Valhalla Atlantis and Colin Falconer: The Dream Team
This is no accident. Colin Falconer is one of the (least-known) best-selling authors in the world. This Australian has written dozens of historical novels and thrillers, and been translated into twenty-three languages.
Now, he’s just published an Historical Fantasy–his first ever.
When I found out about this, I had to know why he wrote Valhalla Atlantis.
But before I go on and ask questions, I want to quote a description of the book, from a press release: “When the North Men from Ingolfsfell sail from their icy fjord in a single longboat, to establish a settlement across the great sea, they thought they would be gone for just three years. They had no name for the Atlantic then; and America they called ‘Vinland’, the place of meadows.
Colin Falconer
“But a storm takes them off course to an island even the legendary Leif Erikson had never seen. These natives are not savages in skins; and they do not build their homes from hides.
“They live instead in a great city, in the shadow of a looming volcano. And they do not hunt animals; they hunt men with white hair and blue eyes.
“Their gods come from the skies, and the Apocalypse is … now.”
So Colin Falconer: Why did you decide to write Valhalla Atlantis, an historical fantasy about Vikings?
Colin: I was talking with my agent at the time and we were talking about Game of Thrones, which he is a huge fan of, and he asked me if I had any ideas for historical fantasy. I said no, I don’t do that sort of thing, but if I did, I’ve had this title in my head for a long time: VALHALLA ATLANTIS.
And he loved it and insisted that I write it. And then of course our agent-author relationship did not work out, and I got another agent, who was much more enthusiastic about my straight HF, but by then this idea and the characters I created had a hold of me.
I’m nervous about this because I’ve never done anything remotely like it. It’s an epic, too!
Julia: What gave you the idea?
Colin: It just came to me one morning as I was waking up. Just the title. Funny but all the books that have done best for me start off with a title that come to me as I’m day dreaming. I love this title because I never have to explain to anyone what it’s about. It’s about Vikings. And Atlantis. What’s not to love?
Julia: The quote written in Mayan glyphs, said to have been found in a Viking mound, is it real or did you write it as part of the fantasy?
I believe it goes “There is a river that gives us life. You may dam it; you may swim against it. But in the end, it will flow to the sea, with or without you.”—from The Book of the Stars , a manuscript of unknown origin, written in Mayan glyphs circa 1000 AD and found in a Viking burial mound in Greenland, 2001
Colin: They are fictitious. But they sound as if they could be real, don’t they?
Julia: And what about the quote from the Saga of Harard Half-Face? Is that a real quote? They set out that day to sail for Vinland. Tromdur Svensson planned to be away for just three years. How the gods were laughing at him, at all of them, on that day.
—from The Saga of Harold Half-Face
Colin: Again, it’s fictional. But the Norsemen did like their sagas. Word fame was an important part of their culture, and the sagas they wrote were a big part of that.
Julia: Does this book indicate a genre change for future books?
Colin: I think this is a one-off, though if it does well, there is room for a sequel. And it’s not such a huge leap: I have experimented with alternative history (Colossus) before.
And this is not all fantasy: I did a lot of research on the Norse peoples who colonised Greenland (Vikings is a popular term that came into use hundreds of years later) and I created a hybrid Mesoamerican culture for the inhabitants of my fictional Atlantis – which I imagined as an island just west of the Azores.
So even though it’s fantasy I still did my homework. But unless I turn into JK Rowling overnight, I won’t make a permanent change to historical fantasy! 
Julia: Are historical fantasies popular with readers?
Colin: I’ll soon find out!
Julia: How did you research Valhalla Atlantis ?
Colin: I started with the Norsemen who first explored America – around Baffin Island and Newfoundland, men like Leif Erikson. I researched their culture, their religion, their methods of navigation.
Then I considered that if Atlantis had existed in 1000 AD, what kind of people might be living on it. I decided on MesoAmerican refugees, forced from their homeland – nothing topical there – and I researched roughly the same things.
Of course there are a third group, and these ring-ins make it very interesting.
Julia: I’m assuming you find the Vikings interesting.
Colin: I find every culture interesting. It’s people that fascinate me the most, no matter where they lived, or when. I guess that’s why my books never concentrate on one particular period in history – the people are more important to me than the period.
VALHALLA ATLANTIS was an absorbing idea, but it’s when I created Tromdur and his two brothers and really started wondering about the impossible moral and physical dilemmas they had created for the people on the island – that’s when I couldn’t let it go.
Julia: Would you have liked to have been a Viking?
Colin: I wouldn’t have minded the looting and pillaging but I think the raping would have become a bit tiring after a bit.
Julia: What are you working on?
Colin: I have this beautiful historical novel out this year – based at the time of the Reconquista. I’m also finishing a four-book crime series – I have a good friend who’s a former triad bureau detective in Hong Kong who’s helping me with that.
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