Magnus
Chase and the Gods of Asgard is an ongoing trilogy by Rick Riordan. The first
book, Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer was released in 2015, the second
book, the Hammer of Thor in 2016, and Magnus Chase and the Ship of the Dead
comes in 2017.
The
first book is about Magnus Chase, a 16 year old boy who was homeless ever since
his mum died from wolves 2 years prior. His homeless friend, Blitz, warned him
that someone is after him. Next thing he knows he is reunited with his
obnoxious uncle who casually tells him his father is a Norse god. I think Rick
has done a good job doing the funny first person narrative of the Percy Jackson
books and the humour of the Heroes of Olympus books altogether.
Now
spoilers if you haven’t read
Magnus Chase.
So
we start off with Magnus sleeping on a bench in Boston and saying he was
homeless. I didn’t expect him to be homeless at first but turns out he was
because his mum died due to wolves. Then we meet Blitz who tells him that
someone is after him. Then the people who were finding him was actually his
Uncle Frederick and his daughter Annabeth, Magnus’s cousin. Magnus decided not
to talk to them and arrived at his other uncle’s, Randolph’s, house. By house
he meant mansion. Uncle Randolph was
the oldest so he got the family fortune. I like how Magnus says chocolate is
very important so he stole some from his uncle’s refrigerator and kept it for
later. In the Chase Mansion was his other homeless friend: Hearth. Hearth was a
deaf mute which I don’t see a lot in books. He used sign language to
communicate and he can read lips.
Also,
in the back of the book, he says he tells the story of how he died. I thought
he was exaggerating and that he didn’t actually die. Then three chapters in he
actually dies fighting a fire giant. As he died he arrived at Valhalla, the
afterlife he went to after having a heroic death. There are other afterlifes
like Helheim, Ginungagap, and Folkvanger but I’m not really clear about what is
in those other places. Is Ginungagap a dark void? A I love the part where Magnus and Samirah, his
Valkyrie, were in the Feast of The Slain and one of the food has a name because
it gets killed every night for dinner. Magnus asks ‘Why does my food have to
have a name? Is the soup Steve?’ Then Samirah says ‘No, silly, the soup’s Harvey,
the bread’s Steve.’ Magnus then looked at her weirdly. So we find out that
Blitz is a dwarf and Hearth’s an elf. They arrive at Nidavellir, the realm of
the dwarves and go inside a pub. Blitz had a friend inside but suddenly another
comes in who’s name was Junior I think. I found it really funny that when
Taylor Swift’s Blank Space was the song playing inside, we find out Taylor
Swift was dwarf. Junior and Blitz have a contest where the loser’s head is
chopped off.
Blitzen won the build-off and got the
string to bind Fenris Wolf, Loki’s wolf son. They had to get the string because
if Fenris wolf is released, it will start Ragnorak: The end of the world. It
was so depressing when Hearth was rejected by his parents because he was a deaf
mute and when his brother died, it got worse. His parents said the wrong
brother had died and it was just so sad. Poor Hearthstone. When they were able
to bind Fenris wolf, all the Valkyries fought the fire giant, Surt. At the end
three Valkyries died, one of them was the Captain, Gunilla, daughter of Thor. I
don’t usually see a character death in the first book and I didn’t even really
like Gunilla but she risked her life for them to stop Ragnorak.
My favourite part is at the end when
Magnus meets up with Annabeth. I really recommend the book to everyone because
of the great, funny and diverse characters. It will give you a lot of information about the Norse myths and gods. I
really love the book, I have read the second one and I can’t wait for the third
one.
