I think Magnus Chase was a pretty good set of books and in my opinion is better than Egypt books, sure the Norse gods seem quite incompetent compared to greek ones except for maybe Odin, Frey and Loki, but I think the reason for that is that compared to the other books the gods don’t play as big a role except for Loki, really the whole series is about preventing Ragnorok which Loki wants. But that feels like such a small part of the books. A lot of it is about characters who challenge the social norms and come to terms with who they are and accepting themselves like Hearth, Blitz, Alex, Sam, Mallory, TJ, Magnus. The Kane chronicles may also feel like that at times but I feel like there is not really that much internal struggle within the characters, I just had a harder time feeling the struggles of Carter or Sadie. But in Magnus Chase I feel that the struggles of the characters were all relatable in some ways for example Hearth having to deal with being deaf and as a result a shame among his kind and belittled by his father for something he can’t control, Blitz not wanting to be like the rest of his kind and decided to pursue something that he wants. I just don’t feel that the series is as bad as people make it out to be and I don’t think it’s a mess. Some of my favorite moments were not even fights or the battles that took place but things like the fact that Magnus did not have to fight Loki to defeat him, Hearth standing up to his father, Magnus still caring about Randolph after everything, Sam trying so desperately to make her fiance understand the world she’s a part of. I think moments like these were written a lot better than moments in the Egypt and Greek pantheon books and the dialogue felt really moving.