‘Magnus Chase and the hammer of Thor’ Rick Riordan

Thor’s mighty hammer has gone missing once again it has fallen into the hands of the Thunder Gods worst enemies, the giants who tag team with Loki the God of mischief. It’s up to Magnus Chase and his group of diverse magical mystical friends to find it before the giants and Loki use it to destroy the nine worlds.

The second book in the Magnus Chase series begins on earth but as you read more the characters begin to travel within the nine worlds. 

The characters face many problems along the voyage, some of those are traps placed by Loki to send them into the wrong direction such as being stuck in a cave with Zombie Vikings trying to murder them and being put in a trial of games against giants where whoever won got to decapitate the losers.

Magnus Chase son of Frey God of growth and fertility is a demi-god with incredible abilities to heal and make things grow, he is also a strong courageous warrior who puts other’s lives before his own and always tries to do what is right for humanity.

Magnus is the narrator of the book and tells the story from his perspective ‘As glad as I was to see her I noticed that the skin under her eyes was darker than usual.’ (page 2) He did this in a very detailed and complex way through where they were, what they saw how they felt and what they said.

Annabeth who is known as Percy's friend in the Percy Jackson series, is Magnus demi-god cousin. They communicate with each other about their missions through sharing visions with one another. Both Annabeth and Percy make an appearance in the Magnus Chase series. 

Rick Riordan's characters came from different religious backgrounds and had disabilities. The introduction of Alex Fierro a gender fluent shapeshifter and Samirah al-Abbas a betrothed Muslim Valkyrie was a bold move by the author. This shadowed reality because in our world there's a lot of diversity and it’s not always excepted by everyone in society, which is how the characters are portrayed. Even though they were all unique and had individual traits and skills they all worked incredibly well as a team to find Thor’s hammer and un cover Thor's enemies plan.

The lesson I learnt from the book is that every time you come close to a solution there will always be another challenge which is much like reality, but as life takes its twists and turns with love and friendship we can push through to the next challenge which is how the book leads us to the next in the trilogy.

I think this book would appeal to teenagers and young adults because of the comedy that is used frequently in the book. “Hey,” I said. “You look terrible.” “Nice to see you, too, Magnus.” “No, I mean . . . not terrible like different than normal terrible. Just terrible exhausted.” “Should I get you a shovel so you can dig that hole a little deeper?” (page 2) and the mild romance 

I enjoyed and others would enjoy the comedic value in this book and the diversity and individuality of the characters. I also found the Norse mythology side of the book very interesting to learn about what Vikings would have believed and what they worshiped.

If you are interested in fantasy, fiction, comedy, or drama then this is definitely the book for you because its entire story is based on teenage warriors and Norse-Viking myths and legends.

By Samantha Howick