Reviews - El martillo de Thor

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3.74k reviews for:

El martillo de Thor

Rick Riordan

4.23 AVERAGE

tallulahbox22's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

russellarbenfox's review against another edition

4.0

I liked this second volume of the series better than the first. Not that the first was bad--it was a genuinely fun YA fantasy novel--but there were things that bugged me about it, and many of those things are still present in this book. The pace of these books and the apocalyptic tale they are unfolding just doesn't work for me; among other things, the way the original Percy Jackson series unfolded over a period of years, unlike the matter of a half-year that these three books are setting up, just felt more organic. And there continue to be adventures which our heroes are sent on which just strike me a little unoriginal or repetitive. But with that criticism out of the way, let me emphasize the good. More than the first book, this volume really felt to me like Riordan had found a way to weave at least one aspect of the feel of Norse mythology into the story. Introducing Alex Fierro, a genderfluid character, as the child of the canonically gender-bending Loki, is probably the primary way in which Riordan pulls this off, but it isn't the only one. Really, the Norse myths are full of weird shifts, almost certainly to a greater degree than the Greek myths were (I keep thinking about Norse giants, who can be pretty much any size they want), with jumps from one world (and one form a being) to the next in a manner that is allowing Riordan to build a really thoughtful story around the whole idea of changeability, with Alex and Sam, the committed Muslim child of Loki, forming wonderful opposites. And incidentally, I really like how Riordan was brought Sam's fiance Amir into the story as well. Magnus himself is kind of growing on me; I'm hoping that in the third books, his differences from Percy Jackson will become more pronounced. Anyway, I'm having fun with this series, and I'm looking for more fun to come.

aziraphileandcrowley's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

vicg_b31's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was much more fun than the first one and we got good backstory of the main characters. Part of why I was so excited about picking up this series in particular was that I knew we’d have Alex introduced as a gender fluid character, which did not disappoint. She was great and everything about her fit seamlessly into both the story and Norse mythology.

Also Magnus is already so into her and I’m so here for him being a golden retriever pansexual boyo to her black cat energy. Besides sexuality, I think this book did a better job of distinguishing him from Percy - he’s not a warrior (he’s not that good at swordplay), he’s a healer, he’s softer, and more that caretaker role than leader/dive right in role.

I’m excited for this to start crossing over with the Percy series even more, and to see how it all wraps up.

Content Warnings

rdgarrett94's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Better than the first!
It was nice to see the plot streamlined a little more and characters fleshed out a little more, too. Honestly, the best parts of this book were when we were getting back-story about the characters.