The Sword of Summer

You can tell Riordan is through in his mythology research and uses that knowledge to build stories that draw readers in and teach them a little mythology while entertaining them. In the line of Percy Jackson series (Greek and Roman mythology) and the Kane’s series (Egyptian mythology), he has done the same with Norse mythology with a little spin to it.

His heroes seem to have a few common themes -personal tragedy (i.e. The death of a parent or some thing in that line), no knowledge of their true parentage, and a quest of some sort that awakens their potential strength. Also humour/sarcastic nature.

This book doesn’t disappoint. I found myself reading this book in the voice of my 18 year old son, who still loves reading these books. It’s a quick read after reading books at Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy or Game of Thrones.

For pre-teens and children interested in mythology, this is a good read. Not everyone lives, but it’s not as violent as GoT nor as gory. It shows character development in both the hero and his friends and those around him. The villains are not 2D, but have plenty of depth and sometimes make you wonder what their angle are. Even those who seem to be on their side makes you wonder about their true intentions.

I would recommend Roirdan’s books; even to the most reluctant readers!

I am a reader. I love books. As a child I would read anything and everything, including the packaging on the toilet paper if i ended up in the bathroom for more than a couple of minutes. I never imagined I would have a child that didn’t enjoy reading.

My two oldest children love books and I constantly balance my desire to let them read as much as they want with other more prosaic things like eating regular meals and somewhat sane bedtimes. My third child, not so much.

We have tried everything to entice my 10 year old son to read for pleasure. We have filled the house with age appropriate books. I read to him. I make him read to me. I let him stay up past his bedtime if he uses that time to read. I offered him money…

Even if I got my son started reading a book and even if he enjoyed it, he never read for very long and he would never go back and pick up the book again. He says he “forgets” that he had been enjoying the book he was reading.

Everything changed when I handed my son Rick Riordan’s “Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.” With chapter names like “Good Morning, You Are Going to Die” and “I’ve Always Wanted to Destroy a Bridge,” my son found himself intrigued from the start. The story’s action started immediately and continued to the end of the book. My 10 year old nonreader didn’t want to put the book down. I even caught him under his covers reading with a flashlight a couple of times. He finished the book without any prompting. Then he did the unthinkable: he read it again.

Needless to say we are eagerly awaiting book 2 of this series. In the meantime we are looking at other books by this author.

I was afraid that after Harry Potter my son was never going to read another book again because nothing seemed appealing or exciting enough to him. The Percy Jackson series changed that and he has now finished the Heroes of Olympus series and we are now moving onto this series. He is especially excited for this one because he is already familar with some of the Norse legends and I think he may have been getting tired of the Greek and Roman Gods.

At first there was a little concern on my son’s part that Percy was not involved in this series and generally he says it isn’t as good as the Percy Jackson series, but he is still pleased and loving the books. I’m not sure he would have been talked into reading the first Percy Jackson book himself, but his teacher at school read it to them, and then he was hooked. We are now re-reading the Percy Jackson series together and then our plans are to read The Heroes of Olympus series together as well and then onto this one. So he likes them enough to read them twice – once by himself and then another round with us reading 1-2 chapters before bed. Overall I am pleased because he is reading and the material is appropriate for his age and he is pleased because he found some books he really likes.

My first response on beginning this book was lots of chuckles and outright laughing. Mr. Riordan’s writing style, especially from the point of a teenage boy, Magnus Chase, was often amusing and downright funny. This story takes place in the present time with vivid trips into the realm of “the gods” where he must fight and die many times for the delaying of Armegedon. Yes, I said die many times. And even that is found humorous! My title/teaser reflects that fact, not the part about fighting and dying-we all know that there’s nothing funny about that. But this action-packed, multi-world, magical story that is written primarily for teens/young adults is a good read even for someone in his 60’s-like me!

As a middle school teacher, when my kids are raving about a book and saying that I HAVE to read it, I take it with a grain of salt. But after so many students insisted, I gave in with this book and I have to say it is really good. I can totally see why my middle schoolers are absolutely nuts over this series. However, I have to say that while I liked the book and will probably read the next one, I didnt love it. The book is very plot based (this happened and then this happened, etc) and the action carries the reader through the book. Thats probably what my middle schoolers like the best actually. But for me, Im more of a character based reader and while I loved the characters in the book, I dont feel like the story delved too deep into them. Maybe theyll get there in subsequent books but for this one, plot won over character.

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