Book Review: The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3)

Release Date: October 3, 2017
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 432 pages
Source: Review Copy from Publisher

Magnus Chase, a once-homeless teen, is a resident of the Hotel Valhalla and one of Odin's chosen warriors.

As the son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus isn't naturally inclined to fighting. But he has strong and steadfast friends, including Hearthstone the elf, Blitzen the dwarf, and Samirah the Valkyrie, and together they have achieved brave deeds, such as defeating Fenris Wolf and battling giants for Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

Now Magnus and his crew must sail to the farthest borders of Jotunheim and Niflheim in pursuit of Asgard's greatest threat. Will they succeed in their perilous journey, or is Ragnarok lurking on the horizon

    

Review:

Protagonist: Magnus Chase, a once homeless teen, now resides at Hotel Valhalla and after Loki gets free it's up to him and his friends to stop Loki and by extension Ragnarok, all in a day's work right? I love Magnus so much, his sarcastic sense of humor practically sings to my pessimistic side. In this story, Magnus does have some great character development, though it isn't much because while Magnus definitely has flaws, they aren't exactly the types of flaws that could be changed in one installment, and honestly, they aren't completely bad flaws, more the "it makes him more human" kind. As for his character development in this story, well I can't really describe it without giving some spoilers away, so I'll just say that it's pretty freaking fantastic.

World Building: So, I debated writing a romance section and as you can see there isn't one. There is romance in this book, just a bit, but not enough spoiler free romance to write a whole section on, but all I feel comfortable saying is that it's amazing! Now, with that out of the way, there's a great deal of world building in this story. First, there is a cameo appearance from everyone's favorite son of Poseidon and while he's not in the story for very long, I was perfectly fine with that, a check in was all I wanted and it was a pretty hilarious time. We get to see more of the Nine Worlds and even meet some extended family of Magnus's as well as tie up a few loose ends from the previous installment, things I didn't quite expect to see tied up. The new myths that we learn aren't anything new for me, but they were still entertaining nonetheless and there is even a part of this book that parallels a Celtic myth and that may or may not have made me squeal, more because I recognized it and less because it was in the story though that was cool too.

Predictability: So, I didn't really feel like there was a whole lot of foreshadowing, at least not foreshadowing that didn't feel purposely too revealing, but that never bothered me. I was definitely in it more for the ride and what a ride it was. There are a few twists and turns in this book that had my heart racing, or that made squeal like a fangirl at a convention, or fanboy I guess. There was one scene where romancy things were kind of sort of happening, but I wasn't too sure so jokingly I said to my book (and the characters inside,) "Now kiss." AND THEY DID! I felt pretty proud of that one!

Ending: So, the final climax of this book was a little cheesy for me. Don't get me wrong it was awesome and I loved every minute of it, but there was a quality to it that just felt a little too Middle Grade. I wasn't expecting a bloodbath of battle or anything but how things go down, and how Loki is defeated just skewed a bit too young for me, still loved it just not as much as I had hoped. Now, the cooldown period was perfect, I felt like Riordan did a fantastic job at wrapping up most of the dangling threads of this series, but... I still came away from it feeling as though I had read a cliffhanger. There are a few things brought up in the very end that I'm not sure if they're supposed to have a "this has ended, but life moves on" feel or an "A Spin-Off is Coming" feel. Personally, if there are more Magnus book(s) I think one more would suffice, but we'll cross the Bifrost when we come to it I guess.

Rating:

YES! I can finally give a book in this series 5 stars. Don't get me wrong, I loved the other books in this series, but I did have minor problems with them that were extremely hard to overlook, but this installment had nearly everything I wanted and more!

Book Review: The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2)

Release Date: October 4, 2016
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 480 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Thor's hammer is missing again.

The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon--the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn't just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands.

If Magnus Chase and his friends can't retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn.

Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer's return is the gods' worst enemy, Loki--and the price he wants is very high.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Magnus Chase has died, been taken to Valhalla, and stalled the Norse Apocalypse, called Ragnarok, for the time being. Now, with Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, still missing, the giants of Jotunheim are growing restless and preparing for war, the only thing that can stop them is to find the Hammer of Thor, but of course it isn't as simple as just locating the hammer. On this adventure, Magnus will make new friends, learn more about the pasts of his current ones, and with any luck save the world... again. I have to say that out of all of Riordan's protagonists Magnus is probably my favorite followed closely by the hilariously vain Apollo, and in this book he shines like never before. Now that Magnus has had some time to get acclimated to his new situation, train, and learn about what it means to be an Einherjar he's a bit more confident, but he still has a great sarcastic streak to him. Looking back over the book I tried to see if he had any really noticeable or overly significant character development, but there was nothing that conspicuously stuck out at me. Nonetheless, he's still spectacularly well-rounded character and narrator.

Romance: So Magnus doesn't really have a romance in this book, though there is some more implied romance or foreshadowing to a possible romance or I'm reading way too much into things. Anyway if what I may be reading too much into is true than Magnus does get a love interest in this book, but the romance is pretty subtle, i.e. no kissing or declarations of feelings, but (again if I'm reading the situation correctly) there's some really great chemistry that left me shipping the hopefully future couple. Romance isn't a large plot point in this series, however, it does come up here and there and one place it comes up is with Magnus's (best?) friend Sam and her betrothed, Amir. Amir has a slightly larger role to play in this story and Sam and his relationship is very compelling to read. It's easy to see how much they care for each other and even though they are a romantic pairing established prior to the start of the series, they are really easy to root for and you don't find that very often with couples who get together prior to the start of a book or series.

World-Building: Reentering the world of Norse myths I was really excited. If you've read my review of the first book in this series you know there were parts of this series' world-building that I wasn't very impressed with, i.e. there were just enough parallels to the Percy Jackson series to make me uncomfortable. The being said though I still really enjoyed this world and was excited to get back. Once again this world is steeped in Norse Mythology and this one as you may be able to guess based on the title and cover features myths about Thor and/or Loki most of all. Don't get me wrong there are shot outs to plenty of Norse tales and myths but Thor and Loki definitely take center stage. I love learning more about Norse mythology and all of the variations on tales I'd already heard. I'm by no means as knowledgeable about Norse mythology as I am with Greek or even Egyptian mythology, but I was pleasantly surprised with all of the tales I already knew.

Predictability: This book has some good, if not fantastic twists in it. Without giving too much away, or really anything if I can help it, there were a few times when I thought I knew what was going on and what would happen only for this author to throw a huge curve ball. There are of course easily predicted moments, and for the most part, it's easy to see where the story's headed with got me to notice something. This story and the story in The Sword of Summer have a lot of parallels. I'm not going to name them since I don't want to spoil anything but there are a few too many similarities between the two that, like with the first book, it made me a bit uncomfortable. Unlike with the first book, it wasn't "plot specific" details that were paralleled but the adventure itself. There were certain points in both adventures that were mirrored and once I saw the first couple it was impossible to unsee. There aren't a whole lot, but, again, like last time just enough to make me a bit uncomfortable.

Ending: Dear lord this ending was intense! Going into the final climax things were going according to plan, or well they were going the way I had expected them too, and while the ending was *mostly* predictable, there were a few moments that made up for it in the gravity of their twists. After the dust settles things are set up for the final book in this series, I'm sad that there's only one book left but Rick Riordan did throw readers a pretty big bone with one of the best, and probably most excruciating to wait, cliffhangers yet. (Excluding the one in Mark of Athena)

Rating:

I loved this new adventure in the Nine worlds! Even though the two quests have so far hit similar notes in a slightly uncomfortable and seemingly unintentional way, since I enjoyed this story so much I think I'll reserve judgment to see how this trilogy comes together.