Hello and welcome to this Author Interview, where I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Richard Lee Byers back to Track of Words to talk about his new novel The Rebels of Vanaheim. This is Richard’s second novel in the Marvel: Legend of Asgard series from Aconyte Books, following on from 2020’s The Head of Mimir, and tells the story of another one of Asgardian hero Heimdall’s adventures in the Ten Realms. The first book was a lot of fun, so I’m looking forward to this one – read on to find out more about this fun-sounding new Marvel novel, then check out a few sample chapters at the end of the article to get a taste of the book itself.
Without further ado, let’s get straight on with the interview.
Track of Words: To start things off, could you give us an overview of what The Rebels of Vanaheim is about?
Richard Lee Byers: Heimdall and his friend the Valkyrie Uschi travel home to Vanaheim essentially on the Norse mythology version of a vacation. To their surprise, they find the Realm under siege by draugr (the undead.) In the course of trying to deal with that problem, they find themselves embroiled in an even greater mystery and facing an even greater threat.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
RLB: The main protagonist is Heimdall. Now a seasoned warrior in possession of the sight and hearing of Mimir, the Gjallarhorn, and the winged steed Golden Mane, he’s no longer the callow young warrior seen in The Head of Mimir but still far from the true god of Asgard and All-Seer of Bifrost he will one day become.
The secondary protagonist is the Valkyrie Uschi, a character I introduced in The Head of Mimir. She has a grimmer, more pessimistic temperament than her friend Heimdall, and in this book we learn the reason why.
The god Frey also plays an important role. He’s leading the Vanir fight against the undead but may have an agenda beyond that.
There are other major characters as well, but I can’t tell you who they are without giving away parts of the story.
ToW: Where is this story set, and how does it fit in with the wider Marvel universe and timeline?
RLB: The story is set in Vanaheim, Nidavellir, and Asgard during the early days of the Marvel universe, before Heimdall was a true god or Bifrost had been created. I think it does a pretty good job of being true to both “real” Norse mythology and the interpretation of it we see in Thor and other Marvel comics.
ToW: How does this relate to your previous Legends of Asgard novel, The Head of Mimir? Is it a direct sequel, or a standalone Heimdall story?
RLB: It depends on how you look at it. You can call the new one a standalone in that it has a completely new story problem, antagonists, etc. But The Head of Mimir was the start of Heimdall’s journey to true godhood, and The Rebels of Vanaheim is the next big step in his evolution. So in that sense, it’s a sequel.
ToW: If The Head of Mimir gave you an opportunity to tell a story of Heimdall’s early years, what was it that inspired you to tell this particular story?
RLB: I think of the two books as essentially being The Origin of Heimdall, Parts One and Two. I looked at the Marvel lore about Heimdall, and it seemed to me that his early years had gone largely unexplored. So there was a window to do something new, and origin stories are always interesting.
ToW: This time you’ve chosen to partner Heimdall with Uschi, rather than Sif in the previous novel. What does Uschi bring to the story that’s different, compared to Sif, and how did that affect the writing process?
RLB: Sif’s a great character, but she’s a character who already has much of her background established. That limits what a writer can do with her. Since I invented Uschi, I can do anything I want with her, which opens up additional story possibilities. In The Rebels of Vanaheim, I was able to feature her in a subplot that simply wouldn’t work with Sif.
ToW: Where did you look for influences this time? Did you draw from any different sources, to set this apart from The Head of Mimir?
RLB: The Head of Mimir focuses on Asgard and Jotunheim, two worlds that are at the heart of both “real” Norse myth and Norse myth as interpreted by Marvel. In contrast, both sources deal with Vanaheim in a more cursory way. So I thought that would be an interesting Realm to explore.
ToW: If someone loves your Heimdall novels and wants to find out more about this character, do you have any recommendations for where to look next?
RLB: If someone wants to read about Heimdall as he is straight out of Viking myth, Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman is good. If someone wants to read what Marvel has done with the character, he’s appeared fairly often in Thor comics and plays an important role early on in the saga of the Young Gods.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of The Rebels of Vanaheim by the time they’ve finished it?
RLB: First and foremost, I hope readers find it to be an enjoyable fantasy novel that feels true to both Norse myth and Marvel lore. Beyond that, there are a couple themes I hope people will pick up on, but I don’t want to telegraph them by flat-out announcing what they are.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on with Aconyte for future release, or anything else you’ve got in the pipeline?
RLB: There will be more with Aconyte but nothing I’m free to announce yet. Stay tuned! Other than that, I’ll have a short story in the anthology Grimmer Tales, due out soon (I think). It’s a book of tales from the Brother Grimm reimagined by contemporary authors. I reimagined my pick pretty thoroughly.
ToW: Lastly, if you could visit any one of the Ten Realms which one would you choose and why?
RLB: Well, I’m already in Midgard, so let’s rule that one out. Of the ones remaining, I’d pick Asgard. It’s full of wonders and cool characters, and I think there’d be less chance of getting killed by a monster.
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Richard Lee Byers is the author of fifty horror and fantasy books including This Sword for Hire and Blind God’s Bluff, novels for Marvel: Legends of Asgard, Forgotten Realms, and the Impostor series. He’s also written scores of short stories, some collected in The Things That Crawl and The Hep Cats of Ulthar, scripted a graphic novel, and contributed content on tabletop and electronic games. A resident of the Tampa Bay area, he’s an RPG enthusiast and a frequent program participant at Florida conventions, Dragon Con, and Gen Con.
You can find Richard on Twitter.
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Big thanks once again to Richard for chatting to me for this interview, and for taking the time to give us the lowdown on The Rebels of Vanaheim! If this has piqued your interest, then check out the PDF reader below to read the first couple of chapters!
Many thanks to Aconyte Books and Marvel for providing these sample chapters. For more Marvel-related reviews and author interviews, check out the main Aconyte Books page on Track of Words.
The Rebels of Vanaheim is published as both a global ebook on the 7th December 2021, US paperback on the 21st December 2021, and UK paperback on the 17th February 2022.
Check out the links below to order your copy* of The Rebels of Vanaheim:
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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