Synopsis:

Thor's hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon--the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn't just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands. If Magnus Chase and his friends can't retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenseless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin. The Nine Worlds will burn. Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer's return is the gods' worst enemy, Loki--and the price he wants is very high.

When I got the first book in the Magnus Chase series, I thought there was no way Uncle Rick was going to top what he created in the Percy Jackson series. Boy was I wrong! He topped it and then some. Now I've finally had the chance to read the second book in the series and I understand why a lot of bloggers and booktubers gushed so much about this book.

As always uncle Rick dropped some serious serving of hilarity in this book. Jack the sword who is my favourite character btw was ever present to lighten the mood when things got heated or inappropriate. Then there was the unconscious thought process, remarks and comebacks from Magnus that got my entire body reverberating from laughter at 3am in the morning.

The story kicks off a few weeks after book one, Thor`s almighty thunder and lightning blasting hammer with a high res screen and a subscription to Netflix is still missing (don't ask.) Magnus and his gang have settled into a somewhat normal life but with high alertness. Our favourite goat gets assassinated by a goat assassin causing Magnus and the gang to get thrust into chain of pulse raising life and death situations. A new character joins the group, Alex a gender fluid son/daughter of Loki who hates his/her father just as much as Sam does, you'd think sharing such intimate hatred like that would be enough to make them get along famously but sadly it's quite the opposite.

Along the way, we are introduced to New friends and foes across the nine worlds. We get a glimpse into Hearths life when the gang made a pit stop at his home in Alphiem (if I went through the ordeal Hearth had to endure, am convinced I would be part of the bad guys.) After all these years we find out that Hearth`s father still blames and resents him for the death of his little brother, we see just how "fatherly" his father truly is. Utgard-Loki aka big boy the most powerful sorcerer of Jotunheim; king of the mountain giants whom we met in book ones makes an appearance in this installment. In beginning I was uncertain about his true intentions especially when I discovered who was disguised as in the beginning of the story.

A surprise wedding is sprung on Sam and a certain gross giant named Thrym who is the son of Thrym who was the son of Thrym who was also the son of Thrym (apparently three male giants in his family before him bore the same name) by her father Loki who shows us just how crafty and tricky he can be. And then there is that epic ending that just made my brain blow up into a gazillion pieces.

Magnus later meets up with Anabeth who tells him it's about time he gets introduced to Percy (I DIED.) If my predictions are correct, we should be expecting to see a certain familiar Greek demigod with green eyes and messy hair aka seaweed brain, aka hero of Olympus aka son of Poseidon aka PERCY JACKSON.

Uncle Rick kept the tone of the story light and very appropriate for the teenage character POV it is told through. As much as I loved the story, I have to admit that I felt as if there were too many unnecessary evilness going. Sure the characters were alive and very carefully created, I could not help but feel like they were always just reacting to whatever the author threw their way, it did not feel as though they were all very actively involved or have any kind of say in what happened to them. In the Percy Jackson series, although it's a suicide act, we often find Percy and his gang standing up to the gods and building their own path. Not that am trying to compare the stories but am sure you get the gist.

All in all, I loved the book and and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I've put my self on auto-buy mood for the next book in the series titled: The ship of the dead, slated to be released in the fall of 2017.