The Ship of the Dead

A clear and definite improvement over the first two books. Much more of Magnus being his own character and not Percy 2.0. No more of the general ‘isn't it hilarious how much like humans this non human civilization/person is?' and some actually witty/sarcastic remarks.

Magnus' crew gets fleshed out more - with Mallory, HalfBorn and T.J. actually getting time to shine. (Which, regardless of my feels towards their character and characterization, can only be for the best.) (I also do think the blooming relationship between Magnus and Alex is cute and I love that it's not as ... forced as a certain other one was. (Percy/Annabeth.) There's a lot of room for them to grow together without me feeling like I'm supposed to feel that they are destined to be together.)

Also, to the good, is the fact that the ending feels a lot like there's more adventures Magnus and crew will go on, which is something I always love.

What I'm not thrilled with is the fact that this is set in the PJ&tO world. Look, besides my feelings on the characters from the original series, things are starting to feel very claustrophobic. We've got deities from Greek, Roman, Egyptian and now Norse all sharing a world. (A very North America-centric world at that, but I'm not getting into that now.) The Kane Chronicles wasn't as bad because it didn't cameo characters from the original series. I just don't see how these deities aren't tripping all over each other or having Greek/Norse babies. shrug