Now what, you make ask, in regards to our last talk
concerning Disney and TLK, about Rick Riordan? While his fellow R-author, J-Ro,
is busy with her ‘Fantastic Beasts’ movies, what does he do?
Well, he has written an anthology set in the world of Magnus
Chase, about the 9 worlds. And?
And, sadly, it is no cat’s meow, but rather a tangled bag.
As I said, it is an anthology, and…
There is Odin’s story, as he tries to figure out what the
Valkyries are up, and who is the leader that they need. It comes across as
comic relief, with little content beyond humor. When Riordan does humor, it is
good and light…but perhaps slightly too light.
Then there is the story of Samirah’s boyfriend/fiancé/etc.,
Amir. Sabirah and Alex have to rescue him from a necromancer and a pair of evil
pants. (Seriously!) So?
Well, the problem is that when Riordan was designing his
Magnus characters, he was trying to go for political acumen. In an excerpt from
one of his proper Magnus novels, Sabirah flies from her meeting with Magnus as
‘a super Muslima’. Sigh. When Riordan was writing down those lines, he was
probably thinking about this joke: ‘What do you call a Muslim woman who flies a
plane? A pilot’. This sort of American/Canadian humor was supposed to ease
interracial tensions in the North American communities. Here is a hint: it did
not work. For as long as there is freedom of opinion, there will be North
Americans who will not trust Muslims, and there will be Muslims who will
reciprocate in kind, if not up the ante. The governments of Canada and USA as
well as their Middle Eastern counterparts can, and should do their best to
counter the rise of such negative feelings, but some groan- and cringe-worthy
jokes should not be a part of the counter, for they are not helping anyone.
…As for Samirah and Alex’s stories, they are set in
Jotunheim and Muspelheim; the latter gets an especially bad rep because
apparently Riordan considers it to be sort of a Norse Hell, while Asgard’s
Heaven. This not so, not exactly – when it came to life after death, the Norse
had only two destinations: Asgard, and Hel. Asgard was the destination of all
of those heroic warriors that fell in battle; Hel was where everyone else ended
up at, regardless of their lifestyle during, well, their lifetime. Norse pagan
values had nothing in common with Christian; the Norse were among the last of
the Europeans to convert to Christianity, and Muspelheim was no Hell, but
rather the embodiment of the destructive aspect of fire, period. The exact
details are unknown, but as their myth of Ragnarok shows, the Norse believed
that their world – actually, their entire universe – would be destroyed by fire
and ice, but especially fire, as embodied by Muspelheim and its’ king, the
first giant Surt or Surtur (Surtr). He would inspire Tolkien’s balrogs, which,
in turn, would inspire Marvel’s version of Surtur, (as seen in the ‘Thor:
Ragnarok’ movie) – but Muspelheim was no Hell.
In the ‘9 worlds’ anthology, Alex is the one who went down
there, where he defeated and embarrassed Surtur, and-
And the thing is that Alex is the gender-fluid character of
Riordan’s multiverse. That is very commendable, the problem is that
gender-fluid people aren’t very overt and you don’t see them very often in real
life, and if you do, you may not realize it, especially during a Canadian
winter, when all people, regardless of their gender, tend to dress in thick and
warm clothing, preferring practicality over gender-specific clothing. If they
speak, it is another thing – to hear a man speak in a woman’s voice and vice
versa can be startling and surprising, but again, these are not occurrences
that happen very often in one’s life.
So, where does Alex fit into this? In ‘9 worlds’ he is depicted as…a boy, with
nothing specifically gender-fluid about him. In real life, this is not a
problem – a person with sexually alternative lifestyle can look as regular or
irregular as they want; in Riordan’s books, where Alex is a representative of
sexual minorities this depiction feels like a letdown instead.
Speaking of sexual minorities, what is going on with
Hearthstone and Blitzen? (Aside from the fact that Hearthstone got depicted as
a variant Draco Malfoy for his part). Hearthstone in particular got to rescue
Inga the Huldra (a Norse nature spirit, sort of intermediate between a rusalka
and a troll) in a very old fashioned way in a very old fashioned story – the
rescue of a damsel, (here from a troll, mostly). Couldn’t Riordan design a
better adventure for the elf? Blitzen in particular got to rescue Thor from an
evil (eviller?) dwarf named Andvari instead…
…Yes, in my opinion, those are the same symptoms that are
developed further in Riordan’s Apollo series – either Riordan or Disney, (who
is sponsoring Riordan or whatever) had had enough of political correctness,
progress and etc., and are just trying to write regular YA novels without much
sexual minorities, racial minorities and such similar political progressives. Samirah,
(getting back to her), went to Jotunheim to check on an egg of a magical
oversized chicken and had to outmaneuver a giant; to Helheim went TJ, who had
to restrain Garm the Norse hell hound, and both of those adventures were ok,
but kind of underwhelming, restricted. Riordan had some good ideas in ‘9
worlds’ the anthology, (the last ones are Halfborn in Vanaheim and Molly in
Niflheim, built along similar lines as Samirah and TJ’s adventures), but due to
the specifics of ‘9 worlds’ they never got fully developed, remaining more of a
disappointment instead…
But then – on topic of Riordan – is Jennifer Cervantes’ ‘The
Storm Runner’ novel. Just like Roshani Chokshi’s ‘Aru Shah and the End of Time’
novel, this is a novel that is associated with Mr. Riordan and his universe and
is built on the same lines that his YA novels are built: a teen – or a preteen
– discovers that one of their parents is a god and hijinks follow. The two
novels are different – Chokshi’s ‘Aru Shah’ is very dialogue heavy and
description heavy and while it has some references to Riordan, it has some
Rowling references as well and comes across as somewhat silly. It is good for a
laugh, but its’ humor is kind of immature, and in general Ms. Chokshi just
tries to hard to shoehorn her YA novel as a teenage/pre-teenage girl read.
Ms. Cervantes and her novel are different; it is more
mature, edgier, and it feels like two novels stitched into one – her own novel
about acceptance, (here the differences are physical deficiencies rather than
sexual or racial minorities), including Mesoamerican mythology, and a
Riordan-imitation novel, also regarding Mesoamerican mythology. To compound
matters further, she used Riordan’s ‘Lightning Thief’ novel for plot and plot
points, with variations; i.e. it is not the hero’s mother who gets taken to the
underworld, but his dog, (so the entire novel takes on a very weird tinge),
Grover the satyr’s role is taken over by Zane’s – the titular character’s –
wrestler-wannabe uncle, and the entire novel begins to feel like an imitation
of the aforementioned ‘Lightning Thief’, with the injected story of team Zane
confronting a pair of selfish twins, (Jordan and Bird). They are supposed to
help Zane save the world from the god of death, Ah-Puch, (whose name serves as
a recipient for some jokes that again come across as immature rather than
funny), but just eat-up Zane’s time and pad-up Ms. Cervantes’ novel instead.
While both novels promise sequels in spring and autumn of 2019, it is anyone’s
guess as to whether this will happen.
And where’s Rick Riordan in all of this? He is the one
writing the introductions to those novels. Why? Probably to show that both Ms.
Chokshi and Ms. Cervantes have his stamp of approval and are a part of ‘his’
universe rather than independent works. Ms. Cervantes’ novel comes off as a
professional imitation of ‘the Lightning Thief; it is professionally distorted
– dog as opposed to mother, the issue of appearances, (good vs. ugly, inside
vs. outside), but still, is it flattering? …And on the other hand, we have Ms.
Chokshi’s ‘Aru Shah’, which succeeds – as an amateur – where Ms. Cervantes’
professionalism fails: ‘Aru Shah’ is a completely independent novel that has
nothing to do with Mr. Riordan’s works as such Ms. Chokshi may have had to
insert some concrete references to Mr. Riordan’s works, however oblique they
were; as a consequence, they stick like sore thumbs in her novel.
Therefore, this is the current stage of Mr. Riordan’s input
into the Western literature: the Apollo series, (that feels as if it is on
hiatus while Mr. Riordan and co. hammer out the kinks), a couple of
anthologies, (‘9 worlds’ and a ‘Kane Chronicles’ one that feels like a mix
between an anthology and an activity book…with a throwaway to a semi-bisexual
Setne, a villain – ouch!), and the above-mentioned novels of Ms. Chokshi, (an
independent work, basically), and of Ms. Cervantes, (an on the nose imitation
of ‘Lightning Thief’). Not something to be proud about, one suspects.
…And then there is J-Ro, who is not doing so hot either. Yes,
by now she has three illustrated novels (re-editions, with Jim Kay), as opposed
to Riordan’s only one, (Chad Rocco), but they all are selling the same way –
badly. There is the release of the ‘Crimes of Grindelwald’ script released in a
book form, but it is going the same way as ‘Cursed Child’ did – badly.
Regardless of the movies’ success, and of the fact that ‘HPGF’ is being remade
into a concert, the sun is setting upon J-Ro, as it does upon Rick Riordan.
…Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!
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