Rutabaga's Reads 2018: Part 3

For this compilation post, I am happy to present a compilation featuring a few middle-grade books from authors I enjoy. If you have read any of these stories, please add your opinions in the comments below. And, if you have any to recommend – or avoid! – please let me know that in the comments as well!

            Please also beware of spoilers if you haven’t read the previous stories in each of these series. I do avoid spoilers as best I can, so know there aren’t major spoilers. I don’t, say, give away the endings of the stories.

The Empty Grave (Sept. 12, 2017) by Jonathan Stroud.

There is nothing quite like a nighttime masquerade into a heavily guarded mausoleum. Those at Lockwood & Co. are adept and therefore manage to get into the mausoleum undetected. They are looking for the body of a certain someone, and they find a body, but it’s not the one that should be there. And so begins their secretive research (they are being sporadically watched and followed) – “their” being Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle, George Cubbins, Holly Munro and Quill Kipps. This is on top of their usual jobs from a Lurker in an apartment above a Chinese restaurant to La Belle Dame Sans Merci and jobs in-between. But it’s what they’re researching that may pose the biggest threat to them all. These young operatives will have to survive attacks from foes of both the spectral and human varieties to overcome the real cause of the Problem.

            This group headquartered at 35 Portland Row, London, are an eclectic and crafty bunch. The author has created distinctly different characters with their own strengths and weaknesses. My one bother of the entire series is the lack of diversity. Holly’s character is the only notable one that lends a speck of diversity to a landscape that is both realistic and otherworldly. Having now read all five stories in the Lockwood & Co. series (this being the ultimate story), this is disappointing, as Stroud is so otherwise masterful with this series. It is clever and clandestine, haunted (literally, in locations), humorous and delightfully creepy. Stroud’s writing sucks you into a believable world and spits you back out, though hopefully without being ghost-touched and with all of your appendages intact.

The Ship of the Dead (Oct. 3, 2017) by Rick Riordan.

Thor. Odin. Loki. Valkyrie. Valhalla. Before Riordan’s Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, that’s about all I could tell you about Norse mythology. But now, the things I know! (Okay, that was an exaggeration, though I definitely know more about Norse mythology than I did.)

            “The Ship of the Dead” is the final book in the trilogy. Do I wish this series were continuing? Naturally. In the first book, Magnus turned 16. While he should have been awaiting his driver’s license, he’d already been homeless for two years, as his only living parent (mom) had been killed two years before. But he had his best homeless buddies, Blitz and Hearth, to look out for him. And at his ripe old age, his life turned into, “Now that you’re 16, there’s a good chance you’ll die soon. Surprise! Have a happy birthday!”

            So Magnus dies and winds up in Valhalla, thanks to a Valkyrie named Samirah al-Abbas. He learns that he’s the demigod son of Frey, the god of spring and summer. In truth, Magnus is a Vanir (gods of nature) demigod, and their afterlife is overseen by Magnus’ aunt Freya (goddess of love and twin of Frey) in Folkvanger. Yet he is in Valhalla, which is the army that serves Odin. He also learns that Blitzen is actually a svartalf (a.k.a. dark elf, but still actually a dwarf) and Hearthstone is an elf. Hearth is deaf, which his father found embarrassing and appalling, and Blitz has an amazing sense of style. Magnus is also armed with Jack (a.k.a. Sumarbrander, the Sword of Summer).

            By the third book, Magnus has his best floormates: TJ (Thomas Jefferson, Jr., a dead Civil War soldier), Mallory Keen (of Irish descent who wields knives very well), Halfborn Gunderson (a berserker) and Alex Fierro (he/she is gender fluid). Much of the time, they spend their days in Valhalla doing battle to the death (whether actual battle, yoga, pottery, etc. – it sounds quite intense) and getting reincarnated. But they also go on quests. In this book, on “The good ship Mikillgulr!” which, as a nickname, is the “Big Banana,” but the better translation means “big yellow.” Magnus dreams of Loki and his nasty ship of the clipped toenails and fingernails of the dishonorable dead, Naglfar, which means, naturally, the Ship of Nails. Yuck.

            Loki, being free, is trying to start Ragnarok. But before they can attempt a flyting with him, they’ve gotta survive Aegir’s vengeful giant daughters, a tveirvigi with another giant, vatnavaettir (water horses), Hearth’s dragon-dad, thrall giants (i.e. giants that are slaves), more giants in general that mean them harm and a meeting with Njord (Vanir god of the sea) and his beautiful feet who also happens to be Magnus’ grandfather.

            Like in Riordan’s other books, “The Ship of the Dead” is full of action and adventure right from the first chapter. I am always impressed by the diversity of characters he creates and appreciate him more for it. Because not only are his characters diverse, they are complex, each with distinct personalities and backgrounds. You never think, “Wow. Halfborn is pretty much the same as Alex.” Nope. Never. And while many of the problems are on a fictionally gigantic scale centering on the end of the world as everyone, including us non-magic mortals, knows it, there are also things that people may relate to. For instance, Hearth and his maltreatment by his father. So what if he’s an elf? Bullying is no small thing, and in Riordan’s world, it extends past the world of humans. This novel is resplendent in its wit and prose, and it never ceased entertaining me.

The Silver Mask (Oct. 10, 2017) by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare.

Magical prison is not like television prison at all. Well, except for the main character being framed and all that. But Callum “Call” Hunt finds himself in the Panopticon until he isn’t. (Thank goodness for a Devoured of fire!) Call has been blamed for a devastating death, and he’s also feared for the soul they think he houses. But Call is just Call. He leaves one prison for another, and he’s tasked to do the unthinkable; it is something that not even Constantine Madden achieved. The power of chaos can work for good, but is so often thought of as wicked, because even in the best of times, chaos magic is destructive. And Call isn’t the only one wielding chaos magic, only the other person wasn’t imbued with it from birth, nor was it willingly granted to him with, say, a chaos mage’s soul. No. It was stolen, and that mage died.

            Just like I would’ve loved an acceptance letter to Hogwarts, so, too, would I have gladly been an aspirant hoping to be selected by a senior mage as an apprentice and to learn at the Magisterium for five years. The fourth story in the Magisterium series, I read through it almost as swiftly as a Devoured of fire can destroy a magical prison. While middle-grade, this series ramped up its intensity.  It’s not about learning how to control and use magic in the Magisterium anymore; in fact, Call’s never there in this story. Life has reached critical mass when it comes to the nature of a soul, the dignity of life and death and what it is to secure true friendship, especially when that friendship is severely tested. Like the others, this story is filled with magic and wonder, and I can’t wait to read what happens next!