When Rick Riordan announced Magnus Chase — a new series set in the Norse mythology world, centred on a homeless teenager from Boston who turns out to be a son of Frey — my first thought was: of course. Norse mythology is exactly as suited to Riordan’s particular gifts as Greek mythology was, and The Sword of Summer proves it from the first chapter.

Magnus Chase is Annabeth’s cousin. He has been living on the streets of Boston for the past two years, following his mother’s death, aware that something supernatural is hunting him and choosing, each day, to keep moving. The book opens two days before his sixteenth birthday, which turns out to be a significant deadline.

He dies in chapter three. Things escalate from there.

Why Norse Mythology Works Here

Greek mythology’s superhero scale — gods who intervene constantly, heroes who are demonstrably special, destinies that play out in grand gestures — fits Riordan’s pacing well. Norse mythology has a different feel: fated and melancholy, structured around a world that knows it’s going to end and keeps going anyway. Ragnarok is coming. The best you can do is delay it.

Riordan finds the comedy in this fatalism rather than flattening it, which is exactly the right choice. Valhalla, the einherjar, the nine worlds — he renders them with the same confident lightness he brought to Olympus, and they’re just as fun.

Magnus

He is immediately likeable in a way that doesn’t feel manufactured. His homelessness is treated as real and specific rather than a convenient backstory detail — he knows things about surviving on the street that matter to the plot, and Riordan doesn’t romanticise any of it. His wit is quieter than Percy’s, more observational, which suits the Norse setting’s drier humour.

The Crew

Sam Al-Abbas — a Valkyrie, a Muslim girl navigating her faith alongside the Norse supernatural world she was born into — is one of Riordan’s best supporting characters. Her identity is handled with the specificity and respect that Riordan brings to cultural representation throughout the series. The scenes where she navigates her grandmother’s expectations alongside her Valkyrie duties are genuinely funny and quietly moving.

Hearth and Blitz — an elf and a dwarf — round out the crew, and both are wonderful. Hearth is deaf and communicates in ASL; his inclusion in the main cast, as a full person with his own complicated backstory rather than as a diversity note, is handled with evident care.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who grew up with Percy Jackson and want more of that universe: this delivers the Riordan feeling with new mythology and a protagonist whose situation is meaningfully different from Percy’s. Magnus’s grief, and what he carries from his mother’s death, gives the book an emotional texture that the early Percy Jackson volumes didn’t have.

For readers interested in Norse mythology through any avenue — Thor, the Eddas, Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology — this is the most entertaining and accessible entry point for middle grade and YA readers.

For readers who want diverse, thoughtfully represented characters in their mythology fiction: Sam in particular is a character who deserves to be more widely known. She is excellent.

The series continues across two more books — The Hammer of Thor and The Ship of the Dead — and each is excellent. A worthy addition to the Riordan universe.

Published: October 2015 · Genre: Middle grade/YA fantasy · Series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Sword of Summer about? Magnus Chase — Annabeth’s cousin, who has been living homeless on the streets of Boston for two years following his mother’s death — discovers he is the son of the Norse god Frey. He dies in chapter three and things escalate from there. The novel is structured around the Norse cosmology, with Valhalla, the einherjar, and the nine worlds rendered ‘with the same confident lightness Riordan brought to Olympus.’

Why does Norse mythology work well in Riordan’s hands? The review contrasts Greek mythology’s superhero scale with Norse mythology’s different feel: ‘fated and melancholy, structured around a world that knows it’s going to end and keeps going anyway.’ Riordan ‘finds the comedy in this fatalism rather than flattening it, which is exactly the right choice.’ Ragnarok is coming and the best you can do is delay it — a tonal shift from the Greek series that the review praises.

Who is Sam Al-Abbas and why is she significant in The Sword of Summer? Sam Al-Abbas is a Valkyrie and Muslim girl navigating her faith alongside the Norse supernatural world she was born into. The review calls her ‘one of Riordan’s best supporting characters,’ with her identity ‘handled with the specificity and respect that Riordan brings to cultural representation throughout the series.’ The scenes where she navigates her grandmother’s expectations alongside Valkyrie duties are described as ‘genuinely funny and quietly moving.’

How does Magnus Chase differ from Percy Jackson as a protagonist? Magnus’s wit is described as ‘quieter than Percy’s, more observational, which suits the Norse setting’s drier humour.’ More significantly, his grief for his mother and what he carries from her death gives the book ‘an emotional texture that the early Percy Jackson volumes didn’t have.’ His homelessness is ’treated as real and specific rather than a convenient backstory detail’ — he knows things about surviving on the street that matter to the plot.

Is The Sword of Summer connected to the Percy Jackson universe? Yes — Magnus Chase is Annabeth Chase’s cousin, which connects the series directly to the Percy Jackson and Olympians universe. The review notes this for readers who want continuity while also positioning the book as accessible to new readers, recommending it as ’the most entertaining and accessible entry point’ for Norse mythology for middle grade and YA readers.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Rick Riordan — Wikipedia’s Rick Riordan article provides biographical context and the complete bibliography of his mythology-based series, helping readers understand the Magnus Chase series’ place within his wider project of bringing world mythologies to younger readers.
  • Norse mythology — Wikipedia’s Norse mythology article contextualises the source material Riordan is drawing on and transforming — Valhalla, the einherjar, Ragnarok, the nine worlds — giving readers unfamiliar with the Eddic tradition the background to appreciate his choices.