'The courageous hero Heimdall returns to save the Rainbow Bridge and Earth from dark sorcery in this swashbuckling fantasy adventure set in Marvel’s Legends of Asgard.
'A hero has fallen: Deprived of the mystical Gjallarhorn, his enchanted sword Holfund, his winged steed, and even his memory, Heimdall flees across the underworld of Tartarus with the minions of the dark god Pluto in pursuit. Aided only by his friend Kamorr, Heimdall must piece together the mystery of his memory loss and escape the realm of the dead. For his amnesia masks a far greater threat: The dark elf Malekith’s infernal machinations have corrupted the newly created Bifrost. Racing against the clock and his own memories, Heimdall must defeat Malekith and his allies before they can use the Rainbow Bridge to destroy both Midgard and Asgard.'
The Marvel Legends of Asgard series of books have been some of my favourite Marvel prose novels ever written. Whilst set within the Marvel comics universe (everything suggests this is the 616 universe from the comics) it doesn't really touch upon what you'd find in an issue of Thor, and this isn't a series where you'll find the Odinson battling villains in New York. This is, at its heart, a series of fantasy novels involving the Norse gods; and that's honestly one of the best decisions that was made for these books. You don't have to know anything about the comics to enjoy these, and I dare say you could even hate the comics and still love these stories.
This book is the third in a trilogy of tales by beloved fantasy author Richard Lee Byers that focuses on Heimdall, the protector god of the Rainbow Bridge. Over the course of the previous two books we've seen him go from a common warrior to a hero of Asgard, he's gained the powers of Mimir, and receive the magical weapons that he'll wield for centuries. But we've not seen him become a god, and we've not seen him take his place as protector of the Bifrost. Well, those that have been waiting for that to happen might just be interested by the final part of the series; as yes, that most certainly is the Bifrost Bridge on the front cover.
The Prisoner of Tartarus brings readers to Earth for the first time in Heimdall's story, as he has been sent to Midgard to oversee and protect the building of a huge mystical engineering project, the Bifrost. But the project has attracted the attention of some of the gods that make Earth their home, and two representatives of a nearby pantheon, Pluto and Hephaestus, have travelled to the site with an entourage of warriors in order to watch over the construction and make sure that it's not going to be used in opposition to their own interests.
Things go well for the construction, with the project moving forward on schedule; but when one of the cyclops protectors of the visiting deities is poisoned and killed it begins an investigation that reveals someone is not only trying to sabotage the project, but might have murderous intent. As the investigation into the culprit begins, Heimdall travels to the visiting gods underworld, sneaking his way inside in order to question the cyclops and find out what he knows. But this decision will leave Heimdall trapped, powerless, and without his memory as dark forces move to use the Bifrost to bring untold destruction. Now, without his experience or knowledge, Heimdall has to try to find a way out of the underworld before it's too late.
The Prisoner of Tartarus is a little different to the other books in this series, and not just the Heimdall focused ones. It not only includes elements from the Norse focused comics and myths, but, as the name suggests, draws upon the Greco-Roman pantheon of gods and their respective mythology. In previous books we've had ice giants, elves, draugr, and the world tree, this time we get the River Styx, Cerberus, cyclopses, and gorgons, to name but a few of the things that Heimdall will have to contend with.
These new elements makes it feel like the book is something a little special. It's not just one type of mythology and one pantheon being explored anymore. This book reminds you that these other gods and monsters exist too, that they share this universe; and that they can interact with each other. This results in some great moments in this book where, depending on your own personal knowledge, the reader is way ahead of the heroes at times. Heimdall and his allies understand how Asgard and the other realms work, they know the major player and the politics; but they don't when it comes to these other gods. They're trying to figure things out, they're trying to find out who's who and how things fit together; but if you know your mythology you know that of course Heimdall doesn't have to worry about Cerberus when he sneaks into Tartarus, but its on the way out he has to worry.
Outside of meshing of mythologies, the book also continues the stories of a couple of characters introduced in previous book, including Amora the Enchantress, and Uschi the Valkyrie. Both characters have appeared in a previous book in the trilogy, second and third respectively, and their inclusion in the final part feels like a nice culmination. It's also great to see that the partnership between Uschi and Heimdal wasn't just a one off, and that the two of them continue to have a strong relationship after the events of The Rebels of Vanaheim.
The book also brings in a familiar face for fans of Thor, Malakith the dark elf. Malakith is a character that has appeared across several important Thor stories over the years, and was featured as the lead antagonist in the second Thor feature film. As such, it feels like his inclusion in the Legends of Asgard books has been a long time coming. Thankfully, Richard Lee Byers has crafted a great story for him here, and seems to know how best to use him; having him as a master manipulator in the background, pulling strings as he puts his various plans into place. Malakith here is an incredibly dark and manipulative character, betraying his own allies more than once. His willingness to lie, cheat, and turn on anyone at a moments notice makes him one of the more unpredictable antagonists in the series to date; and I hope that we get to see more of him in the future.
It does feel like The Prisoner of Tartarus might be the end for Heimdall for a while, that the story that Byers set out to tell has finally reached its conclusion. There are other stories in this world to be told, with the next Legends of Asgard novel already announced, so this might not be the last time we see the character. But, if it is, it feels like a decent conclusion for him. The place he ends come the final pages of the book feels earned, and if there are no more stories focused on Heimdall I might be disappointed, but I wont feel cheated in any way. For fans of this series, these characters, and fantasy novels in general, this is a book that you're definitely going to want to read.
This is the third of your books that deal with the early years of Heimdall, before he becomes the hero we know him as in the comics; and it really shows that each book so far has been adding something new each time to get him to that point. Did you always know what each of the three books were going to be when you started, or did the plans evolve over time?
I always knew the overall plan of the trilogy was to take Heimdall from callow young warrior to the God of Asgard and Sentinel of the Rainbow Bridge as seen in Marvel Comics. I also knew that each book would show him contending with a crisis that would take him a step closer to the endpoint. I didn’t know, however, what the crises in The Rebels of Vanaheim and The Prisoner of Tartarus would be when I set to work on The Head of Mimir. Nor did I know how important Uschi and certain other characters would turn out to be. That stuff evolved as I went along.
Compared to the first two stories in the series this book seems to focus a little less on Heimdall, giving other characters a chance to shine. Uschi gets a lot more focus here, and you bring in a couple of new characters. Having had Heimdall work with other characters in each of the books, do you think he’s a character that works better when he has another person to play off against?
My experience has been that it’s generally a good idea to give a character somebody to talk to. Dialogues tend to be more interesting than endless internal monologue. Plus, as a practical matter, if you’re telling the kind of story where no character is present for every important event, you’ll likely have to work with multiple protagonists. Beyond those considerations, though, I do think Heimdall in particular works well when he has allies and sidekicks. He’s not some moody loner by nature, so it only makes sense that he’d avail himself of help when he can get it. Naturally, his ability to do that increases as his standing in Asgard increases. In The Head of Mimir, only Sif is willing to tag along on his search for answers, and that’s became she’s his sister. In The Prisoner of Tartarus, he starts off in charge of a substantial number of warriors although he ends up separated from them for much of the novel.
This book does something very different with the character of Heimdall by stripping him of his memories and experiences. You give us a version of the character that’s almost a blank slate. Was that difficult to write at all, or did you find it more freeing in some ways?
I didn’t find it difficult to write because his personality doesn’t really change. It was indeed freeing in some ways because the more formidable a character is, the harder it becomes to convince the reader the character’s in real jeopardy and to show what he or she is made of in a truly desperate situation. Over the course of The Head of Mimir and The Rebels of Vanaheim, Heimdall became pretty darn powerful, and getting rid of much of that for a goodly portion of the novel was kind of a relief. (Which is not to suggest that there aren’t additional stories to tell about him that won’t rely on this kind of plot development.)
The Prisoner of Tartarus, as the name suggests, expands beyond Norse mythology and brings in some elements from Greco-Roman myth and legend. Did you know what kinds of elements you wanted to feature from that, and was it easy to blend the two together as you did?
As far as what elements I wanted to bring in, it was a case of what fit the premise I had in mind. I’d always thought the third book should focus on Bifrost in some way, and when it was time to really figure it out, I decided it was about the creation of Bifrost. So which characters from Greco-Roman myth would be interested in that? Pluto, since he’s God of the Underworld, and the Rainbow Bridge is a means of expediting the transport of the souls of valiant warriors to a land of the dead that isn’t his. It was a plus that Marvel portrays him as a knavish sort who could credibly conspire with the novel’s major villain. Hephaestus could plausibly show up too as he’s a creator of miraculous items and Bifrost is certainly that. Overall, it wasn’t hard to blend elements of the two mythologies because Marvel Comics had done a lot of that previously. I more or less followed their lead.
The Greek legends exist in the world of Marvel, with characters like Zeus and Hercules, did you have to be careful about what parts of this mythology you used in order to make sure that the book didn’t contradict anything in the comics, or were you given freedom to do whatever you wanted?
I tried hard to get the characters right. I was a bit less concerned with getting the details of Pluto’s realm as portrayed in the comics right because various creators have depicted it in various ways over the decades. It felt like that gave me some leeway. At any rate, people at Marvel reviewed the book at various stages, and their feedback didn’t require any substantial changes to my portrayal of the Greco-Roman underworld, so I guess I didn’t go too far wrong.
This book uses Malekith as one of its antagonists. For casual Marvel fans this might be a character that they’ve not had much experience with, with most probably only really knowing of him from the second Thor film. Is he a character that you’ve liked before writing the book?
To people who mainly know the movies, Malekith may seem like a relatively obscure character. For those with a more extensive knowledge of the comics, that isn’t necessarily so. In recent years, Malekith has been a major presence in Thor comics and was the archvillain of the “War of the Realms” crossover event. I always liked him because he’s a diabolical schemer, which made him a good fit for the story I had to tell. Besides, how many villains can say they once lopped off Thor’s arm?
By the end of the book Heimdall has become the person that we know him as in the comics, with the weapons and abilities he’s known for, and the position as protector of the Bifrost. Does this mean that your stories with him have come to an end, or do you have any more tales that you’d like to tell with him?
The publisher hasn’t yet asked me for more Heimdall novels, but I hope they will in time. I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for the character, and I do have an idea for at least one more big story.
Where can people find more of your work if they enjoyed this, are there any other projects that you’re working on at the moment, what can fans hope to see from you soon?
I’ve been writing fiction for decades now, and the easiest way for people to check out all my various projects is probably to look me up on Amazon. Currently, I’m working with Archvillain Games. I’ve done one novel for them, a fantasy set in the new universe they’re developing that will generate both fiction and gaming material. The book will (I think) be out next year. I’m also developing other portions of that world, and my ideas (and maybe my actual prose) should appear in various sourcebooks and gaming modules by and by. I wrote quite a bit of the next “Basil & Moebius” book of linked urban fantasy stories, and I believe that should be out relatively soon. Preproduction of a screenplay I wrote is moving forward. (Slowly, but I’m told that’s to be expected in the movie business. Anyway, I might have more to say about that in a year or two.)
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