Let's talk about Magnus Chase for a minute.

I want to say that I have no clue why people are so crabby about this book. I thought it was incredible. It was fun and it was right in the lane of Rick Riordan. So WHY SO BITCHY

Let's do bullet points. I'm feeling bullet points for Magnus. It's not going to be a good points / bad points deal, it's going to be a "this is how I feel about Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard : The Sword of Summer" deal.

*I would like to say that I was very excited about this book. I purchased it before I even read the Percy Jackson series / Heroes of Olympus series. I'm super interested in Norse Mythology (that does NOT mean, though, that I know much about it). So to see that Riordan was writing a book about a boy related to a Norse god got me tickled.*

-This book was a giant info dump. I'm not saying that in a bad way. I am glad that Riordan made an assumption that no one knew about Norse mythology or any of the stories. That being said, it did seem like a lot of information to take in. Do I care? No.
-Yes, there were a lot of similarities to Percy Jackson. IS THAT A PROBLEM? If you were looking for something else then why not read something else. I don't understand why people are complaining about this book when it was totally. awesome. and. good. and. similar. to. Percy. Jackson. but. that. is. Riordan's. niche. YES it was similar, but HELL NO it wasn't the same book. He went on different adventures. He talked to different types of creatures. He didn't exactly HAVE a quest, that he needed to complete by the end of the book. HE ISN'T THE SON OF A WAR GOD OR THOR OR LOKI. He is the son of Frey, a non-warrior. Please, walk away if you have a problem with this book. I don't get the hate.
-There was DIVERSITY. Everyone was diverse. Our main character, Magnus, was your typical non-diverse, but he was homeless and didn't know much about his family. He tried not to take anything for granted. Then you had his two homeless buddies, Blitz and Hearth, who are not homeless but a dwarf and an elf. Blitz is… fashionably inclined (I don’t want to say he’s gay yet, but that’s the feeling I was getting and I really did love that) and Hearth is deaf. HE’S DEAF! Riordan wrote this whole book with a deaf character signing in it and I thought he did an excellent job including him. THEN you have Sam, the Valkyrie. Sam sees potential in Magnus when he dies, so she picks him for Valhalla. Sam is Muslim (I don’t want to say devout, as she does take off her head piece a few times, but perhaps she is close to that) and sassy. MUSLIM AND SASSY AND DANGEROUS! Only similar to Annabeth with the SASS. THEN YOU HAVE the four friends that Magnus meets in Valhalla: Thomas Jefferson, Jr., X, Mallory Keen, and Halfborn Gunderson. These people are awesome and are also in Valhalla training for Ragnarok (whenever that happens of course). Everyone is so diverse. That makes this book even more fun to read. Every character is different and has a different course set for themselves.
-Yes. Magnus and Percy have similar voices. They’re both very snarky and always have something to say. I see this as something good. Why not have a main character that is similar to everyone’s beloved main character from the Percy Jackson series yet be very diverse with all other aspects of the book to make it almost nothing like Percy Jackson? I liked Magnus just like I liked Percy, and I saw a difference in the two. Percy is snarky because he doesn’t quite understand his power and the book begins with him as a 12 year old; Magnus is 16 and living on the streets. If you don’t have street smarts you won’t survive. It’s also a nice Segway for people who might be afraid to stray away from Percy.
-There were quite a bit of cultural references in this book, which made me like it even more. That means it is definitely set in our time / age. It’s not a different world. Again, that adds to the charm of this book: everyone knows what Riordan is talking about and can have a giggle about it.
-There is a giant squirrel that lives in a tree
-Loki is the mother of a horse
-There is a goat named Otis who is basically a sweet baby and belongs to Thor and I just. Loved. Otis. I request more of him in the second book.
-There were so many other “side” quests in this book. That I won’t talk about because I feel like I’ve already spoiled too much.
-I WILL SAY: I wish that the cover art didn’t look like Kurt Cobain. I feel like the artist took what Riordan said and ran with it, because Magnus looks like a 26 year old. Not cool.

Obviously, I will continue this series. And if you haven't started it yet you might want to because it's awesome. Ignore the haters.