Rick Riordan has written another winner here. I think I liked this more then the first book, The Sword of Summer.  It was flowed a little bit better and Magnus’ sassiness really went up a notch in this one and I loved it!  He wouldn’t let the fact that he was dead and will be spending eternity preparing for Ragnarok get him down.  Nope. But really what I loved about this book more then anything else is the positive representation of diverse characters.  I have praised Riordan in the past for his diversity and willingness to tackle difficult situations in his books.  True, his main characters have been mainly white boys but his willingness to include characters of color and other sexuality is admirable for a kids author.  So far his books have featured a Latino and Latina, Chinese Canadian, Gay teenagers, Biracial siblings, Native American girl, Black boy and girl, and Muslim girl and made them all well rounded full characters without ever falling into old stereotypes.  In The Hammer of Thor he introduces us to Alex a gender fluid teen.  As queer rights is becoming more and more a discussion point in our society, characters like Alex are even more important.  She (I’m going to refer to her as She as Alex says that she mostly identifies as a She and spends most of a book as a female but at times Alex also identifies as Male too) is a person has been marginalized and misunderstood her whole life but has a strong conviction of who she is.  Gender fluid people are not often depicted in pop-culture and not with the sensitivity and strength that Riordan writes her. But not only that, Riordan draws on the fact that Gender fluid people or argr as they were referred to by the vikings had a place in ancient Norse society.  I think there are many people today who sort of think that LGBTQ community are the result of recent sins of the last hundred years or so.  Not true.  Just like how he wrote about Nico coming out and relating it to Cupid story  he does it here. So props to you Mr. Riordan.

So let’s get back to the book.  In the last book, we know that Thor has lost his famed hammer and now we know that some Earth Giants have it.  They must get the Hammer back and thwart Loki’s plan to marry off Sam to the Giant, which is problematic since 1. Sam is still a teenager and 2. Sam has already been promised to marry Amir.  They must traverse the seven realms to find another famed weapon and look for clues as to what Loki’s real objective is.  Let’s just say, it’s not just to make sure his daughter is taken care of in a good marriage. Along the way, they meet democratic zombies, abusive father elves and giants who love to bowl.  It all makes sense when you read the book. Riordan has always been good balancing the humor with the action.  The book never waves or drags   It was just keeps going and going and I can’t wait for the next one where they finally get act like vikings and hit the seas and PERCY!