I’m not sure if it was the story, the writing, or just the time in our lives where my youngest son (now 13) started to fade from our read-aloud time (which makes me sad), but reading the third book of Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series (The Ship of the Dead) by Rick Riordan took … forever.
Actually, after finally admitting that we would not be finishing it as read-aloud (despite starting it way back in October!), I dove in this weekend and read with gusto the second half of the book, and found it more enjoyable. Still, the plethora of Norse Mythology names — heroes, gods, places, objects — is mind-boggling and difficult to keep track of.
Once I got into the heart of the adventure — of Magnus Chase and his friends stopping Loki from starting Ragnarok, or the beginning of the end of the world by challenging the trickster God to a poetry duel of sorts — I was fine, although everything Riordan writes now feels like faint echoes of Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief. And the overuse of sarcasm in Magnus’ view of the world gets a little weary to me, as a reader.
I don’t see as many of my sixth grade readers devouring this series like some of the other Riordan adventures, although there are still a few diehard readers who will take up whatever he writes with a passion.
On a side note: I do appreciate how Riordan tackles the gender fluidity of one of the characters, whom Magnus has attraction to even as the character toggles (magically) from male to female, and I admire Riordan’s attempt to open the eyes of his readers to the larger world. I do wonder what some librarians, teachers and parents might think in some of our more conservative places, but maybe we won’t tell them … shhh. Let the kids read.
Peace (in the face of the end),
Kevin