Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by: Rick Riordan

 

After exploring Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythologies in his previous three series, Rick Riordan goes to the obvious next step in exploring Norse mythology in his second trilogy of novels: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.  While The Kane Chronicles was set in the same universe as Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus through minor winks and nods, The Sword of Summer opens the trilogy explicitly in the same universe.  Magnus Chase, our narrator and primary protagonist, is the cousin of Annabeth Chase, who does appear at some strategic points during the novel.  There’s also a chapter title that is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jason Grace (though Magnus has no idea who that is).  This kind of means that The Sword of Summer is a book expecting you to have read Riordan’s previous work, which isn’t entirely a bad thing, but when included here it makes the reader expect more than they actually get.  Now this is only the first installment of a trilogy and the end of the book implies that there is going to be much more crossover in the next two books with Magnus and Annabeth having a conversation where everything about each other’s secret lives as demigods is laid out on the table.  The relationship between Magnus and Annabeth is one of those subtle parts of the book where Riordan actually excels at creating something completely new.  There is this unspoken kinship as they both have undergone hardship and had their already decent familial relationship there under the surface.  Riordan establishes them as friends as children though a rich uncle kind of tore that relationship apart.

 

Magnus Chase as a narrator is honestly very odd.  His snark is essentially that of Percy Jackson, tripled, put on growth enhancing drugs, and allowed to simmer in Boston for sixteen years with no adult supervision.  This is a double-edged sword throughout the book with Riordan failing to dial it in at some of the more dramatic moments.  The sarcasm kind of makes some of the genuine fear which Riordan tries to inject at the climax just not work as well as it could.  And it doesn’t actually feel like Magnus is using sarcasm and humor to hide from anything, he’s just naturally that sarcastic from his time living on the streets.  Yes, Magnus at the start of the book is homeless and The Sword of Summer is essentially the story that helps him find a home somewhere which is a great character arc.  Magnus has to learn to accept other people’s help and deal with the responsibility of being a warrior fated to fight in Ragnarok as all those in Valhalla.  Oh, and Magnus dies about fifty pages into the book meaning that Riordan relies on magic to keep him living.  Well, not living, he’s technically a spirit who is allowed back into the world occasionally to go on quests.  He of course escapes because he is a rebel and goes on a quest to find the Sword of Summer which is fated to break the chains of Fenris starting Ragnarok.  The book literally ends by narrowly avoiding the end of the world and Magnus fighting for his own place at Hotel Valhalla.  Magnus being homeless is intriguing for a protagonist, but in this book it feels kind of like it was added in for flavor.  Riordan seems to try with the sarcasm, but it doesn’t quite work.

 

Having Magnus work outside of the formula of being given a quest to complete is interesting, as he has to make his way out and actually spends a lot of the book with Blitzen and Hearthstone, a dwarf and elf who happen to have been friends with him from his time on the streets.  They’re both subversions of the classic fantasy dwarf and elf: Blitzen’s creativity is in creating clothes while Hearthstone the elf is deaf and only communicates with American Sign Language.  They are both fun and dip in and out of the narrative which leaves Magnus essentially on his own at points or with Samirah al-Abbas, a Valkyrie, who sort of is the mentor figure for Magnus, but also has her own demons being the daughter of Loki and apparently that gives her a mischievous nature (it’s a thing that’s not shown, but told to us).  She also is mentioned to be in an arranged engagement which is kind of a rocky thing that Riordan kind of oversimplifies the arguments again, saying that it’s essentially fine because as a child she had some say in her engagement.  Yeah it’s a really weird thing to include, though it is nice to have some Muslim character in young adult fiction whose religion is treated essentially as a character’s Christianity would.  There’s also some interesting connections as Norse mythology did come out of a global empire.  The actual Norse myth stuff Riordan includes here is also excellent, without ever actually stopping the plot to retell any myths (though some of the scenarios are just myth retellings as is to be expected).  There’s a talking sword, Loki appears and is an utter delight, Thor is perhaps a bit too much of a slob (but is accurate), and it generally does make things out to be different from Percy Jackson.  It also feels like Riordan wanted to make this an adult novel to reflect some of the more mature themes, but then just didn’t for whatever reason.  Perhaps it should have been, or at least marketed above middle grade.

 

Overall, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard is off to a great start, though it is at least a bit flawed in creating a narrator who doesn’t always seem as real as he should and some rather touchy cultural elements bring it at least a little down.  There’s almost too much stuffed in this book which also doesn’t help, and it’s one that feels like things aren’t actually finished (and that epilogue does bode very well for the other two installments).  8/10.