Summary: Thor has lost his hammer again and Magnus Chase and his friends have to find it before the giants know it is gone and decide to invade.
Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson books exploded onto the middle grade book scene in 2005. And he has been churning out books since then. By my count, The Hammer of Thor is his 22nd novel since 2005 (he had 7 novels before that). As I said last year in my review of the first book in this series, I loved the initial Percy Jackson series. The follow up heroes of Olympus series declined as it went on. I did not like the first of the Kane Chronicle and did not read further. But with Magnus Chase was back to good again.
The Hammer of Thor follows soon after the end of the first book. Magnus Chase died early in the first book. He is now in Valhalla, a Norse afterlife for heroes that die saving others. He can come and go from there as he wants to. Being the son of Frey, a Norse god of healing, Magnus has some healing powers (similar to the way that Percy Jackson as a son of Neptune has powers over water).
The second main character is Samirah al-Abbas (Sam), daughter of Loki, and a Valkyrie (one of those mortals that is given powers to choose heroes to go to Valhalla). Similar to Ms Marvel, Sam is also a teenaged practicing Muslim. This gives Riordan some space to deal with how the ancient gods can relate to the worldwide monotheistic religions.
Hammer of Thor is a middle grade/young adult novel. But as an adult it is a nice novel to breeze through. I appreciate the humor and the story. Riordan continues to include a wide range of characters, which is important to the way he writes. I will be impatiently waiting for the next book, scheduled for Oct 3, 2017.
The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan (Mangus Chase #2) Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook