Thanks to the publisher, Aconyte Books vía Netgalley for providing this ebook in exchange for an honest review !!

The Rebels of Vanaheim is an epic adventure in the ancient lands of the Vanir.
This story takes Heimdall on an adventure in his homeworld, solving the mysteries of a creepy curse that beings the dead back, a batch of magical swords that make their weilders have strange dreams and the possibily of a second war between the Vanir and the Aesir. With the company of his best friend Uschi, a valkyrie with family and personal issues of her own, they fight zombie like creatures, conspiracies against their life and a giant evil from another World.
I personally found it very interesting, a little heavy sometimes, but no doubt very action packed and with all the cool norse mythology elements over all.
A very cool origin story for Heimdall and full of magic.
Highly recommended for Marvel and Norse Mythology fans !



About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

The dead have returned.

Odin, All-Father of Asgard, dispatches the heroic warrior Heimdall and the Valkyrie Uschi to eliminate a mysterious infestation of draugr – the living dead – in the proud realm of Vanaheim. Yet his home is not as Heimdall remembers it. Anti- Asgardian sentiment is rife, and the arrival of just two warriors from Asgard to deal with the draugr threat only incenses its people further. With rebellion growing in Vanaheim, Heimdall must investigate this conspiracy and the undead, even if it pits him against his own kin, to preserve the peace of the Realm Eternal.

In The Rebels of Vanaheim, author Richard Lee Byers brings his vast experience in horror and fantasy to the Marvel Legens of Asgard series by Aconyte books. He mixes those elements very well and ties it all into the Norse mythology that Stan Lee first developed for the classic Thor comics. I was very pleased to be able to read an advance copy of this novel which will be published in December of 2021.

The inclusion of draguar, dwarves and named swords of power makes for a classic fantasy tale filled with adventure and high-stakes. Byers shines in this regard, and what he presented here makes me interested in seeking out more of his work. Another high point of the book, for me, was the framing sequence that allows for this story from Heimdall's past to be told. I would really like to see Byers give us more of this as it was told with an interesting dynamic and a touch of humor.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

When Heimdall and his companion, the Valkyrie Captain Uschi, return to his homeland of Vanaheim, they are shocked to find it in the grip of an infestation of draugr - hideous, undead creatures. But not everyone is welcoming of their presence or offers of help, making Heimdall’s task even harder, and he soon finds himself at odds with his own people. However, the threat of the draugr becomes even greater than Heimdall could have imagined. And are the draugr even the real enemy?
“The Rebels of Vanaheim” by Richard Lee Byers is the fourth novel in the “Marvel: Legends of Asgard” series and follows on from the author’s previous novel “The Head of Mimir”. Just as in that book, the story is set in a time long before Heimdall became the guardian of the Bifrost, and once again the story is related in flashback by a member of the Warriors Three, in this case Hogun, reluctantly taking on the role of babysitter and telling the tale to a young girl.
The descriptions of the draugr are deliciously gory and squirm-inducing, and their power is vividly brought to life by Byers. The story isn’t all relentless action and gore, although there is plenty of that and it is visceral and exciting, but there is also intrigue and mystery as Heimdall and Uschi discover that they aren’t being told absolutely everything about what is going on. When they discover the truth, they realise the threat goes far beyond mere draugr.
Heimdall and Uschi have a solid relationship based on friendship and mutual respect and as lead characters the reader couldn’t ask for more. The supporting cast of characters is diverse, from gods to dwarves, and the main players feel well-rounded and interesting with realistic motivation.
Following on from Byers’ earlier book in the series, the story mentions previous events and they have a bearing on the narrative, specifically regarding Heimdall’s abilities, but the book is still readable as a standalone novel. And readable it certainly is - pacy and breathtaking at times and thought-provoking at others. It has well-rounded characters and vivid scene-setting, with plenty of sorcery and magical weapons to satisfy fans, and a nail-biting climax. Richard Byers writes in dense, fluid language which demands close attention but which never bores, and it is always a joy to escape into the world that he has created. “The Rebels of Vanaheim” is a worthy follow-up to “The Head of Mimir“ and I can’t wait for the next one!

(ARC received in exchange for honest review at www.netgalley.com)

‘The Rebels of Vanaheim’ is the latest entry in Marvel’s ongoing ‘Legends of Asgard’ series. Richard Lee Byers takes the reins in his second outing, having written the first instalment, ‘The Head of Mimir’, before stepping aside for C.L. Werner’s sequel, ‘The Sword of Surtur’. Byers was a superb choice to introduce the series, his previous work on the ‘Forgotten Realms Series’ standing him in good stead to write equally exciting tales under Marvel’s banner. Our story follows the hero Heimdall and his close friend, the Valkyrie Uschi, on what they intended to be a quick trip home to Vanaheim to see their folks. Alas, when the dead walk and their families seem curiously preoccupied with whispered secrets, Heimdall and Uschi find themselves caught up in the seed of a rebellion nobody knew was coming. However, a series of prophetic dreams and the appearance of ominous, rune-laden swords suggests that there may be more to the story than anyone could have imagined…

Media franchise novelisations can be a bit hit and miss. For instance, some knock it out of the park, like Eric S. Nylund’s astounding take on the Halo series in ‘The Fall of Reach’, whilst others are just plain insulting. Thankfully, ‘The Rebels of Vanaheim’ is an absolute highlight, working just as well on its own as it does with the Marvel Universe at its back. It’s immediately clear that Byers is an excellent writer, striking a fine balance between humanising his characters and packing scenes with the drama and action we expect from the comics and movies. Heimdall and Uschi are both well realised and therefore rather endearing, though Heimdall’s tendency to rely on his own thoughts and disregard his companion’s advice is clearly a point of contention for Uschi. While she’s determined to uncover the truth of what’s happening in Vanaheim, she’s all too often placated and ignored by Heimdall, who frustrates in his insistence on single-mindedly pursuing surface-level leads and disregarding underlying oddities we see become central to the narrative. This becomes ever more apparent as the story progresses as an underlying tension between the two, before Byers rewards readers in the final third as Heimdall realises he must acknowledge his flaws and change. It’s small snippets of character growth like this that really lend gravity to the story, and Byers’ world-building is an immaculately dressed stage on which he can play out these more thoughtful scenes. With this in mind, Byers leans much more heavily into Fantasy and Mythology than some of the Sci-Fi found in other corners of the Marvel Universe, and as a result his depictions of Vanaheim and Nidavellir are gorgeous, both rich with detail and teeming with life. In addition, Byers maintains a tight pace that keeps his writing snappy and his story moving, which is especially impressive given the breadth of content he covers.

That’s not to say that ‘The Rebels of Vanaheim’ is entirely flawless, however. Although I largely enjoyed the fluidity and cadence of Byers’ prose, I found his sentences ran on a little too long occasionally, which made certain paragraphs less comprehensible than I’m sure he intended. Some of the language he uses is a little unusual, too, with a slant towards the over-complicated that has much the same result as his run-on sentences. Regardless, these issues crop up infrequently enough as not to pose too much of an issue. My primary issue was Byers’ choice to frame his narrative as a story within a story, namely the story of an adult telling the tale to a child, long after the events supposedly occurred. We only briefly see these characters at the beginning and end of the novel, and I couldn’t help but feel that the story concluded nicely without the prologue, which felt saccharine sweet and fairytale-like when it started harping on about lessons learned. These chapters are vastly different in tone to everything else on offer and feel rather jarring, to the degree that I’m still not entirely sure what their purpose was. That being said, they have no impact at all on the meat of the novel and you can safely ignore them, making them only trivially detrimental to the book.

In conclusion, ‘The Rebels of Vanaheim’ is a fantastic literary take on Marvel’s Asgard, and further, it’s an excellent novel on its own. Byers’ experience in fantasy really shows here, his structure holding everything together and allowing him to show off a little with some well-earned sentiment, a well-realised world and a story that twists and turns without feeling overly cliché or too improbable to invest in. I strongly recommend you give this a look if you’re already a Marvel fan of Marvel, but I’d also suggest that more general Fantasy fans take a chance on it - it just might surprise you.



About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2020 MARVEL

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review