"Myths are SIMPLY truths we have forgotten."

TITLE:

The title of the book was what really made me want to read it. I saw the last name "Chase," and I thought, Annabeth, from Percy Jackson, had the same last name. That was one reason why I chose this book. I also chose this book because I knew it was about Norse Mythology. This was significant because I had knew nothing about Norse Mythology, except for the information I gained from the movie Thor, which is not much. (It was a good movie though.) Lastly, I chose this fantastic book because a YouTuber that I watch had rated it 5 starts.

Author:

I have read many of Rick Riordan's books, and I have liked most of them. My favourite book was The House of Hades, it was part of the Heroes of Olympus series. Every book of his that I have read were amazing, this was another reason why I chose this book.

Setting:

There were 2 main settings in this book, one was Boston and the other Hotel Valhalla. Valhalla is the place where fallen soldiers go, however, not every soldier ends up there. You have to meet a set of requirements as you die to go to Valhalla, crazy right. You have to have died while trying to protect or save others, and you have to die with a weapon in your hand. Don't ask me why, because I don't know either. Valhalla has 540 stories with 540 doors leading into the nine worlds, Midgard, which is earth, Asgard, home of the Aesir, Vanaheim, home of the Vanir, Alfheim-home of the light elves, Jotumheim-land of the giants, Nidavellir-the home for the dwarves, Nilfheim-the world of ice, fog, and mist, Muspellheim- Land of the fire giants and demons, and lastly, Helheim-the home of Hel and the dishonorable dead. They separate people by age groups, the younger you are the closer you are to the bottom. The best part about Hotel Valhalla, you can never die as long as you remain inside the hotels boundaries.

There was nothing special about the Boston, except for the fact that it is the center of Yggdrasil, The World Tree. The World Tree is what connects all of the nine worlds. When I heard about the nine worlds my mind went to the fact that we have nine planets, this could mean that each of the worlds is based of a planet.

Character:

There are 4 main characters in this book. 16 year old Magnus Chase, he is the son of a Vanir god. Samirah Al-Abbas is a Valkyrie, she is the one that brought Magnus to Valhalla. Blitzen is a 5'4'' dwarf, that has an excellent fashion sense. Lastly, Hearthstone, an elf that knows magic.

Magnus is a boy that has been living on the streets for the last two years of his life. His mother was brutally murdered, and his dad left him at an early age. Overall, he has had a very crummy life.

Samirah Al-Abbas, or Sam for short, is an Arab-American. She was chosen to be a Valkyrie because of her noble deeds.

Blitzen, or Blitz is a Dwarf from Nidavellir. He has a dream to be a fashion designer, however, all the other dwarfs make fun of him for this.

Hearthstone, or Hearth is a light elf. He is deaf and mute, which made him an outcast from his family. He has an aspiration to be that best mortal magician.

Beginning:

The book starts of with him introducing himself, the book is written in the form of a journal, or like he is revising the events he went through. Magnus starts us off by telling us that he is dead, (great way to start a book.) He than goes on to explain how he got killed by the leader of the Fire Giants, Surt. Magnus dies, but he tries his best to take Surt with him. After he dies, he was taken by the Valkyrie, Sam. She takes him to Valhalla. There he finds out who his father is, everyone was surprised by who he was. The weirdest part was the fact that the Norns, the three witches that decide the fate of everyone, intervened. The Norns told Magnus a prophecy, however, everyone else told him not to follow what the Norns said.

Middle:

Instead of listening to what everyone was saying, Magnus decided to go in the quest that was said in the prophecy. In order for him to escape he needed to get help from his hall-mates. The people in his hall have went out of Hotel Valhalla many times, in other words they are kind of professionals. After Magnus gets out, the first thing he does is try to find the weapon he allegedly killed Surt with. He needed to obtain this weapon to delay Ragnarok, which is when the worlds come to an end. Magnus ends up meeting with the other 3 characters and they help him in trying to find the armament. He eventually finds the powerful weapon in the net of Ran, the goddess of the sea, he had to give up his sword from Valhalla in order to receive the sword. When he collects the sword he has to go to Nidavellir to attain a rope that will bind the big, bad Fenris Wolf. Fenris Wolf or, Fenrir, is the bringer of doomsday. Fenrir has been bound by the same rope for years. Many people say that the rope is fine and it doesn't need to be changed, but then some people like Blitzen's father say it does and get killed while trying to change the rope. The main characters barely procure the rope. After the group have it in their possession they go to the island where Fenris Wolf is tied.

Ending:

After they get to the island, the crew sees that the entire island is covered with these tiny white flowers, these flowers were one of the precautions taken to keep the wolf on the island. When they approached Fenrir he was not very alarmed, instead he thought that they were a snack that the gods sent. The wolf had very intelligent eyes, and a very nice, smooth voice. Magnus tried to sound as brave as he could, but it didn't work out to well. The wolf knew everything about Magnus, which is weird. Hearth told them to stay inside the flowers because it is wolfs-bane. The wolf tried to get the group to step out of the protection of the flowers, but they were able to restrain from exiting. Apparently Fenris wanted Magnus to bring the weapon to the island, which he did. After some minutes Surt and other fire giants came to free Fenrir. Luckily other Valkyries and Valhalla members came to the island and helped fend off the giants while Magnus and the others try to bind Fenrir with the rope. Luckily they all got out with only two Valkyries dead. They take a ship back to Valhalla where they are judged by the leaders of the Hotel. Suddenly everyone in the hall is met with a great surprise. All I have to say is that no one gets in trouble.

Theme

The theme of this book is to stay with your friends, no matter how difficult times become. You can see this with Blitzen and Hearth, neither of them were legitimately homeless but they still stuck with there friend, Magnus. Another time this was displayed was when no one trusted Sam, Magnus did. This is why I think the theme of this book is to stay with your friends.

Conflict

There were 2 very prominent conflicts in this book. One was Person versus Person, because Magnus is going against everyone that wants to start Ragnarok, Loki, Surt, Fenris Wolf. Another would be Person versus Society. I chose this one because everyone at Valhalla hated him because he did not follow orders, but Magnus and his friends still persevered through all the hate and it was a good thing they did.