At this point I think I’ve given up expecting to see anything new from Rick Riordan, and yet I’m going to keep reading his books, so I think I shall make a vow to not talk about how repetitive they are, and how he just keeps doing the same thing over and over again with variations. After that sentence I mean. In the future I shall call this The Riordan Factor and link back to this review as an explanation. It will go something like this:
Excepting The Riordan Factor, this book was actually pretty great. This is largely due to his sense of humor, and his supporting characters. Magnus is an engaging hero, and even though you can easily predict where this is going, even if you haven’t read previous Riordan books, it’s still fun getting there. I particularly love the elf and dwarf duo, Blitzen and Hearthstone, and the addition of new character, Alex Fierro, who I will say nothing more about so as to be mysterious.
If y’all haven’t read any of Riordan’s books yet, it would be okay if you started with this series, but I highly recommend starting with the original Percy Jackson series, because that is just straight up great, and if you like it enough, just know there’s lots more where that came from, at only slightly more diminishing returns.