Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan: A review

Week 13 of 13

I am much too tired and have expended far too much brain power already today to write something funny and articulate before I start my review. So I'll get into it.

Rating: 3.83 out of 5 stars

(You know, it struck me the other day that I've not really done any overwhelmingly negative reviews for the whole thirteen weeks I've been doing this. And it's odd, because it's not like I haven't read appallingly, almost hilariously crap books before, and I would enjoy writing really negative reviews about them. It would give me a chance to indulge my inner comedy genius. There was this one review I read on Goodreads which is genuinely the most hilarious review I've ever read, I actually had a stomach ache from laughing it, but I can't remember the title of the book. Damn.)

So, anyway, on with the review.

I like Rick Riordan. I really do. There was a time, back in my younger days, when he was my third favourite author in the world (you honestly don't need to know me that well to guess my favourite, and Suzanne Collins was my second). I get quite irritated when people dismiss it as not worthy of being read by people of their stature and intellect, because I think it's quite underrated in regards to how good it is, and his books are, I feel, just as suitable for adults as they are for little kids. Because I know that some people may find it hard to look past the adolescent voice and sometimes immature humour (but I have the mind of a five year old, so I find it hilarious), but if you can bring yourself past that, you can appreciate the rich settings Riordan created, the fantastically developed characters, the lessons and morals he subtly weaves in.

So before I get onto the positive, I'll get the biggest negative out of the way.

Hammer of Thor was predictable.

This doesn't even merit a spoiler warning, because it's so obvious from the word Go, you don't even need to have read Riordan books before to see it coming: You mean Loki wasn't going to get out?!

And that's not the problem, because the book would be shit if Magnus and crew had actually stopped Loki from escaping, because come on, who actually wants heroes to succeed the first time round?

But I think when I got to the end, and I wasn't completely blown away, I stopped and asked myself, Why aren't you blown away? Because normally, I am fairly easy to blow away. And then I realised because the majority of Riordan's other books/series follow the same pattern. Squad gets together, forming of said squad is usually hampered several times by a variety of subplots, get sent off with next to no supervision or qualifications (like seriously, Hotel Valhalla need to get their shit together, and I don't buy the bullshit used to make Magnus et al able to frolic off on an adventure), they come across a variety of mythical creatures on their travels, some good some bad (mostly bad, because come on, where's the fun in that?), get to the point where they are just about to accomplish what they set out to do, fuck up big time, then against all odds, sort it out.

Seriously, look for it in every series Riordan writes- it happens across the series in one big arc, then each book has its own, smaller version of the same. It's too formulaic.

That being said, I enjoyed most other things in the story. One of the things that I have always felt that Riordan did well, was the breaking down of stereotypes and the wide diversity among his characters. Percy Jackson has ADHD, Annabeth Chase is an intelligent blonde, Carter Kane is half-black (and bear in mind that these are all main characters.) And I thought it wasn't going to get much better than that, because the creators of fictional stories, whether it be in film or literature, seem to have a fear of diversity.

And then along comes Sam! A PRACTICING Muslim who fully believes in Allah, and wears a headscarf!

Hearth is deaf, but doesn't sit around being inadequate, he goes out there and GETS SHIT DONE!

Alex Fierro is gender fluid.

I  have to be honest, I had little to none (leaning strongly towards none if I really wanted to be honest) knowledge about gender-fluidity. And again, I have to be truthful, it's still a tad confusing, and I don't fully get it, but it's OK! By representing people from all walks of life, and exposing readers to the amazing diversity in our society that we should celebrate, not be ignorant of, these things are coming to light where once they weren't. And hopefully, Alex won't be the last gender-fluid character we come across, because she is seriously wicked.

Onto less deep stuff...

I did say earlier that I have the comedic sense of a five year old, by which I don't mean that I am not sophisticated enough to watch Mock the Week or Would I Lie To You? or Have I Got News For You. It's just that I find things hilarious that most people don't. I have an odd sense of humour. My French teacher will make really bad jokes that the class will groan at, and I'll have a secret chuckle to myself about. My Year 9 English teacher, who is my second favourite teacher of all time, had an amazingly wicked, dry, sarcastic sense of humour that I really got, but the rest of the class found odd. And I'll say it, I enjoy the odd pun or two. Like I was at this place, where the guy speaking was thanking the car parking marshals and said "They were outstanding- literally" and I was all:

And so I found Hammer of Thor really, really funny. More so than any of Riordan's other books, and I generally find those quite funny too.

“Otis," I said.

"Shhh," he said. "I'm incognito. Call me...Otis."

"I'm not sure that's how incognito works, but okay."

And I just loved how Riordan took all the ways we would expect gods to behave, and just chucked them all out of the window. He did it with the Greek gods as well, making them pretty daft and silly and for the most part, figures to laugh at rather than fear, but he did it fantastically with the Norse gods.

For example, don't think of Heimdall like this:



Instead, replace him with:



(No seriously, his selfie addiction was hilarious)

And you think of Thor as:



Try again mate, this time like this:



and



Like Sam said, it's hard to take them as serious gods when they make you snort your orange juice out of your nose with laughter. (Sam didn't say the orange juice part by the way. That just happened to me).

And back to Alex for a second- can we just appreciate what a fabulous character she is?!



Putting aside her green and pink dress code for a second (Like, you fucking what?), she's so amazing and snarky and dry and intelligent and funny, and at the same time, has her own problems, mainly daddy issues, but also her sad family backstory, that makes it hard for her to open up to many people, and the way she literally gives zero fucks about what other people say, I just want to hug her. I wouldn't care if she didn't want to.



Anyone else shipping Magnus and Alex, by the way? I mean, some part of me doesn't, because I think if written badly, it would be really awkward and forced, but the bigger part of me that I listen to more, is fully on #TeamAgnus. (It can't be #TeamMalex, because it's too close to #TeamMalec).

SAM AND AMIR THOUGH!



I need them to have their happily ever after and get married. I don't mean this in the "Oh, I ship them so much I want them to get married" because they're already engaged and soon to be married, and although normally, if I were to hear of someone getting married before eighteen or something, I'd be like:



but here, if Riordan fucking does not marry them, I will go after him myself. You know that part when Sam swore in front of Heimdall that she wouldn't go through with the wedding, or even pretend to, that she would only marry Amir, it was just too much.



And everyone's favourite silver-tongued god of trickery is BACK!



Yes, Loki is a bad guy, no, Riordan's character isn't nearly as charismatic and beautiful as Tom Hiddeston's, yes, Loki does some evil shit in this book, and no, I don't care.



(Despite all the daddy issues that mainly centre around hate that Loki's babies have)

And before I finish off, can we just mention that ending?



I just hope he doesn't do what he did between Sword of Summer and Hammer of Thor with the conversation between Annabeth and Magnus about the Greek and Norse gods. Because that was a proper cop out and I was really looking forward to reading that. He better not do it again, because I don't want to pick up Book 3 and wonder When Magnus Met Percy? (See what I did there? I am sometimes so hilarious I blow myself away.)

I was about to sign off with some variation of "See you next time, nerds!" before realising... THERE WON'T BE A NEXT TIME!