Take a photo of a barcode or cover
chamomiledaydreams 's review for:
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: 9 from the Nine Worlds
by Rick Riordan
I really enjoyed reading the Magnus Chase series a few years back, and I needed a short audiobook to listen to on the spur of the moment last week. But I didn't like this bonus content as much as the main series. Part of the problem was that each story changed narrators, and by the time I got used to a voice and started to feel the rhythm of the prose, the story ended and switched narrators, throwing me for a loop.
Don't get me wrong: It's awesome that this collection has a different voice actor for each point-of-view character. But I can be picky about audiobook narrators, and part of what warms me up to each person is exposure over time. This collection did not give me enough time to appreciate each narrator, since they were constantly changing. Factor in my familiarity with these characters, and I was also judging the narrators for how well I thought they sounded like the characters I know and love. I adored listening to the narrator for the Magnus Chase audiobooks, and he introduced me to each character for the first time. Thus, the voices I imagine for them are the voices that he chose, so it was disorienting to hear familiar characters in unfamiliar voices, some of which I thought fit much better than others.
As for the content of the stories themselves, I really can't complain. They were short, fun, and to the point, and they gave me a chance to reconnect with characters I haven't seen since I last read the series before the pandemic. I appreciate how Riordan ties each vignette together and how the collection spans the nine realms of Asgard. Whether for better or for worse, I've engaged with other stories based on Norse mythology more recently than Magnus Chase, so while I had a fun time recognizing characters like Baldur and Ratatosk, my initial thought wasn't, "Oh, I remember them from Magnus Chase!" It was, "Nice reference to The Bifrost Incident, dude." It was fun but definitely not what the author was going for. Still, this audiobook kept me company when I needed it to, and overall, it wasn't half-bad.
Don't get me wrong: It's awesome that this collection has a different voice actor for each point-of-view character. But I can be picky about audiobook narrators, and part of what warms me up to each person is exposure over time. This collection did not give me enough time to appreciate each narrator, since they were constantly changing. Factor in my familiarity with these characters, and I was also judging the narrators for how well I thought they sounded like the characters I know and love. I adored listening to the narrator for the Magnus Chase audiobooks, and he introduced me to each character for the first time. Thus, the voices I imagine for them are the voices that he chose, so it was disorienting to hear familiar characters in unfamiliar voices, some of which I thought fit much better than others.
As for the content of the stories themselves, I really can't complain. They were short, fun, and to the point, and they gave me a chance to reconnect with characters I haven't seen since I last read the series before the pandemic. I appreciate how Riordan ties each vignette together and how the collection spans the nine realms of Asgard. Whether for better or for worse, I've engaged with other stories based on Norse mythology more recently than Magnus Chase, so while I had a fun time recognizing characters like Baldur and Ratatosk, my initial thought wasn't, "Oh, I remember them from Magnus Chase!" It was, "Nice reference to The Bifrost Incident, dude." It was fun but definitely not what the author was going for. Still, this audiobook kept me company when I needed it to, and overall, it wasn't half-bad.