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4 stars! This review will be spoiler free for Ship of the Dead, but will have spoilers from previous books! Synopsis: This is the third installment in the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy! Loki has escaped and is planning to ride a death ship to start Ragnarok. Magnus, Sam, Alex, and the rest of floor 19 are trying to stop Ragnarok. Magnus and crew have to complete tons of deadly, near impossible tasks to prepare to stop Loki. Near death experiences and shenanigans ensure from there. Initial thoughts: Ah the feeling of finishing another great Rick Riordan series... or so it seems. Either way, I was wholly satisfied by this book. The adventures the group went on were action packed and full of twists and turns and lots of "talking their way out of any kind of situation." I liked how most of the tasks they had to complete were done in smaller groups and not every single crew member on every single mission. This allowed each of the non-main yet still very relevant characters to showcase their abilties. The characters continue to amuse me with their witty sarcasm, humorous comebacks, and sassiness. Every character has a personality and a back story and you can easily fall in love with any of them. I was livingggggg for subtle hints of romance. Sam and Amir are adorable as ever. Then there's the Magnus+Alex ship and though it didn't completely sail for me by the end, I do understand this is a middle grade, and this is the best I will probably get. That ending felt so nostalgic of the nicely wrapped bow ties Riordan usually writes. STILL. This ending feels... unfinished. I STILL feel like something more will come from these book and these characters. I'm ready for whatever comes next! Plot: First of all, PERCY. Magnus meets Percy and the whole time I’m just like in Percy dream land. He is so sweet on Annabeth I freakin’ love it. Especially when he’s like, Annabeth should have been training you, not me. And that sets the whole premise for the rest of the book. LOVE. Then the rest of the adventures, and battles, and obstacles, and trials, and terrors ensue. This plot was very… straightforward. I kept expecting something to go wrong, but in my opinion, Magnus and crew only had minor setbacks. Every issue was generally solved painlessly and without much bloodshed on the “good guys” side. Most of what gets to you in this book are the emotions. Every trial that Magnus takes us through is an emotional rollercoaster, most especially when he is with Blitz and Hearth. Definitely had some tear-jerker moments. Now, if I’m being completely honest, I missed the special powers of the Gods that get passed down into their offspring. Alex may be able to shift change and all, but when I look at Magnus… He doesn’t actually have any powers or fighting ability. He has Jack of course, but even Jack’s fighting scenes were duller than I expected. What I’m trying to say by all this is, the plot is great. It’s fun. There’s travel. There’s new Norse deities and beings to meet. BUT, I wasn’t completely blown away by it all. The ending had it’s climax, but it was not anything amazing or crazy or surprising. Still I was just about satisfied with how everything was wrapped up. Let’s go with: “just good.” BUT LET ME TELL YOU WHY I STILL LOVE THIS BOOK. Characters: The characters are the absolute best in this book. I love all the representation Riordan has in this book. You have:
Characters of all shapes and sizes and species
A deaf elf unaccepted by his father
A gender fluid character who is confident in his/her fluidity
A relationship between a gender fluid character and a character with no certain sexuality
A Muslim who stays true to her religious laws and is still able to worship her Norse Gods as well, who is also a part of a very cute, very pious heterosexual relationship
A dwarf, who by dwarven standards is unusual because of his love for fashion rather than architectural craft, is considered different than the population
SAMIRAH is a Muslim Valkyrie who not only is able to complete her mission while fasting for Ramadan, but is able to worship the Norse Gods as well as her own all true God. ALEX is gender-freakin-fluid. “Guys my pronouns are now he and him.” Alex is such a fun character. She created pottery barn and even gave him pronouns they/their. She is unpredictable. You never really know what you’re going to get from him, especially when it came to the romance between him and Magnus (which is 100% SHIP!). She even has history that we get to learn more about in this story. His upbringing, mentions of his father. Alex is also a killer with her make-shift pottery weapon. Gosh she is the most intriguing character of all of them.
MAGNUS is kinda just ordinary. The POV. The person you see things through. But he is kinda funny. BLITZ is the best character to watch for fighting. FLYING DUCKS is all I can say and I was dying of laughter. He’s also so caring and so kind especially when it comes to Hearthstone. They are so sweet on each other it’s the best bro-lationship I could have hoped for. HEARTHSTONE is my precious baby. He has been through SO much and yet he still comes out strong. His rune abilities are impressive and slightly make me want to learn the Elven alphabet. I just need him to recover and be happy. TJ/MACK/HALFBORN are the gang that make Magnus and them more physically powerful. While Samirah, Alex, Blitz, and Hearth are the root of wits and humor, these guys are the root of the strength. Overall: This book wasn't the best in the trilogy for me, but I still think it was good. The plot obvious didn't blow me to smithereens, BUT I have so much love and appreciations for these characters. That's what kept me going in this series. Those gosh darn amazing characters. This trilogy in its entirety was very funny, sarcastic, entertaining, adventurous, and full of diverse wild characters. I loved it as I have will all the Riordan books I've read. Was it the best so far? Not in my opinion, though I know many disagree. I still love PJO and HoO so so so much more, but would absolutely recommend this series if you need a mythological Uncle Rick fix!
I LOVE this alternate cover. I MUST have one day.