Review: Magnus Chase and the Ship of the Dead

Magnus Chase and The Ship of the Dead
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Loki the trickster god is free from his chains. Now he's readying Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, armed with a host of giants and zombies, to sail against the Norse gods and begin the final battle of Ragnarok. It's up to Magnus Chase and his friends to stop Loki's plans, but to do so they will have to sail across the oceans of Midgard, Jotunheim and Niflheim in a desperate race to reach Naglfar before it's ready to sail on Midsummer's Day.

Along the way, they will face angry sea gods, hostile giants, and an evil fire-breathing dragon who happens to be a former acquaintance. But Magnus's biggest challenge will be facing his own inner demons. To defeat Loki, Magnus will need to use words, not force. This will require finding a magical elixir so deadly that it will either make Magnus Chase powerful enough to out-talk the silver-tongued Loki, or destroy Magnus utterly.

The final Magnus Chase book is finally here, and I'm really not ready! I love, so much, the way Riordan writes and all the mythology he throws in to his books. Norse mythology is one of my favourites and I'm kinda sad Magnus isn't getting more books! Kinda like I'm said the Kane Chronicles only had three books! Nevertheless, this is a fitting finale for the trilogy! 

When I pick up a Riordan book, I'm expecting a mood lifter purely on the comedy alone and Ship of the Dead doesn't disappoint. The opening chapter is hilarious, the chapter titles give you a chuckle, and the book has humour sprinkled throughout it to offset the action and any potential doom and gloom! 

Ship of the Dead is fast paced and hilarious from the start thanks to good old, sardonic Magnus! Magnus and his narrative are one of my favourite things about this series, he's snarky and has some brilliant lines, along with some of the others, and has me chuckling as I'm reading. Some of the situations they find themselves in are just plain funny too. I seriously read Riordan whenever I need to cheer up or just want or need a laugh. 

Along with Magnus, all our favourite characters are back. I love Alex! More Alex! Give me aaaallll the Alex! Magnus's grandpa Njord pops up to say hello and show off his impressive feet. Hearthstone and Blitzen, TJ, Mallory, Halborn, they're all present. We get some more background on Alex and TJ which was a nice touch, along with a nice glimpse at Mallory's past too! Hearthstone's situation with his father is wrapped up too which I wasn't expecting to be honest! Hearth's dad is literally like the dragon version of Gollum. 

I really enjoyed the fact that the entire floor 19 squad where present for the majority of this book, and they all went off together and they where being badass together...I kinda missed it in book two because we didn't spend as much time with them! 

Ship of the Dead is fast paced and full of action as we embark on a couple of mini quests tied in to the big "stop Ragnorak, save the world" quest, and we even end up here in the UK in York! I've never been to York but I kind of want to go now and check out the settings! I enjoyed getting to see a couple of different settings, they where all vivid, and they made for a fun adventure. 

It's a wild ride right up until the end! We had some romance, my shipper heart was incredibly happy with how things went for Magnus! There's a tonne of humour and action, and more backstory on all the characters we love, as well as more page time for them and loose ends tied up! Including ones that I figured weren't really loose per se. It also ties in nicely with Percy and Annabeth and Trials of Apollo too if I'm not mistaken! (I could be, it's been a while since I read the last Apollo book). 

Magnus Chase has been a fun series, and I'm sad to see it end but the ending really does do the series justice. I loved meeting all of the Gods and so on, and learning more about the Norse Gods than I previously knew all through Riordans snarky narrative for Magnus. The series as a whole had a brilliant pace, and a nice blend of action and humour and pop culture references. Magnus has come on quite the journey and he's grown and changed as a character, as have some of the others. He's been awesome and I was cheering for him when he faced down Loki, and I really appreciated that Magnus beat Loki with his words and not with his fists! I love action and badass fight scenes and there where plenty, don't get me wrong, but it made a nice change!