Hello everyone!
After a long while I'm back with another Rick Riordan appreciation, er, blog post. The last one I posted was roughly in summer last year when I reviewed the first of his Trials of Apollo series (which reminds me that I should probably review his second one in that trilogy soon), but then I kind of fell off the Riordan map, even though I continued reading his books.
Namely, I was taken in by this Norse mythology series the author launched.
It's title is, as you can see on top of this blog post: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.
Sounds familiar?
You're right. There's another Chase running around Riordan's books, and her name is Annabeth, aka Wise Girl, aka Percy Jackson's girlfriend.
Magnus and Annabeth are cousins, and that DOES come into play in the books. Mostly though it just adds to the hilarity of all the situations these kids find themselves in, including but not limited to saving the world, often twice. Who's counting?
So below, you'll find a record-sharp recap of the entire trilogy. And all this while I'm reading Dan Brown's new novel, Origin!
As before in the previous god-related works Riordan put on the market (this would include Greeks, Romans and Egyptians), the central twists in this story are all dominated by the Norse deities. And I strongly urge you to forget what you know about them from any books you may have read or (like me) seen in movies.
Thor in the Avengers? HA. Forget it.
The one in these books is a belching fart machine who uses Mjolnir to watch television shows in HD, and if he can't keep up then he gets cranky. Odin, the All-Father, is feared and respected by all - mostly because when he whips up a motivational PowerPoint presentation, everyone runs for their lives. And the rest of them? Well, Loki is pretty much the way you'd imagine a trickster to be, except this one really has anger management issues. Sif is actually married to Thor in these books, has golden hair and gives out little trophies to her champions if they manage not to die of her husband's stink.
Need I go on?
Suffice to say, Magnus has his work cut out for him. But as opposed to the other demigods, he's not actually one of them. He's a fallen warrior who'll rise again to fight at Odin's side when Ragnarok starts. Until then, he's just hanging out at Hotel Valhalla with his buddies, playing chess to the death and trying to avoid actually dying (again) before doomsday.
Want to know how it all happened?
In the first book, The Sword of Summer, we learn that prospective warriors who are descended from the gods are plucked from dying completely and brought to Hotel Valhalla. This is what happens to Magnus after he learns he's the son of Frey and gets Frey's sword, Summarbrander, aka Jack the Talking Menace. See, Jack has a will and power of movement of his own (a talking sword is kind of a bit more noticeable than a goldn ring though), and he usually helps Magnus out. Except, whatever Jack does when he's zipping around will translate to Magnus in terms of exhaustion, so they have to be careful. Anyway, after getting the rundown of the hotel, getting acquiainted with his floor mates, and figuring that everything in the hotel is to the death, Magnus learns something else: Loki plans to free Fenris, his wolf son (don't ask, if Greek gods can procreate horses ...), and hasten the beginning of Ragnarok. With the help of Samirah, a Valkyrie, his friends Hearthstone and Blitzen, and of course Jack, Magnus needs to sneak out of HV and stop this from happening. In the process, we learn all about Dwarven fashion, Odin undercover, sweet-talking wolves and Taylor Swift being a Dark Elf.
Not joking on the last one.
The second book, The Hammer of Thor, has us meeting our friends after they'd successfully stopped the wolf's escape and are now trying to live (er, you get the idea) normally in HV. Also, a new piece fo the puzzle is introduced, in the form of Alex, a gender-fluid child of Loki. Not to mention that Magnus had hit up Annabeth and the two cousins now try to stay in touch as much as possible. Anyway, things are unfortunately not as peaceful as they seem because Thor, god of thunderous farts extraordinaire, has managed to lose his hammer Mjolnir. Again (it happens every once in a while; I think Jack's the one who mentions duck taping the thing to the god's forehead). If the giants get wind of this then all hell will break loose because only Mjolnir is potent enough to keep them from invading. So, our company is off again, trying to both find the hammer AND prevent the wedding of one Samirah to a giant her dad Loki arranged (let's not get into the fact that she's Muslim and already engaged to a nice Muslim boy to begin with). Things go so-so smoothly, but we do learn that Light Elves are control freaks, giants LOVE bowling through different American states, and Thor is so behind on his shows because of losing Mjolnir that Sif will have peace and quiet for a full year now. Like it? It gets even better because Heimdall, the god standing guard on the bridge to Asgard, takes selfies and butt-dials the Apocalypse every once in a while.
You'd think the gods would've learned something in books one and two, right? Wrong.
In the final book of this trilogy, The Ship of the Dead, though I suspect Riordan may return to the Norse gods at some point, Magnus is taking lessons from none other than Percy Jackson himself, because he needs to go and stop said ship of the dead from the title before Loki (who escaped at the end of the second book) actually sails with it and launches Ragnarok. So, the usual suspects gather one more time and, during Ramadan (the irony) sail on their own super yellow boat self-named Big Banana to try and prevent this from happening. The group this time does include the other members of floor nineteen, though, and so we learn a bit more about what makes them tick, while at the same time meeting a hypie sea god who brews mead, learning they'll need a drink made of the god's spit to defeat Loki, and that Frigg is nuttier than an almond cake, but at least she gives them an acorn to lock Loki in after Magnus defeats him in contest. What contest, you ask? Well, the point of the contest is supposedly to insult your opponent so much that he's small enough to squish under your boot - or, in this case, trap in an acorn. Magnus succeeds - with a little extra help from everyone and Blitzen's self-inflating metal ducks (don't ask) - and prevents Ragnarok. Yay! Doomsday averted!
HOLD UP.
After speaking to Odin and, with the help of Alex (who, by and by, is totally into Magnus and vice versa) opening up his family's old home to the homeless kids of Boston, Magnus calls Annabeth to tell her the great news.
Except, Annabeth's been crying.
Something is very, VERY wrong on their side of the seaboard, not that she shares what it is with Magnus.
Something is very, VERY wrong on their side of the seaboard, not that she shares what it is with Magnus.
But we, savvy readers, know it has to be something with the Triumvirate, the main antagonists in the Trials of Apollo - which means things are SO going sideways in The Burning Maze before Apollo, er Lester somehow manages to shift them into better gear again.
And that's it!
Below, you'll find links to all my previous Riordan-related blog posts, so check those out, and make sure you remember to tune in for the last in Apollo's adventures if you want to learn just what made our Wise Girl cry. Hopefully nothing happened to Percy's baby sister, because otherwise there might just be a riot.
Hann til ragnarøks!
xx
*images not mine
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