Review: The Ship of the Dead

The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

More of a 4.5 than a pure 5 like most other Riordan books have been for me, but I'm gonna round up for a few good reasons. While I really, really wish this wouldn't be the end of Magnus Chase's series, at least I can rest easy knowing that Uncle Rick isn't done with this universe yet, not as long as we still have what's looking like three more Trials of Apollo novels to go. Hopefully Magnus will be an integral part of those books, even if it's just a glorified cameo like we often get these days for old faves like Percy and Annabeth. As for the story behind this book, it's surprisingly slow and heavy on the build-up - but that build-up really pays off when we get to the climax in which one of Riordan's top First Person Smartasses gets to face off against Loki in a battle of insults. It takes forever for this to happen, but when it does, it's classic Riordan in all the ways, and a very inventive tweak of the usual "final battle" trope, easily rivaling the action highs that were The Last Olympian as far as Riordan series-enders go. And on the romance front, we get some very nice developments here, helped along by the fact that Magnus - at least, according to Uncle Rick - is pansexual. Let's just say that the ship that low-key started construction for me in The Hammer of Thor gets to sail here. Not quite as smoothly as I was hoping for, but as smoothly as we can ask for, I guess.

To Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, I now say ave atque vale, though, again, I really, really hope this isn't the end of Magnus. Or Alex. Or Sam. Or any of our other friends in Valhalla.

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