Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Books in Order

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard shifts the action to Boston and the nine worlds of Norse myth. Magnus, a homeless sixteen-year-old, dies battling a fire giant and wakes up in Hotel Valhalla as an einherji—one of Odin’s chosen warriors. He soon learns he’s the son of the god Frey and that his death is only the beginning of a much larger fight to keep Ragnarok at bay.

Over three novels—The Sword of Summer, The Hammer of Thor, and The Ship of the Dead—Magnus teams up with a deaf elf, a fashion-obsessed dwarf, a Muslim Valkyrie, and a shapeshifting child of Loki. Their quests send them across the branches of Yggdrasil, from Boston harbor to Jotunheim, Nidavellir, and the depths of Niflheim, chasing a runaway sword, a missing hammer, and finally Loki himself. The humor is sharper and the chapter titles even more ridiculous, but the emotional core is about chosen family and healing after trauma.

It’s also one of Riordan’s most deliberately inclusive series, foregrounding characters who are marginalized in both modern life and old myths.

This background page outlines the main trilogy as well as the companion titles. Hotel Valhalla: Guide to the Norse Worlds plays like a handbook for new recruits, full of in-world jokes and profiles of gods and monsters, while 9 From the Nine Worlds collects short stories that follow Magnus’s friends on solo misadventures in each realm. Together they round out the setting and give side characters room to take center stage.

If you’ve already read Percy Jackson, you’ll spot subtle links between the Greek and Norse sides of the universe, but you can also jump straight into Magnus without any background. This page walks through the recommended order either way, explains how the stakes escalate from book to book, and gives you a sense of the series’ mix of slapstick, high myth, and surprisingly tender moments.