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!
No comments:
Post a Comment