The Sword of Summer (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, #1)

by Rick Riordan

[sa090]

I enjoyed this book, reading Rick's writing is always one of my favourite things. Even though Magnus feels just like Percy all over again in the way he talks, it was still hilarious, entertaining and I for one can't wait for Thor's Hammer. The Sword of Summer follows the same basic formula of almost all the series Rick wrote that are like this.

I did enjoy it regardless because for one, I have little knowledge about Norse Mythology so learning about the Asgardians and the nine worlds was actually pretty interesting, of course it'll take a while for me to remember everything because of how weirdly everything is named but in the end I think I'll get the hang of it. The second thing I enjoyed was the small jabs Rick made Magnus throw at Percy like "I hate the colour blue" or "A pen sword? That's like the stupidest idea I've ever heard" I'm paraphrasing of course but that's the jest of it.

The third thing I enjoyed was Annabeth being in the book, in all 10 books of Percy Jackson she remained my favourite character and seeing her in the new series once again is something I will look forward to based on what happened in the final few chapters with the cousins meeting up and possibly getting a sort of bigger crossover in the books to come. Not sure how Odin and Zues will fit together though, the personalities are very very different.

Finally Rick's habit of having strong female character is epic to read every single time, Samira is a badass with the shape shifting, the axe wielding and that fight against Fenris Wolf was really really great. However nothing in this world is perfect and this book is no exception.

The only problem I had with the book was connected to Samira, not because of a bias against her religion since I am a Muslim as well, proud to be. It's because of Rick's ignorance on the matter, do you know that the greatest sin in Islam is believing that a deity other than Allah exists? Do you know that if you do believe in that existence you're not a Muslim anymore? I'm guessing the majority doesn't. While I enjoyed seeing him try to be diverse in the characters, he should've known that no Muslim character is going to fit in his books.

I say he should've known because when Magnus was basically attacking her about the arranged marriage she corrected him when he thought it was forced and the lack of touching between them in the book as well, so a small amount of research was conducted, btw if a girl says "no" the marriage doesn't happen because the guy writing the paper that says this man is married to this woman has to HEAR HER SAY YES. No one can say it instead of her, she also gets to set conditions that the husband MUST follow or the marriage is nulled.

So basically Samira isn't really a Muslim anymore and neither is her mother, so I'm conflicted. When I read his books I don't think of Thor, Odin, Zues or Poseidon to name a few as actual deities, to me they are just powerful characters with millions of kids. This actually played a bigger role in my enjoyment than I thought it would which is why I gave this book a 3instead of a 4 or 5 and why it took a while to read. Other than that it was enjoyable and like I said before I'm looking forward to both of his books next year (There is one concerning Apollo, though the title escapes me).