Rick Riordan launches his Norse-mythology series with Magnus Chase, a sixteen-year-old who has survived two years on the streets of Boston since his mother's mysterious, violent death. On his birthday he learns an impossible truth: he is the son of a Norse god. Cornered by the fire giant Surt on a Boston bridge, Magnus dies in the fight, only to be swept up by a Valkyrie and carried to Valhalla, the warrior paradise of Hotel Valhalla, where he joins the einherjar, the honored dead Odin gathers for Ragnarok. There he discovers he is a son of Frey, the god of summer, and that his death was only the beginning. To prevent Ragnarok, the end of the Nine Worlds, Magnus must recover the long-lost Sword of Summer before the forces of chaos can use it. He's aided by his old homeless friends Blitzen and Hearthstone, secretly a dwarf and a deaf elf, and by Samirah al-Abbas, a Muslim Valkyrie and daughter of Loki. Riordan filters Norse myth through a fast, funny, irreverent voice, complete with chapter titles that double as punchlines, while grounding the adventure in real grief, homelessness, and found family. The novel also ties into Riordan's wider universe: Magnus is the cousin of Annabeth Chase from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, who appears here and helps bridge the two worlds. A breezy, heartfelt, mythology-packed opener.
