Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard

Reading Magnus Chase: What Actually Works

The Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy by Rick Riordan follows a fifteen-year-old homeless kid in Boston named Magnus who discovers he is the son of a Norse god. The series has three main books — The Sword of Summer, The Hammer of Thor, and The Ship of the Dead. If you want to read them in order, just get them in publication sequence. It doesn't matter whether you go paperback, ebook, or audio. The audiobook is actually done by the same narrator Riordan uses for his Percy Jackson books, so if you've listened to those before, it will feel familiar immediately. I found that the worldbuilding here is more scattered than in Riordan's earlier work. The Norse pantheon isn't neatly organized the way the Greek gods are in Percy Jackson. You get random references to Yggdrasil, the Nine Realms, draugr, fire giants, and various other creatures without a clear glossary explaining what they all mean. A lot of people bounce off Book 2 because the plot jumps around between realms too much. My workaround was keeping a simple notes document open as I read, writing down each new term and where it appeared. Took ten minutes, made the whole thing much more coherent.

Magnus Chase And The Gods Of Asgard

The core mechanic of the series is that Magnus, after dying, ends up in Valhalla, specifically in the Room of Entry where he meets Randolph Carter, the concierge. From there, he goes on quests — usually sent by Heimdall, the All-Father's lookout. The magic system revolves around the concept of blessings from your divine parent, weapon summoning, and knowledge of runes. Unlike Greek demigods who get powers related to their parent's domain, Magnus's abilities are much more situational and depend heavily on which realm he is in and what resources are available there. One thing people miss about this series is that the humor actually does a lot of structural work. Riordan isn't just being funny for laughs. The jokes are how Magnus processes trauma. He gets dropped from a building, dies, and then makes self-deprecating comments about it for the rest of the trilogy. If you read this as a pure adventure story you will find it tonally inconsistent. Read it as a kid using humor as a shield and it clicks into place properly. Another counter-intuitive detail: the series assumes you already know basic Norse mythology better than Riordan's other works do. The Percy Jackson series introduces everything from scratch. Magnus Chase expects you to roughly understand what Asgard is, what Yggdrasil means, and who Odin is. I would recommend skimming a basic Norse mythology overview before starting, even just a few Wikipedia pages on the major gods. It saves you from spending most of Book 1 confused about why characters keep mentioning specific names without context.

If you are looking for where to get the books, Amazon carries all three in every format. Barnes and Noble has the ebook versions at a slightly lower price point than Amazon usually. You can also find them through your local library's digital collection via Libby or Hoopla, which is the cheapest option if you already have a library card. Audiobooks run about $25 to $30 per title unless you use the library. The main downside of this series is that Book 3 wraps up some threads very hastily. The romance subplot between Magnus and Sam gets almost no resolution. Alex Fierro's story arc regarding her gender identity and her relationship to Loki is compelling but underdeveloped. Some readers feel let down by the ending. It is a legitimate critique. The books work best as a mid-grade adventure series, not as a tightly plotted epic fantasy. Managing that expectation before you start will save you from disappointment. There is also a companion novel called The Lost God which takes place between Book 1 and Book 2. It is shorter, mostly filler, and not essential. I read it because I had nothing else available and finished it in an afternoon. It is fine but skip it if you are trying to get through the main trilogy efficiently.