The Ship of the Dead

If I were to use one word to describe my experience with the Magnus Chase series before this final installment, I would use underwhelming.

The book series up to this point has been filled with a Riordan who feels like he is going through the motions and making a series that felt similar to Percy Jackson, with little of the heart. Couple that with times when it felt like Riordan was standing on a soapbox explaining his own beliefs through his characters, and it made this series a substantial step down for me.

It was with this attitude in mind that I went into the third book. Let me just say that I was hoping that this would change my mind. I wanted this series to end on a high note. Did it? No, and I'm sorry overall for it.

When it comes to the positives, there are few and far between. I liked how almost every Norse myth is on display here in this book. I also like the detail that we get about Magnus' floormates who, up until this point, had been simply background characters. I also liked the slow burn of a romance between Magnus and another character, simply because this is something rare for a trilogy.

But that is it for me in terms of positives. Now let's move on to the negatives.

Firstly, we really don't get a sense of finality in this series until the last few pages. There is no major tension with what is going on, and Loki doesn't feel like the major threat that we saw in book one. Maybe it is because this is a trilogy and not Riordan's five-book usual series, but it seems like the length has been an issue. Only the second book in this series comes even close to the page length of The Heroes of Olympus books, a series that is vastly superior. It honestly just felt like Riordan was done with this series, and was trying to end as fast as possible.

Then there is the plot itself, especially the ending flyting challenge with Loki. A flyting is a verbal duel in nordic times. Think the ancient version of a rap battle. I can understand what Riordan was going for. Words can hurt people, in more ways than we might imagine. And doing a flyting against the god known for his silver tongue is good. Also, this is a different final battle than we were perhaps expecting. But overall the final battle just seems not written as well as in the past, so it carries less weight than I think Riordan intended. This is displayed when Magnus talks up his friends to defeat Loki. He uses positivity of his friends' actions as a way to combat Loki's evil thoughts. Yet, I could not help but find it funny that many of the things Magnus mentioned were in this specific book, and not throughout the entire series. This just felt like lazy writing from Riordan.

Overall, I get the feeling that Riordan is done with this series, and so am I. While I think this was a good series, I was expecting something great. As for this book, I find that Riordan is simply going through the motions, and so was I while reading it. This is a forgettable ending to a forgettable series. I give it a two out of five.