Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

"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."

After the Great Triggering and Depression of Lady Midnight and the withdrawal period that was Trials of Apollo, I was again emotionally available for something to read. Julienne, being ever so meticulous with her books (truly understandable!), eventually offered me a jacketless, hardbound of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan (wordy!). Being the desperate that I am, I read it the same day it was given; thus, basically going in blind. Completely blind enough to be mindblown when I discovered that Magnus and Annabeth Chase were cousins. (Actually, that was probably bordering on pretty stupid.)

Given how I knew very much nothing about this thick book in my hands with really really sharp corners (I have the scars to prove it), I found Magnus to be refreshing and enthralling from the beginning. He was a homeless teenager, for Frigg’s sake. I can only count one book to start with that. And of course, the fact that he legitimately died somewhere in the first three chapters or so. (Clearly, when you kill off main characters, you earn points from me. I'm waiting, King’s Cage.)

“'What kind of animal am I eating?'  

Sam wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. 'It's named Saehrimnir.'

'Okay, first of all, who names their dinner? I don't want to know my dinner's name. This potato--is this potato named Steve?'

She rolled her eyes. 'No, stupid. That's Phil. The bread is Steve.'”

Magnus was humorous and adventurous as the story unfolds and to read, as well. His responses and reactions were sometimes too real to manage. However, he was built on this “thrust-into-a-new-world-turned-hero” template, sprinkled with sarcasm and just a little denial. I hate to say it but there were instances he was too generic for me to care about his wellbeing; there’s an assurance he’d get out of the situation because he’s just that amazing, even if he doesn’t know it yet.

Another issue I had was how he literally took in everything without a grain of salt. “Oh, there’s a whole world based on what I thought were just myths. Weird but yay!” “Oh, there’s a goddess right in front of me that I don’t even understand how they can exist. Nice to meet you!” Magnus was just an ordinary boy who lost his mother to Brooklyn wolves, enjoying the lack of responsibilities as a street kid then he was suddenly introduced to this vast and complex parallel world(s) of Norse. Response? Nod, smile, and join the bandwagon. It was more telling than showing.

I found his overall intentions in finding the sword of Summer extremely…blurry. Yes, the whole quest was to delay the inevitable Ragnarok but Ragnarok was never fully explained, in the first place, aside from prophecies that were meant to just happen. Obviously, it entails Doomsday, the end of the world, the apocalypse but we were never properly presented with the high stakes and so, I never felt the urgency of Ragnarok. Throughout the book, it often made me wonder, why is Magnus even doing this in the first place? Why does he care when he has got nothing left to lose anyway?

"The thing about fate, Magnus: even if we can't change the big picture, our choices can alter the details.That's how we rebel against destiny, how we make our mark. What will you choose to do?"

The inconsistent pacing and dragging around the middle didn’t help my already skeptical brain. While the adventures were fun to a degree, some moments simply felt unnecessary or forced and stretched the quest longer than necessary. The rising action had that sense of urgency everyone was going on about but on the long journey to the “climax” and “falling action”, delaying Ragnarok was dissolved to an item in a to-do list that must be finished before the weekend.

The whole quest of finding the sword of Summer and not letting the dog out (woof woof!) was a series of 45-minute episodes of a season of Magnus and Friends Travel Diaries. Almost literally. Every episode began and ended with a magic teleport to a world vital to the next step of plot. Every episode included a guest star vital to the next step of plot. Although the next episode was unpredictable – who knew we’d get to a giant’s beanstalk of a windowsill or the woodworks capital of the nine realms – the elements were repetitive and too convenient to the next step of plot.

Truth be told, I don’t necessarily mind meh story telling if the characters manage to bring the book up (i.e. Clockwork Angel). However, Sword of Summer ended up short just a little bit in that department. I don’t fault Rick Riordan for sticking with a Magnus POV. It was a necessary move but it limited to me loving Magnus and just liking (and sometime tolerating) everybody else. We get a clear depiction of everything Magnus – the camera was just solely focused on him – but it’s as if Riordan forgot, character arcs were happening at the same time. We only get updates on character developments and teasers of their intricate backstories like a Waize during traffic. This resulted on the dreaded detachment of reader.

One of the lacking things I actually enjoyed in Sword of Summer was the absence of nonplatonic love. This series starter very much focuses on family even from the beginning and I was impressed to discover it continued to be. There were a lot of familial elements, and although I wish it was more expounded and emphasized especially with Magnus and Friends, I still appreciate it and hope it’s more evident in the sequel.

Sword of Summer was a lot of things I liked and didn’t. Nonetheless, it was enjoyable and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Tom Hiddleston as Loki in the next book, Hammer of Thor.