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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rick Riordan
Read between
June 19 - July 21, 2024
Annabeth.”
Her gray eyes were a little too fierce for a first grader’s. Be safe, Magnus.
If you can afford five thousand dollars to blow your nose, you can afford to buy me dinner.
This book is incredibly accurate so far in so far as that the best place for good Korean food in Boston is indeed Allston
Whenever we hung out, he mostly just stared at me with those pale gray eyes like he was waiting for me to explode.
worlds.”
“You missed a pedestrian,” I said. “You want to go back and hit her?”
“The statue of Leif Erikson…Does that mean the Vikings—er, the Norse—discovered Boston? I thought the Pilgrims did that.” “I could give you a three-hour lecture on that topic alone.” “Please don’t.” “Suffice it to say, the Norse explored North America and even built settlements around the year 1000, almost five hundred years before Christopher Columbus. Scholars agree on that.” “That’s a relief. I hate it when scholars disagree.”
“Myths are simply stories about truths we’ve forgotten.”
The words clicked into place like pieces of a puzzle I’d never had the courage to finish. I was starting to believe him, and that scared the baked beans out of me.
“On my life, Magnus, I swear this is the truth: your father is a Norse god. Now, hurry. We’re in a twenty-minute parking spot.”
but I’d always thought they looked like Daleks from Doctor Who. (So I’m a nerd. Sue me.
When I say dark, I mean his skin was the purest, most beautiful shade of black I’d ever seen. Squid ink at midnight would not have been so black. His clothes were the same: a well-tailored jacket and slacks, a crisp dress shirt and tie—all cut from the fabric of a neutron star. His face was inhumanly handsome, chiseled obsidian. His long hair was combed back in an immaculate oil slick. His pupils glowed like tiny rings of lava. I thought, If Satan were real, he would look like this guy. Then I thought, No, Satan would be a schlub next to this guy. This guy is like Satan’s fashion consultant.
Make Way for Ducklings,
So close uncle Rick but the commuter line is purple …
though personally I found the word whence very intimidating.
fire giant.
Vanir-spawn.
All right. Make it count.
Weakly, I raised my free hand. I flipped him a gesture that he wouldn’t need to know sign language to understand.
Then I died. The end.
Whenever she read me stories, I used to gaze at the spray of freckles across her nose and try to count them.
WOULD IT SURPRISE you to learn that the place was bigger on the inside?
what is C.E.?” “Common Era,” said the manager. “What you might call A.D.” “Then why don’t you just say A.D.?” “Because Anno Domini, in the Year of Our Lord, is fine for Christians, but Thor gets a little upset. He still holds a grudge that Jesus never showed up for that duel he challenged him to.”
“Well, there’s dead and then there’s dead. Think of Valhalla more like…an upgrade. You’re one of the einherjar now.” He pronounced the word like in-HAIR-yar. “Einherjar,” I repeated. “Just rolls right off the tongue.” “Yeah. Singular: einherji.” He said it like in-HAIR-yee. “We’re the chosen of Odin, soldiers in his eternal army. The word einherjar is usually translated as lone warriors, but that doesn’t really capture the meaning. It’s more like…the once warriors—the warriors who fought bravely in the last life and will fight bravely again on the Day of Doom.
He pronounced the word like in-HAIR-yar. “Einherjar,” I repeated. “Just rolls right off the tongue.” “Yeah. Singular: einherji.” He said it like in-HAIR-yee. “We’re the chosen of Odin, soldiers in his eternal army. The word einherjar is usually translated as lone warriors, but that doesn’t really capture the meaning. It’s more like…the once warriors—the warriors who fought bravely in the last life and will fight bravely again on the Day of Doom.
“What was that?” I asked. “A raven,” Hunding said, which I found very helpful.
“It’s dagaz,” Hunding said. “Nothing to be afraid of. It symbolizes new beginnings, transformations.
Stupid magical hotel wouldn’t even allow me to properly vandalize things.
“Most important things have names.”
“Magnus Chase!” Helgi called. “Do you know your parentage?” I counted to five. My first inclination was to yell, No, but your dad was apparently a jackass!
It definitely wasn’t any scarier than the public restrooms in the Common.
My eyes were gray—more like my cousin Annabeth’s than my mom’s. They had a haunted, scary emptiness to them, but that was normal. The look had served me well on the streets.
well, there are a lot of ways to Boston, since Boston is the center of Midgard.” I glanced around the table. Nobody was laughing. “It is?” “Sure,” T.J. said. “It’s right at the trunk of the World Tree, the easiest spot from which to access the other worlds. Why do you think Boston is called the Hub of the Universe?” “Wishful thinking?” “No. Mortals have always known there was something about that location, even if they couldn’t put their finger on what it was. The Vikings searched for the center of the world for years. They knew the entrance to Asgard was in the west. That’s one reason they
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“It’s Magnus’s first day,” T.J. said. “Let’s not go into that. He’s already freaked out enough.” “Freak me out more,” I said. “What legends exactly?”
I TOLD MY NEW FRIENDS I was allergic to dismemberment. They just laughed and herded me toward the combat arena. This is why I don’t like making new friends.
T.J. jabbed his bayonet through the faceplate of a medieval knight. “Let’s take that hill!” He pointed to a nearby ridge at the edge of the woods. “Why?” I yelled. “Because it’s a hill!” “He loves taking hills,” Mallory grumbled. “It’s a Civil War thing.”
“For Frigg’s sake!”
“He’s a berserker.” Mallory glanced back, her expression a mix of disdain and exasperation and something else…admiration? “That idiot will keep fighting until he is literally hacked to pieces.” Something clicked in my head. Mallory liked Halfborn. You don’t call somebody an idiot that many times unless you’re really into them. Under different circumstances, I might have teased her,
“Go, Magnus Beantown,” said the half-troll. “Take the crest for floor nineteen!” “My nickname will not be Beantown,” I muttered. “I refuse.”
Gods, I noted. Plural.
I’m blushing, Hearthstone signed, clearly not blushing.
“It’s ASL,” I said. “American Sign Language.” “Alf Sign Language,” Blitz corrected.
“Who makes up these rules?” I asked. “I made up that rule,” Mimir said. “So shut up.
“Lord Mister Bubbles—”
“There,” Sam said. “Did you feel it? We’ve passed from Midgard into Jotunheim waters.” I pointed off the port bow. A few hundred yards away, a granite spire jutted out of the fog. “But that’s Graves Light. We’re not too far from the harbor.” Sam grabbed one of the giant’s fishing poles, which looked more appropriate for heavyweight pole-vaulting. “The worlds overlap, Magnus, especially near Boston. Go get the bait.”
“I dunno. Something pocket-size and innocuous. A pen, maybe?” The sword pulsed, almost like it was laughing. I imagined it saying, A pen sword. That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
“Behold!” Blitzen said. “The nexus of the universe!” Hearthstone knelt reverently. I glanced at Sam, who had joined us after a daring escape from first period physics. She wasn’t laughing. “So…” I said, “I’m just going to point out that this is the Make Way for Ducklings statue.” “Do you think it’s a coincidence?” Blitzen demanded. “Nine Worlds? Nine ducks? The symbolism screams portal! This spot is the crux of creation, the center of the tree, the easiest place to jump from one duck—I mean one world—to another.”
other, to see which one can destroy their end of Yggdrasil faster.” “But that’s…crazy. The squirrel lives in the tree.” Blitz grimaced. “We all do, kid. People have destructive impulses. Some of us want to see the world in ruins just for the fun of it…even if we’re ruined along with it.”
“When the squirrel barked, what did you hear?” Blitz ran his fingers across the brim of his pith helmet, pinching the edge of the black veil. “Nothing I don’t tell myself all the time, kid.
