The Hammer of Thor

Author: Rick Riordan
Series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #2
Original publication date: October 2016
Book description: It's been six weeks since Magnus and his friends returned from defeating Fenris Wolf and the fire giants. Magnus has adjusted to life at the Hotel Valhalla—as much as a once-homeless and previously alive kid can. As a son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of Odin's chosen warriors, but he has a few good peeps among his hallmates on floor nineteen, and he's been dutifully training for Ragnarok along with everyone else. His days have settled into a new kind of normal.
But Magnus should have known there's no such thing as normal in the Nine Worlds. His friends Hearthstone and Blitzen have disappeared. A new hallmate is creating chaos. According to a very nervous goat, a certain object belonging to Thor is still missing, and the thunder god's enemies will stop at nothing to gain control of it.
Time to summon Jack, the Sword of Summer, and take action. Too bad the only action Jack seems to be interested in is dates with other magical weapons.

Thoughts:

We continue to follow Magnus as his afterlife gets more complicated, again we have friendships and battles to save the world. I am amazed how often the world comes to a bloody end ad how many times very young teenagers/children are the only ones who can stop it.
Still, the adventure feels thrilling. We focus more on the people not on the overall battle of the gods and fates. 
Sam, Amir, Magnus, Blitzen, Heartstone and their new addition of the group Alex. They all have their own spot in this book that makes you care a lot about them, we see things about their past and how that has shaped their life until that point. We have a horrible family life while growing up, or had a difficult childhood outside of their family as well.

We see a gender-fluid character, a muslin girl very devoted and also trying to save an arranged marriage, we see it both in a very positive light. At least in the second example, it's rare to find a positive example of arranged marriage, especially since the girl in question is just waiting to be 18 so she can marry. Odd and yet it was crafted in a way that makes sense. (Again no personal experience at all here,  not even know anyone with that background to have a real-life opinion to share. 

The main focus on these books is the characters and I love them therefore I loved this book. The overall plot, well it moved along a bit but still, we're left where we began in the previous book, we need to stop Ragnarok. So you are very plot-driven be aware, this going to feel slow in a way or at least unresolved. 

This being a reread I did like it extremely but I do not consider this at 5 stars.

Oh well, after finishing this book, I really want to immediately jump into the next one!