Review: #677
Title: The Hammer of Thor
Series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - 2nd book
Author: Rick Riordan
Read Before: no
Comments: The second book of the Gods of Asgard series is a tad above the first purely because there is no further set up required. The plot, as the title suggests, has Magnus and his friends retrieving Thor’s hammer before it is too late and Loki becomes free to destroy the world. Unfortunately, the author’s style of writing has outgrown its welcome and become stale in the process. The plot is repetitive and clichéd, there are no more surprises left. The author tries to throw spanners into the works and amazing twists but they are all predictable. There’s even a hint of desperation when the novel ends with basically guaranteeing a crossover with Percy Jackson’s world in the next book more than just a cameo. When you have to start pulling your most well known character in another series as a drawcard, then you’re running out of hooks for your readers. Not to say that Magnus, Sam and the newcomer Alex are unlikeable characters but they’re just uninteresting, there’s a hint of romance between Magnus and Alex but it’s so obvious that it’s just not fun to read about. The repetitive humour, constant fart jokes and reducing all the gods into pathetic versions in an attempt to “update” them, it feels even worse now. The author is capable of so much more but now he is trying too hard to be “current” and funny that it’s backfiring. The Hammer of Thor is not a horrible novel by any means but now it is definitely becoming derivative of the author’s earlier works.
Rating:
6/10