The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) by Rick Riordan

21 januari 2016

The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #1) by Rick Riordan - spoiler-free Review




Pages: 528 ages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: October 2015
Genres: Fantasy / Humour / Mythology / Middle Grade
My rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

MagnusChaseCoverGoodreads synopsis

"Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die . . .
 " 



Review

Magnus Chase and the sword of summer is a story about a guy who dies while defending himself against a fire giant (whom he calls 'satan's fashion consultant) and ends up in Valhallah. Here he has to deal with the fact that his dad is a Norse god, and has to go on a quest to delay doomsday together with Hearthstone the elf, Blitzen the dwarf and Sam the ex-valkyrie who got kicked out for bringing Magnus to Valhallah. 
Magnus official art. This art actually isn't too bad... <<< No, it's pretty awesome.  I wish we just had a canonical WRITTEN description first.  Now I'm going to be biased when I read it--it's like watching the movie before seeing the book.  You can only see the book characters as the actors afterwards.: “My name is Magnus Chase. I’m sixteen years old. This is the story of how my life went downhill after I got myself killed.” 


I've read a lot of Rick Riordan's books, but I don't seem to get tired of his writing, even though his stories often have the same feel to them. I was hooked from the first scentence, and I wouldn't have expected it to be any different with a first sentence like that.

Magnus Chase, cousin of Annabeth Chase, is yet another kid who finds out one of his parents is a God and who goes on a dangerous quest. This story is different from his previous books in one aspect; this story is about Norse mythology instead of Greek mythology. We have dwarfs instead of centaurs, and elves instead of satyrs. And I dig it. 

“YEAH, I KNOW. You guys are going to read about how I died in agony, and you’re going be like, “Wow! That sounds cool, Magnus! Can I die in agony too?” No. Just no. Don’t go jumping off any rooftops. Don’t run into the highway or set yourself on fire. It doesn’t work that way. You will not end up where I ended up.” 

Saber: I finally finished reading Magnus Chase!! What a wonderful book, and the characters so far are all really lovable. | art by sabertooth-raccoon: Magnus his character reminds me a lot of Percy Jackson, so it's a good think I love Percy or I would've been very bored. Magnus is just as sassy and funny as he is. The side-characters on the other hand are completely unique, and I started to love them almost immediatly. Hearthstone, the deaf elf who was disowned by his parents and learned how to 'do magic', Blitzen, the dwarf who loves fashion and wants to start his own clothing store, and Sam, the muslim daughter of Loki who is a valkyrie, and is in an arranged marriage with a guy she is actually in love with. Everyone of these characters is badass, funny and wonderful, but somehow one of my favorite characters is a talking goat named Otis. Don't ask. 

“Back up,” I said. “What did Sam mean by again? You’ve lost your hammer before?” “Once,” Thor said. “Okay, twice. Three times if you count this time, which you shouldn’t, because I am not admitting that the hammer is missing.” “Right…” I said. “So how did you lose it?” “I don’t know!” Thor started to pace again, his long red hair sparking and popping. “It was just like…Poof! I tried retracing my steps. I tried the Find My Hammer app, but it doesn’t work!” 

“I am a seeker of knowledge!’ Odin announced. ‘This has always been true. I hung from the World Tree for nine days and nights, racked with pain, in order to discover the secret of runes. I stood in line in a blizzard for six days to discover the sorcery of the smartphone.’

I loved learning about the Norse mythology through this book. Of course I knew something about Thor and Loki from movies, but I could throw that information out of the window while reading this book. In this book, Thor is a rather clumsy big God who is addicted to tv-series that he watches on his hammer, Loki is an evil charming God who is building a ship out of toe clippings and Odin is just gone for the biggest part of the book. 

In my opinion, this was yet another excellent Rick Riordan novel, that I'd reccomend to anyone who loves funny fantasy novels, or anyone who is even remotely interested in Norse mythology. 





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