Book Review – The Hammer of Thor

Book: The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard 2) by Rick Riordan
Release Date: October 4th 2016
Genre: Fantasy/Mythology
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Other books in this series I reviewed
The Sword of Summer

Other books by this author I reviewed
The Heroes of Olympus // The Hidden Oracle

Goodreads

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Possible spoilers for the first book in the series

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Synopsis

Thor’s hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon–the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn’t just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands.

If Magnus Chase and his friends can’t retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn. Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer’s return is the gods’ worst enemy, Loki–and the price he wants is very high.

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Review

‘Should I get you a shovel so you can dig your hole a little deeper?’

The Hammer of Thor is yet another solid Rick Riordan novel and a reasonably good continuation to The Sword of Summer. While I really enjoyed reading this book, I do have some small bits to pick with it. For one, I feel that these Magnus Chase books are too long. For me the middle just drags. In this one they again are put on the run around. And while I could appreciate the plot where we discover things aren’t quite so straight forward as it seemed initially, I wish they would have figured things out instead of having it been told to them (and having to prove themselves again in order for it to be told to them). However the ending to this book was strong I felt. I do hope that the next book will be more structured into working towards saving the world than just running around where the villain sends you. Because as much as I do love this world of demi gods and the humor and the additions of diversity, I’d like the plot to surprise me a bit more.  Just a small tad, Rick.

‘The goddess inclined her head. ‘Perhaps we can both try harder not to judge on first impressions, eh?’ ‘

The new addition to the cast of characters is Alex. And Alex is gender fluid. I am very happy to see this in a book because I don’t know too much about it. Personality wise I think Alex is a great addition. She evens out Magnus and Samirah. And do I spy a little crush there?

Magnus was Magnus. Funny at moments, sometimes a little infuriating. I have to say that I tend to have this with the demi-god characters that Riordan writes in first point of view. I had the same feelings with Percy Jackson. I prefer the side characters over the main character. Which is fine. Magnus isn’t a bad character.  And I liked some of the reflecting he does concerning his uncle and how he is regarding Alex.

‘How did you decide when someone was irretrievably lost – when they were so evil or toxic or just plain set in their ways that you had to face the fact they were never going to change? How long could you keep trying to save them, and when did you give up and grieve for them as though they were dead?’

Sam had to deal with so much in this book. I don’t know how she juggles everything. I really need her to get her happy ending with Amir. I think it is because I recognize a bit of her in a friend of mine that I feel strongly about Sam as a character.