Words can't even express my excitement for The Sword of Summer. Riordan is, and will always be one of my favorite authors...but his two latest books fell flat-ish for me. Riordan's not losing his touch, by any means. It's just...time to get a-move on... 
 But that doesn't mean I hated The Sword of Summer. I enjoyed it nevertheless. The chapter titles were hilarious (especially the one with Jason Grace), and the characters were enjoyable as usual. The Annabeth cameos were by far the most anticipated, and probably my favorite parts. 
 Magnus is snarky and sarcastic, and although his sarcasm far from Percy's level (Persassy FTW), but it's up there. And it makes everything 10x more hilarious. One thing Magnus lacks is character. Yes, he's sarcastic and snarky, but other than that, there's pretty much nothing going on for him. He's just...Percy.! Sam and some of his other buddies helped too. I especially loved Blitzen. 
 I went into this knowing extremely little about the Norse gods, and although this did inform me a ton more, it info-dropped a lot. Not completely, but a lot. I found myself referring back to the back of the book, which explained which levels were which, as I got them confused a lot. 
 The plot was standard Riordan, and I've come to peace with it. People might argue that it's predictable and simple and not original, but I've gotten so used to it, and it hurts to give Riordan's books less than a 3 star rating. They were my childhood. Besides, I like the classic Riordan plot. Ordinary boy/girl finds that they are special, then they come to this fabulous new place, find that they're destined for something great (or bad), and go on a quest, etc, etc. It's strangely warming. 
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