The second Magnus Chase adventure sends the einherji of Hotel Valhalla after Thor's missing hammer, Mjolnir, which has fallen into enemy hands. The thunder god's weapon is the Nine Worlds' chief defense against the giants, and without it the realms lie open to invasion and to Ragnarok. The thief is the earth giant Thrym, who will only return Mjolnir in exchange for a monstrous price brokered by the trickster god Loki: the hand of Samirah al-Abbas in marriage. With Sam trapped by her father's bargain, Magnus and his friends must recover the hammer and outmaneuver Loki before the wedding can seal their doom. Central to the book is Alex Fierro, a sharp, garrote-wielding, shape-shifting child of Loki who is gender-fluid, flowing between she and he, and whose arrival reshapes the quest and Magnus's heart. Riordan keeps the Norse mythology fast and funny, with absurd chapter titles and a deepening ensemble, while handling Alex's identity with a directness widely praised for its warmth and accuracy. Returning favorites Blitzen the dwarf and Hearthstone the deaf elf carry their own arcs, and Sam's faith and double life as a mortal teen and Valkyrie add texture. Beneath the comedy, the novel weaves real questions of identity, family, and belonging into a breathless quest to reclaim Thor's hammer and forestall the end of the worlds.
