Rick Riordan’s The Hammer of Thor is Here!
(Note: Mild spoilers ahead!) Rick Riordan fans, rejoice! The Hammer of Thor (the second book in Riordan’s uproarious Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series) is finally here, and it is most excellent! When last we saw Magnus, the son of the god Frey, and Samira, the Valkyrie who is also Loki’s daughter, they were confronting the fact that Thor’s hammer was lost. Without the might of the hammer, the Nine Worlds could all be overrun by the frost giants (and Thor will be unable to keep up with his favorite shows). In the The Hammer of Thor, they find that things are even worse then they’d imagined, and it’s all Loki’s fault.
Loki has arranged a fiendishly cunning scheme to regain his freedom…one that involves marrying Samira to a most unpleasant giant, finagling Magnus into recovering a magical sword from a haunted tomb, and keeping Thor’s hammer out of reach. Magnus and Samira aren’t a match for Loki in cunning, but they do have good friends on their side, and even a (small) amount of help from the gods. In a mad race to derail these terrible wedding plans and get the hammer back, they are plunged from one adventure into another…while all the while, the clock is ticking. And of course the stakes are incredibly high—if they fail, they’ll allow Loki to unleash Ragnarok, the end of the world.
Though there’s never a dull moment, there is time for character development, and Rick Riordan’s ability to fill his books with individuals the reader will care deeply about is fantastic. Samira must reconcile her existence as a Valkyrie with her strong Muslim faith, Hearthstone must face his unhappy past, and Magnus must keep going despite all that fate keeps throwing at him, relying on the strong bonds he’s created with his comrades to see him through. Even relatively minor characters, like Jack, the Sword of Summer, and Thor’s two talking goats, have strong personalities that come through with vivid clarity.
Along with old friends from the first book, a new main character is introduced here: Alex, another child of Loki, who was taken by Samira to Valhalla after a heroic death. Alex is a fascinating character—taking after Loki, she/he is gender fluid, and determined to master the strengths of his/her inheritance (Loki, though not at all nice, is awfully good at wriggling out of tight situations, and reshaping events, and shapeshifting himself self) without falling under Loki’s control. Alex is something of a wild card in the events of the book, not clearly trustworthy, but a potentially crucial element in the success of the quest for the hammer, and a great addition to the cast!
The Hammer of Thor is just as much a mad whirlwind of events as Riordan’s other books, and just as full of amusing one-liners and ridiculous little touches of absurdity. Fans will not be disappointed, and when they read the last sentence of the book, they will practically cry for the next one right now!
And as a special treat, the B&N Exclusive edition includes a special message from Floor 19 inside!
The Hammer of Thor is on B&N bookshelves now!