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Sword of Summer By Rick Riordan

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): Since his mother's death two years ago, Magnus has been living on his own on the streets of Boston. He is tracked down by and Uncle who tells him he is descended from one of the Norse gods. Magnus doesn't want to believe it but when put face to face with a fire giant Magnus is set on a course to find out just how much truth was in what his Uncle was telling him. 

Category: YA

Why I chose this book: Written by a favorite author

My personal opinion (the review): Rick Riordan is known for being cheeky. It's part of what makes his books fun. However, in Sword of Summer he took it too far. Honestly I felt like it was less about teaching Norse Mythology and more about how many pop culture references he could through in. (And many of those references are going to loose their meaning in the coming years making this book passe very quickly). Overall, I was very disappointed. 

Warnings
Language: One or two actual cuss words, but many many references to foul language without spelling out the actual words. 
Violence: Lots  
"Adult" situations: None 
Death: A few secondary characters

Movie rating equivalent: PG-15

Protagonist description: I felt like Magnus was a softie. It was the actions of those around him, not his own will power, that prompted him to action. He has a good heart, but wasn't the warrior I was expecting.

Point of view of story: First

Book length: Medium 

Story flow: Easy enough to follow, but jumps around a bit (e.g. from real time to waking up in Loki's presence)

Grammar and spelling issues: Some interesting character names, but otherwise fine. 

Character connection (no spoilers): I was very surprised to see Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series show up in this book and I'm interested to see where that might lead. Also, I'm interested to see what happens to Samirah. 

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