Ragnarök

by Kai Mjaanes

Someting strange is going on in the village of Åsheim. Erik Storm is having dreams about a chained beast in a dark forest, and then his grandmother goes missing.

Erik and his friends suddenly find themselves on a quest to stop Ragnarok before it is too late. Fenrir, the Norse god of destruction, has been set loose, and the forces of nature are his to command.

The three friends need help, and they must seek out and face the ancient Norse gods. But persuading them to alter their destiny proves to be much more challenging than Erik could ever have imagined.

Meet Erik and the Norse gods for the first time in this new and exciting book inspired by the old viking mythology.

Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Fiction

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Years ago a good friend of mine and I were discussing the film adoptions of our fictional books. Neither of us had written anything at the time of course. Never the less we started to debate whether Sandra Bullock should play the main character (of our unwritten stories). A third friend of ours intervened and thought we should perhaps consider somebody else. We immediately cut her off as we said simultaneously: "Go and write your own book!"

Writing has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. I love thinking up stories, but rarely have the time to write anything material down.

Then a few years back I suddenly had that extra time, and I sat down to write a crime novel with the working title "The man from Poland". As I sat down however the story that came to life was the story about Erik Storm, not what I had in mind indeed, but such a thrill to write. I loved giving life and character to the gods. I read up on my long forgotten Norse mythology and tried to get into the mind of a twelve year old.

Now the first story about Erik and his friends is out there. More stories about Erik, and the original crime novel is in the pipe line, and I hope to find time this winter to pursue them both.

Boring facts about me:

I was born in Trondheim back in 1967. I had a short career in the Air Force as a Logistics Officer, before I started a civilian career in Logistics and business. "Nothing happens until someting move". Logistics is the fun part of business, that is where the action takes place.

All my life I have been an avid reader. I read Tolkien decades before the movies, and he remains one of my favourite authors. To name all the writers that I cherish will be a long list, but I would like to give special credit to Neil Gaiman, an other of my favourites. In Ragnarok I draw on some specific inspiration from his Sandman-series, and I've borrowed an idea from American Gods (which will come out as a TV-series soon, looking forward to that). All the stories I have read have inspired my imagination, and has thus contributed to the creation of Eriks Storm's universe.

I'm married to Pia, and together we have two children. We live near Oslo in Norway

Reviews

[S.W. Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite serviceable YA adventure in the Potter/Percy vein. Common cliches in the opening chapter mire it a bit: "feel with every fibre of his being. From the corner of his eye..." "It felt like an eternity" etc. and the most tiring phrase of all used far too much: "has been." ("The man has been survived by two children" in a news report is really the only place that belongs--not in internal dialogue, especially dramatic dream imagery.) Somehow though I get the feeling the translator added these phrases, as the narrative is very crisp and enjoyable.

Plotwise this is perfect for middle-graders. But for older viewers and those wanting something outside of mythic fantasy, the action and intrigue are a bit padded, with too many meal, school humdrum, and news report descriptions imo. And I don't see that larger audience waiting 70 pages for the cute talking squirrel or the fun goat-dinner anecdote; certainly not to the halfway point for the second god to say he hasn't a clue what to do or for the hidden folk to be described merely as beautiful (perhaps 3 times too many). So, 3.5 rounded to 4.

[Patricia Finney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Riordan started something with his Heroes of Olympus series and here is another contender in the "ancient gods in the modern world" genre. This one is from Norway and manages to be both sensible and fantastical at the same time.
Erik Storm is a schoolboy who dreams one night that he's releasing a poor dog tied up in the dream-forest. The trouble is that the dog isn't a dog and Erik has just set off Ragnarok. As the weather gets worse and a volcano erupts, he and his friends Mads and Ida have to deal with a reborn Thor and Odin and get them to stop the End of the World.
It takes a little while for the story to get going, but in a way that's good because then you accept what's going on - though I spotted the Norns early. There's an interesting picture of family life in modern Norway, which is totally disrupted by the gods coming back, and funny deadpan descriptions of Thor's behaviour.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free through a giveaway at Goodreads.com.

"Ragnarök" was a lot of fun to read. Not only is the story entertaining and enjoyable (even though it's aimed at a much younger audience!) but it also re-sparked my interest in Norse mythology (and gained me an interest in Norway in general). I just found the whole thing fascinating from beginning to end.

Although there are a few problems with punctuation and the odd grammar mistake, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the story at all.

As if the inside of the book wasn't enough, I found some magical words on the back cover: "... and the first book about Erik Storm". Now that made me really smile :)

[Vishesh Aneja · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
A decent enough addition to the Fantasy Genre. It was such an easy read that I didn't really realize that the book was almost finished. At times book did feel a bit rushed or shortened as I could see many places where the author could go into more details while increasing the intrigue, alas, that was not the case but that doesn't take away from the fact that its an amazing story and I would surely be continuing on the journey with Erik Storm. Can't wait to get my hands on the next one.

[Pandaduh]

This book was a DNF for me, because I’m just not the reader for it. What first attracted me to it was the Norse myth the book is based on, but it didn’t seem to be an interpretation I could really champion theologically. It could also be the translation? I don’t know. It seems to also have been written in Norwegian first.

This book also opens with a dream sequence, which made me work hard from the start. The Norse myth in the book doesn’t…make sense to me. It’s kids saving the world from Ragnarok and Ragnarok isn’t something you can really avoid in Norse mythology… I find when books try to tackle this subject, it’s problematic, but I always want to give them a shot.

I will probably give this to my little cousins who will probably appreciate it more. Maybe it’s a good fit for those who like the Percy Jackson series (I am not one of them). It had a very Stranger Things vibe — kids on bikes and solving mysteries. It was almost too precious of a novel to let me keep going.

The main character has a grandfather with alzheimer’s–or maybe it was another form of dementia–but it was very nice to see a relationship between grandkid and grandparent played out in a story. I love my own grandmother and think that there isn’t enough “elder” representation in stories these days.

Read my full review here: https://blackandwhitepandaduh.wordpre...

[Alexandria Houghtling-Fennel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent!

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Norse mythology. It has quit the enjoyable spin. It was very well written.