The Ship of the Dead

Author: Rick Riordan
Series: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3
Genre: YA Fantasy
Book Description (from back cover): Magnus Chase, a once-homeless teen, is a resident of the Hotel Valhalla and one of Odin's chosen warriors. As the son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus isn't naturally inclined to fight. But he has strong and steadfast friends, including Hearthstone the elf, Blitzen the dwarf, and Samirah the Valkyrie, and together they have achieved brave deeds, such as defeating Fenris Wolf and battling giants for Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Now Magnus faces his most dangerous trial yet. His cousin, Annabeth, recruits her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, to give Magnus some pointers, but will his training be enough?
Loki is free from his chains. He's readying Naglfar, the Ship of the Dead, complete with a host of giants and zombies, to sail against the Asgardian gods and begin the final battle of Ragnarok. It's up to Magnus and his friends to stop him, but to do so they will have to sail across the oceans of Midgard, Jotunheim, and Niflheim in a desperate race to reach Naglfar before it's ready to sail. Along the way, they will face angry sea gods, hostile giants, and an evil fire-breathing dragon. But Magnus's biggest challenge will be facing his own inner demons. Does he have what it takes to outwit the wily trickster god?

Thoughts:

This story shows us a few old friends, Percy and Annabeth make a brief appearance, its hard to pinpoint the impact, they are brought in as training instructors for Magnus, I am still not sure why only he is the one to train in combat. Magnus is relatively new to the Valhalla but si is Alex and only one of them is forced to train with Percy.
Sam is also trying to train to stop herself from being controlled by Loki for the next time they see each other.
I like the characters but the plot is once more very formulaic, you will see the same type of situations here that you saw in the previous series so if you like them and don't mind the same overall formula, you will really enjoy this book.
This is the second time I am reading this book and I still enjoy it immensely. Following Alex is great I just really like them as a character, she/he is amazing always showing a very confident facade and yet there are still times of insecurity. The description for Sam and her fiance, following Muslin traditions and yet fighting so much for what she wants, she really wants to be a Valkyrie. I know nothing about their culture or religion, so I can't say anything about it, the religious fasting she follows throughout her journey trying to find the Ship of the Dead speaks of nothing if not perseverance and strong will. If that were happening for real though, I would have bodily forced her to eat, fought her bitterly over starving herself while on such a physical straining journey, or plainly tried to force her to not join the adventure in her current mental state. For her religious belief, she could not fight, swear or eat during the light hours so from sunrise to sundown she had to fast, even if certain exceptions are allowed she choose not to take that chance and willingly fasted all day eating until the sundown as dictated. Why do that?
When fighting came to, she used the exception, the exceptions being if the current situation is dangerous to undergo fasting or fighting and is also is permitted to skip when you are traveling, so both exceptions were allowing her to yet she still maintained her decision to fast even if fighting she could not withstand for it as her life was in danger if she did so. 

That side note: It was just one of the things that irritated me a bit. Another thing that greatly puzzles me, why do the Gods never actually fight with them and help? They always show up to congratulate them and that's it.

The story had a few nice moments, all the fighting we can expect from Mr Riordan, teamwork makes it possible for them to persevere, they all need each other, we have to see our lovely characters faced great personal challenges, fight their deepest fear their friends always believe in them and try to help as much as possible. I don't think it's necessary to warn people anymore the is very little plot here, its main focus character development!

Also, we have a representation of gender-fluid characters and the hints of an oncoming relationship, other than Amir and Sam which describe a very "traditional" arrange marriage situation but in which both parties are ok with it, I love the positive views it had here.

The romance is definitely not the main focus of this at all. I would have liked for it to be a bit more than what we had here but doesn't that always happen? Slow burn, and a hint of what's to come, really that's all you get. It is not a spoiler it happens in every series of his.

So overall enjoyed the story, it was showing a representation of a Deaf character, many people knowing sign language as if it was just another language people learn during their school years (it should be an elective in school for language like English, French and Spanish), gender diversity, even inter-races, diversity religion-wise and it portrayed it in a very positive manner, it's great to see religion represented as good even if it's not one greatly loved by many we need more of those examples.

So I just finished rereading the first series of 2020, I am going very slow but oh well happen to have made some progress.

I am starting to make a list of what to reread next year, any suggestions?