him.
So the writers did add a little bit more depth to tom later on as well as give a bit more build up to the over arcing story but not much.
I think around the 50th or so book Tom’s father was murdered in front of him by a beast made by the evil wizard and he was really edgy and bent on revenge for a couple books after that until he beat the wizard. I don’t know if it had any lasting effect on his character but I do remember that happened. I sold all my childhood books a few years back though so I wouldn’t be able to go back and check.
@@anonymous01201Yes in Doomskull
So did seth get fixed
@@tfordham13 I think Tom just killed him after he became a monster.
@@cameronmcindoe6119 brutal
I think I might be misremembering a lot of things? But...
1. the beasts didn't all have control collars, it was different magical attatchments for each one.
2. Tom is the son of basically the kingdom's best knight who is long missing, and Hugo can recognise a case of protagonist when he sees one
3. Ferno, sepron, arctus, nanook, tagus, epos. That's series one. Who the heck are all these book covers constantly popping up? Makes me think I'm remembering a different series entirely, particularly since the art for the beasts I do know is so different to the books I own copies of.
4. From what I recall Tom's entire personality is basically just determination. Not great characterisation but it is there.
5. I think a shield having all these powers makes sense too since they were used as symbols of identity way back, heraldry and all that for knights. Also it's representative of a hero's role as a shield for the kingdom too. The golden armour's magic is kind weird tho and it only gets worse from there.
6. One of my biggest gripes about the series is Tom basically gets all his powers plotted away every six books, so the complaint that he can stomp every challenge doesn't ring true.
7. Malvel isn't a real intimidating threat because it's designed for little kids. The hero can struggle of course, but having the villain be an ever present, successful and intimidating threat isn't something I often see in that kind of story.
Also, the monster designs are cool and interesting, and there they are, right on the cover, so you know what you're picking up the book to read about.
It sure isn't a great series, but I don't think it's nearly so bad. Though the fact that I read the shit out of it as a little kid has something to do with it.
About the covers in germany they also looked completely different
Ya. I think the real reason why so many kids liked them was just that as a kid, .... well you just have lower expectations of books oevrall
It might be different covers in the US, because I've seen this series in a few libraries across Europe and they all that the same, preety unique cover with the name on the top, the moster painted in a circle on the middle with usually Tom fighting it and it's name on the bottom, with a descriptor underneath it. I don't think i needed to go that in detail about the covers, whops.
Deltora quest pulled it off. The shadow lord wasn't a 1987 shredder he was more of sauron.
1 - True... Arcta's, I'm assuming it was his blindfold. His book was the only one of the first series I didn't own or even fully read. Tagus and Nanook's were a horseshoe and a ringing bell, respectively (in Nanook's case, I remember the bell kept her from falling asleep, so it made her even more irritable than just possessed by evil magic, always found that neat), and fragments of those items are what's used for Tom's shield. Epos, it was a brass ring around his foot, I think. And I think it was crushed by Tom with his father's old gauntlet, not slashed by a sword, just wanted to add that in.
2 - Yeah, exactly! More than that, Taladon was the Master of Beasts, a high title in the kingdom for the one person that has forged a connection with the Good Beasts of Avantia, to both protect them and fight alongside them, so it makes sense that it makes part of Tom's legacy to become the hero of the kingdom, and even a Master of Beasts himself!
3 - Yeah, I was wondering about that too! But hey, they look pretty cool, ngl.
4 - Yeah, pretty much. I remember always said "by the blood that runs in my veins, I will [do this heroic thing and save the kingdom]" or something along those lines. Though it's more of a direct translation from my country's version. It ain't much, yeah, but it does make him likeable.
5 - Good point! I also remember that the shield sometimes did have a more direct use. With Sepron's tooth, Tom could use the shield as a surfboard, hilariously enough! And with Tagus' horseshoe fragment, it could be used as a board to quickly go down hills and sand dunes. Plus, whenever they needed a more direct use of the item, usually Epon's claw, the could just remove it from the shield. So it's also a way to carry these artifacts, and it's definitely more unique than the typical pendants, necklaces and rings (something that couldn't be said for the later series, but hey, they could only keep it fresh for so long). I always found that striking, and a good symbol of the series.
6 - I'm not sure I fully get your gripe with this one, could you explain further?
But yeah, he basically gets a power at the end of every book, and... they're not always the best ones. Like the golden chainmail, which makes you "strong of heart". As in, braver. Uh, great, I thought Tom was already brave? It's a very "passive power" that, unlike some of the others, doesn't get a very defined use. It's like a minor boost of power or defense to a weapon in a game. It... exists, but you kinda forget you even have it anyways. That's my main gripe with some of the powers.
7 - Eh, I found him more intimidating in the second and third series (the last ones I did read), and the first special book was pretty cool as well in that aspect. But I do think he drags on in his ploys and threats a little too much. But, such is the nature of a series of six short stories. He can't do much in each story, but they're enough to extend the adventure a lot, so he ends up not making much progress in each book.
"A shield letting you breathe under-water is just strange to me"
*Elder Scrolls glares in your direction*
Got the sea serpent book at a book fair in elementary school. It came with a necklace that I think I still have stowed away somewhere. I remember absolutely NOTHING about the story.
Lol wow me too, mine however came with a poster.
Oh my God Deltona Quest just unlocked a deep forgotten memory. I can't believe I forgot a whole series I dedicate YEARS of my life to reading
I never knew they made a decent anime about it until recent years. Dodgy!
I won a raffle in elementary school and got the boxed set and a replica belt
I loved Beast Quest! Not sure why you expected him to be clever or strong, hes like 12. As an 11ish year old reading them he felt relatable because he thought how i did.
@@Mr_Monolithyeah I could code in Unity by 11
Beast Quest was my "Harry Potter", it was my go to choice to read when told to during morning school assembly, I would collect the cards when I bought them just for collection, even go to libraries just to search for those cards, I would try to read every book (including bumper editions) at least once, up to the 13th series, then it kinda eased off me. But yeah, Beast Quest was my childhood fantasy book of choice
Same, I stopped the sought for them around the 13th season - The Warrior's Road. After that, the series seemed to fall really hard.. either that or I just grew up
same here, I read the first 4 series and some of the special spin off stories. until the library in my school had no more of them. so I spent months searching for the other books but could never find them. Eventually, I forgot about them until today.
Another "same" from me, I didn't really follow the series though since I got them all from the local library. I think I read at least the first dozen
I read the one with the Sea Serpent. At one point there was a leak in the boat and the girl character had to tear part of her shirt to patch the leak. That night was my first night dreaming about a woman. Thanks Beast Quest 😂😅
I always have fond memories of beast quest, it even got me interested in creating my own fictional worlds, and I also wrote my first "book" because of bq, though it was a crazy rip off, with the main characters names being Tom and Elena, but the crazy part is that it was a interplanetary journey with cameos of the clone soldiers from star wars and the avengers coming to get Tom out of the antagonists prison and help him defeat him, yeah...
I read a lot of these when I was a kid, but I stopped caring when it was obvious it was being milked, even from the perspective of a kid, amd completely forgot about them. I honestly forgot the beasts were supposed to be secrets, I assumed they were mostly common knowledge because how do you hide this shit?
Also, the covers we got in the UK are leagues better than the ones shown here.
Deltora Quest was my jam as a kid. Loved all the riddles they had to solve to overcome the challenges that you could try to figure out on your own before the characters did.
I loved these! This series was the whole reason I got into fantasy, and my whole fascination in mythological creatures.
I remember reading these mainly because the later beasts were powerful and terrifying. Kaymon the Gorgon hound and Nixa the Death bringer were both freaky
I remember reading them when I first came to the UK and they helped me to learn English, so they hold a special place in my heart for that. Still can’t really remember what happened in them though.
Completely forgot about this series. Read up until the ghost beasts arc and then stoppped. I used to be a voracious reader so just wanted more to read. Beast Quest is dwarfed easily by much better writings such as Ranger's Apprentice, anything by Darren Shan, Percy Jackson, and Spooks Apprentice.
I read the Demonata series by Darren Shan many times. Cirque Du Freak will always have a special place in my heart.
did you ever read the sea quest sci-fi spin off?
@@darkpixel1128 'fraid not
@@punishedbutler3013 tbh it was better but that just might be recency bias because those were the most recent i'd read
I remember seeing these at my local library when I was like 9, I never looked at them because I thought they looked boring but I always liked looking at the covers. I had one friend who I met at a summer camp recommend them to me and that was literally the only person who I’ve seen ever talk about these books. But his family was British so I don’t think his opinion even counts
A primal memory locked deep away in my fucking brain has been unlocked
Beast Quest was a series I never read, nor heard anyone talk about, but I was definitely aware of its existence. It was the sort of book series you'd see packed in boxsets in budget bookshops like The Works and this you could get a whole stack of them pretty cheap, certainly cheaper than the Harry Potter of Goosebumps sets they were placed alongside.
It was this affordability that likely appealed to parents of young kids who just wanted to be occupied with simple whimsical stories.
As a kid I remember the covers being awesome and then opening the books only to get very bored
I remember Warriors, my sister red a few of them some girls in my grade got really into them to the point they played it at recess, which meant they just crawled around and attacked people. I saw half of them at a furry convention the other day
I've waited for a beast quest video for so long w/o even knowing it
it was basically my "reading childhood" before harry potter
Oh my god I've been searching for YEARS for the name of my favorite childhood books and it's deltora quest. Thank you
God I loved these as a kid. I was always buying each new book until the bookstore I went to just stopped supplying them. I thought the author was dead.
I misremembered this as being connected to Deltora Quest, this video has changed my life already
This series was really popular in the UK. Most people I know here have read them.
I remember my brother reading these when it was the early 2010's. He was in grad school then, he's in college now. I feel old.
Oh god, my brother loved those. He's never read a book since, but those were his absolute FAVOURITE when he was like, 7. God. You've made me remember them now.
You talking about Deltora Quest just reminded me that I still have these books somewhere at home, and how much this series influenced me into getting into puzzles, fantasy in general and geology to some extent. It's not my field of study nowadays, but it is something I try to engage with on surface level from time to time, if only to look at the fancy minerals with weird shapes, colors and properties most of the time.
That being said, I don't know if I ever saw any Beast Quest when I was younger.
first time watching the video but like10th time seeing the thumbnail, so i can say with confidence that i do remember beastquest.
Something to note is that in the third series, after he's claimed the golden armor, as each beast is defeated in the country of the evil wizard guy, he loses the power of one piece of the golden armor, until eventually it has no power to him. Can't remember why, something about resurrecting his dad? There were some details in that particular series that I enjoyed looking back, like the map to traverse the region sometimes just lying to the protagonist.
Yeah I remember that really well. Series 3 was great.
Of the 140+ books in the series I only read the first 4 series (24 books) because I could never mind the books in the 5th series
Pretty sure kids only brought these for the covers. I think I had about fifty before I got bored and ended up giving them away. It didn't help that I'd already read the Deltora Quest books and even as a child I could tell one series was much better written than the other.
I remember liking these books mainly because i could read through an entire one in a few hours and it would get my mom off my back for those summer reading assignments
Never read Beast Quest, but as a kid “Rowan of Rin” had monopoly of my reading time
Read most of this series, and all i remember is that Tom had some crackhead determination 😂
Oh man, I read so much of these as a kid. I got up to Series Eight before finally dropping off.
I actually do remember this game! I played it all the time as a kid
Damn, I remember this series. Struck me as cheap and formulaic even back then.
Wdym beast quest ?? That's all my childhood ! And my first introduction to the "you're the Hero" stories with their 2 spécial books. It was FIRE.
Towards the end of this video you perfectly described what indie publishing has become. House names fronting dozens of ghost writers churning out content with huge ad spends, and social media campaigns designed to lend "authenticity" to what is actually a soulless, artless, money-driven, and ultimately cynical, enterprise.
The main thing I remember is the books coming with necklaces, and being disappointed by getting the wrong necklace for the sea serpent book.
i was never allowed to read these as a kid and i ALWAYS wanted to. guess this is the closest i’ll get, thanks james.
Allowed? For what?
You can always just buy the books now, I assume your not a kid anymore
What was the reasoning?
Me and my friends grew up with this book series in grade school. We all agree on one thing: Trillion the Three Headed Lion is the strongest of the beasts because he's the last to show up.
i remember wanting to read every single one of these books...stopped at 42 as i got overwhelmed by how many there were
Damn, I never thought I'd hear anyone talking about these. When I was little (maybe around elementary school age) I often got the books from the library, but I can't recall to have noticed someone else picking one of the books up. Never mind bringing them up in conversation.
From time to time, I like getting back into the stuff I read or did as a child to fuel my nostalgia. For example The Three Investigators (Die drei ??? in Germany. The series is still getting produced here and it's huge. Especially the audio drama has a ton of fans and actually delivers by quality rather than nostalgia only), the Goosebumps series, Conni and some others, which are likely not known anywhere else outside of Germany.
From time to time, Beast Quest also crossed my mind. I remember enjoying the books and considered rereading them, but when I went into the children's section of my central library, I was a bit taken aback by the sheer number of books on the shelf. When I last read the books, there were maybe 25 entries to the series and not the well over 140 ones in the main series alone.
I got the second book at my School Fair in Elementary and fell in love ever since, the book even had a poster in it but I dont have the book or poster anymore.
Wow it's hilarious how closely Secrets of Droon fits into your checklist despite you having never mentioned it
i remember borrowing like five of these books from a library when i was twelve or so!! i have no idea what they were about but i remember they existed
I never picked them up but I remember always seeing these in the same section as deltora quest. Which i really hope James covers one day. It has an anime which is the most 2000s thing to come out of the 2000s and was made in Australia (and its available here on youtube last I checked)
POV: You had no childhood
I read some of them because my brother read some of them. I think I liked them because they featured a girl with short hair that had a pet wolf.
This book series is how I got my son to read. He read one page then I would. He had a speech problem so it was twice as helpful. My son still loves the series and has the first 2 sets. From what I've read of it it's a good series for younger readers just starting out. It's not meant to be this awesome layered world. It works to start kids on chapter books with big bold print and a picture on almost every page.
These books were my childhood and I love them so much
I loved this series as a child, I still have fond memories now. Wish it had been written for a slightly older demographic though, the 6 beasts for 6 pieces of a macguffin/6 macguffins got pretty old.
These were some of my favorite books as a kid but they were also a book series I never read in order. I would read one book where he saved a yeti and then in the next book he would be traveling through hell and teleporting through shadows and I was just like “ok I guess were doing this now”
idrc, beast quest is my childhood, fight me >:(
Man this gave me childhood flashbacks
I read a lot of the books. I think the appeal for my was the monster designs.
Beast Quest is such a memorable read for me. When I was 10 it was the series that sparked my passion for reading. I remember a good chunk and now I need to reread tbem
I remember seeing them at my library, and they had a ridiculous amount of them. I guess it was due to chance that I didn't pick them up when I was really young, but I remember coming across them at twelve or thirteen again while searching the library for something to read and by then feeling 'better than that' (which I know in retrospect was really snobbish, and a little hypercritical because I loved the Warriors series and other equally long series without a particular plot like TKKG)
This is the first time in the last ten years that I hear anyone acknowledge or remember this, and ive asked almost everyone I know
This series was actually my gateway into the DnD and TTRPG spiral
I always loved the cover art and would stare at them in book stores but never read them. It always seemed to be the male version of the Avalon series.
The title is so funny to me because the first time this popped up in my recommended, it was about a week after a friend and I had been talking about books we liked as children, and I remembered and brought up Beast Quest. 😁(For what it's worth, though, I've gotten into a lot of things because I was promised cool monsters and the quality of those has...varied wildly. I watched Supernatural because it started as monster-of-the-week and I can't in good conscience recommend that to anyone, but I also first got into D&D because I got my hands on a copy of the Monster Manual, and I'm still into D&D.)
Had to look up when this got published... Never heard of it in my life before now.
I can't believe this...for weeks I've been like "what was that fantasy series I read as a kid" and you NAMED it
Though I haven’t read any of these books. Though from what you described, it seems that these book are so okay it’s average.
But if I were to rewrite the main plot of the story, it will go something like this:
have it be about Tom who is an inspiring young kid who always wanted to slay monsters. Monsters that he and the other kids have heard tales about. His dream seems to come true when his king, Hugo. Picks a select few of kids to take upon a few tasks. One of these tasks Tom takes is to be the squire for one of the kings best knights. As they’re tasked to seek out the dragon, Ferno. At first Tom is excited, he is finally going to see a slay dragon along with his new knight master. Only to find out that his knight master just leaves him for dead, when they reach the dragon. Tom is nearly eaten by the beast, thankfully he is rescued by a wizard, who gives him the tools that needs to defeat the dragon. But tells him, don’t kill the dragon. Just unlock the collar around its neck. Tom mange’s to break the dragons collar, freeing the creature. Once freed, the dragons attitude goes from aggressive to gentle. Tom is shocked by this. Awhile ago the dragon was trying to burn him alive, but now that the collar was off, he is now suddenly acting friendly towards Tom. The wizard explains, but very briefly, that king Hugo put that collar on the dragon and the many beasts in this world as a way to keep him in power. He uses these beasts as either a scapegoat or as his own personal attack dogs. (For example whenever his kingdom needs military action, he’ll just secretly call upon one of his beasts to attack his village. To make it look like that these beasts are a real threat to the kingdom. Or use people like Tom, to sacrifice in order to feed the beasts. And play it off like he “fought valiantly” when in reality the king used him as beast food and wanted no one to notice). Tom is devastated by this information, he couldn’t believe that all these years, he thought the beasts that he was told about, weren’t big bad monsters that would attack his homeland, but are really just enslaved creatures being used by a corrupted king in order to remain in power. Tom also asks why the wizard doesn’t stop the king. As it turns out, the king had him on a collar for a long time too. Hugo used the wizard for his own personal gain like the other beats he keeps enslaved. It’s just that he recently broke free. But doing so, made him a wanted man. And to make matters worse, the kings knights are armed with weapons so powerful that they can kill a wizard. No magic in the world can be rid of such weapons. So the two must work together in order to defeat Hugo, free the beasts and save the other kids like Tom who were sacrificed. But they have to go through a lot obstacles, not just fighting off the beasts that are under Hugo’s control but they also have to find the right key for each beast, and keep the wizard a secret in order to not draw attention from Hugo.
Holy hell man, you reinstalled a core memory in me. I had completely forgotten that I'd purchased the book about the serpent with the matching poster from my school's book fair as a kid. I actually read the whole series after that, but I'd entirely forgotten about it. (Or so I thought because holy shit there are 142 books in this series, I thought there were only 6)
I remember these on the shelves in school when I was 7
I never saw this one, which surprises me since the name and concept would probably have appealed to me back then. Oddly I never knew of Deltora Quest before the anime either. Besides Animorphs the only one I ever really got into was Diadem. Though I was never able to find books 7-12 back then, I assume they were released later because it certainly wasn't for lack of looking. Really should hunt the rest of those down one of these days. Kind of stunned there doesn't seem to be a single youtube video on Diadem actually, that series really needs more love.
I genuinely cannot believe there are this many of the books though, even compared to Goosebumps and Animorphs, that's just insane. It honestly makes me wonder how many other massive series like this I'm totally unaware of.
I picked up the first book when I was about eight. Very quickly put the series down.
I think the cool covers did most of the work to sell these book to kids
Also the video game saved 2 beasts as DLC
I would kill to see a series of you reading warrior cats tbfh
I remember reading Beast Quest in Primary School. I loved them but the school library didn't have any full series. The books were enjoyable at the time but they are definetly books that a child would enjoy but when you get more critical they fall apart.
Magic collars controlling mythical beasts... Hey, that's the main plot from the first half of Digimon 02!
I completely forgot this series existed until this vid came in my recommendeds! I had Sepron the Sea Serpent as a kid (probably is still kicking around somewhere in my room, I wanna go look for it) and always thought it was ok but not amazing. The concept seemed interesting to me more than anything.
I remember being about 14, skimming through the early chapters of the first book.
Never before or since have I read something so... vapid.
Beast quest is when the Zac powers kids switched from spies to dragons.
This awaked a dormant memory. I think I got to the beginning of the gold armor and then stopped
i loved these they got me into lore and reading
Jesus this unlocked a memory for me
I remember this series well. My third grade Teacher read the first six to the class. I loved it. I had (and still have) low standards for my fantasy. If it takes place in a medieval European fantasy land and has people hitting eachother with swords, Chances are Ill be into it. I remember that My favorite of the Series was one of the Ones in the Second part, where Tom fought a two headed snake. I just like snake people.
I remember having every deltora quest book, but for the life of me I can’t remember anything from them except that I was obsessed for a bit and pictured all the main characters as the main cyberchase characters
I actually DO remember these. I never read them, but I saw them all the time in my elementary school library. I've never actually read them though.
That feeling when this book series was better planned than the start wars sequels.
Bringing up warrior cats in the beginning as if it follows any kind of formula besides whatever the think tank of old british ladies could come up with at that moment
In about 2nd grade would read these to kill time in the hour I had waiting after school because they were around in my grandma's classroom from kids in the class getting them from the school library and because I could get the whole thing done in that time. I'm pretty sure I was aware of how bland they were, even as young as I was.
Ohhh I remember the covers (never actually read one tho)
Witcher for children. I’m choking on my rice at that thought
I had these books on my mind very recently but I had forgotten the name! I remember buying the one with the yeti and the one with the sea serpent!
I loved the books and still do. Honestly I still have an, at least, 60 book collection. I've seen many people claim they can't remember anything about the books but its been at least 5+ years since I've last read them and I can probably remember most of the beasts, season gimmicks and other franchise stuffs. I think the story was great and interesting character development does happen (a lot more after the first 6). My favourite thing though was the prologues and endings. The prologues were really intense as nobody in it was safe and you were often built up to the monster before the main character is even mentioned in the book and the endings felt satisfying and made me want to read on most of the time. So that's my experience.
I remember these books from when I was younger, but the covers looked far more kid-friendly
I remember seeing these at the scholastic book fair, picking them up, then shrugging and putting them down. I don’t think I know a single person who actually read them.
As soon as I saw the title I instantly got a ton of flashbacks from when I was obsessed with these books. I remember bringing a guide book about the monsters and stuff to a school camp and stuff and a choose your own adventure book and discovering the series in class when I was bored, looked at the bookshelf and thought “oh this book looks cool” and read it. Although I do remember the covers being different
The most I remember about this series is I once had a book project due the next day so I sat down and read the serpent book in almost a hour. When I look at what I had to do for the project it needed to be about a book with 100+ pages. I was quite disappointed and pretended to be sick for the next few days
Edit: Deltora Quest was 1000x better. Haven’t read shadowlands or the other but the OG book 1-8 and anime were amazing
You describing all those different fantasy series reminded me of one of my favorites: Secrets of Droon. It fits your description to a tee and I remember being obsessed by them as a kid. Never did finish them....