Jayson’s Reviews > The Hammer of Thor > Status Update

Notes:
(1) This book makes lots of references to the TV show "Cheers."
- Why? As a YA series, most of its readership was born after the show ended.
(2) Magnus: "What is G-R-R-M, anyway?"
Thor: "An acronym for God Rapid Response Mobilization."
- Whew! I thought it meant George R.R. Martin.
(3) Annabeth: "A god fell to earth as a human. These evil Roman emperors are back, causing trouble."
- Yup. Been there, done that.

Notes:
(1) As has been the trend, Riordan's pop culture references here are almost exclusively pre-1990s.
- In the last few chapters we get references to Prince, "The Princess Bride," and "Pinball Wizard" by The Who.
- The only exceptions are Kurt Cobain and Taylor Swift.
(2) I always though Sif, wife of Thor, rhymed with GIF, but here it rhymes with sleeve.
- Thank goodness no one's pronouncing GIF like geeve/jeeve.

Notes:
(1) Amir: "Your horn is a phone?"
Heimdall: "I think technically it’s a phablet. But yes, this is Gjallar, the Horn and/or Phablet of Doomsday!"
- Was phablet ever a term that gained traction? I've never heard it IRL.
(2) Heimdall pronounces GIF with a hard G. I do too.
- I'd hate to wade into the GIF pronunciation war, but there's already an image file called a JIF, and if anything a hard G lessens confusion.

Notes:
(1) Gellir: "It's the tradition of the Thing."
Magnus: "What thing?"
Gellir: "You know, the Thing ... from the word thingvellir, meaning field of the assembly. The Norse voting council."
Samira: "Ah ... I’ve heard of the Thing."
- This Thing isn't as good as dam but better than bull or schist.
(2) Hearthstone: "Too dangerous ... Death. The prophecy."
- Yeah, I feel like that's the case with every Riordan book.

Notes:
(1) First of all, Kieran Culkin's a breath of fresh air as narrator. Not particularly good, just a big improvement over his predecessor.
- He speaks at normal speed, for example! I had to crank my speed up to 1.75x to listen to Christopher Guetig.
(2) My first impression of Alex Fierro is that he/she is terribly unpleasant.
- Moody and standoffish stick out in a series that's been decidedly quirky and chipper.

Notes:
(1) The biggest thing I'm looking forward to with this is that they've changed the narrator!
- Hopefully Kieran Culkin is a better fit than Christopher Guetig, though that wouldn't be hard.
- You don't really see Hollywood actors narrating books. Maybe he's just a big Riordan fan?
(2) As with the first book, I don't remember a thing about this one. Riordan's non-Greco-Roman books seem to blend into each other.