Beast Quest 16 – Kaymon the Gorgon Hound

Adam Blade's Kaymon the Gorgon Hound is an action-packed Beast Quest adventure for 7 year olds about a monster dog that can split into three.

What happens

Tom and Elenna are in Gorgonia, a gloomy land under a swirling red sky, trying to free Avantia's good Beasts from the Dark Wizard Malvel. This time it's Tartok the Ice Beast who needs rescuing. She's chained to a rock in the middle of a valley of bluebells.

Pretty? Not these bluebells. Their stamens stab like tiny daggers!

Guarding it all is Kaymon, a hound as big as a bull with yellow eyes and a golden collar. When she's under attack she swells up and splits into three hounds at once. Three sets of teeth instead of one is a problem!

Tom has magic to help him (his golden armour gives him powers like super-jumping and very sharp eyes). But a lot of this story is about him thinking his way out. The way he uses the narrow corridors of a spooky old castle against the three hounds is very clever.

There's a mystery running alongside too. In the castle dungeons Tom and Elenna set a group of prisoners free, and the one-eyed gatekeeper Kerlo isn't sure that was wise. Then Tom finds a lock of hair and a scrap of silk that might have been left by his lost father.

This is the fourth book of the Dark Realm quest, so it helps to know Tom and Elenna already. It's still easy to pick up, though. The story tells you what you need.

Just so you know, it's a fierce one. The opening pages end with the hound leaping out of the fog at an escaped prisoner. Elenna's wolf Silver is badly hurt in the first fight (he's healed with magic, but it's upsetting while it lasts).

If your reader loves animals and worries easily, you might want to be close by for that chapter. If they love monsters, battles and a hero who never gives up, they'll be in heaven.

What to read next

To start the Dark Realm quest at the beginning, try Torgor the Minotaur, where Tom and Elenna first step through the Lion's Gate into Gorgonia.