Deadly Destinations: Kevin Hearne’s Atticus O’Sullivan takes us to Asgard from HAMMERED

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Our guide for today’s Deadly Destinations tour is a bit older than our previous guides.  He’s pushing the two millennium mark, not that you’d know it to look at him.  I’m talking about Kevin Hearne's Atticus O’Sullivan from The Iron Druid Chronicles.  Atticus and I hit it off earlier this summer when he told me about his adventures in HOUNDED.  He recently went up against the Norse god Thor in HAMMERED (available now) and will be showing us around the land of Asgard today. Thanks to the wonderful people at Del Rey Books, three of you who comment on this post will win a copy of the book!  See details below

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Atticus O’Sullivan’s Guide to Asgard
by
Kevin Hearne

Hey there. It’s Atticus O’Sullivan, the Iron Druid. Heard you like to travel—well, do I have a place for you to check out!

If you’re a plane hopper and you’d like to visit the fabled Norse land of Asgard, there’s more than one way to get there. In Hammered, the third book of The Iron Druid Chronicles, I used the secret back door suggested by Norse mythology, and you can use it too. The Bifrost Bridge is guarded (rather anally, I might add) by Heimdall, and I tend to avoid customs agents of all stripes whenever I can. Use the back door and you don’t have to declare anything. Nobody’s guarding it now.

You’ll arrive at the base of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and you’ll have to trek across the Plain of Idavoll to really get anywhere significant. The plain itself is lovely, don’t get me wrong, but I’m the kind of fella who likes pheasants and prairie voles and wind whispering across the tops of grasses. You might hanker for the delights of civilization.

If you head south you’ll get to Vanaheim, home of the Vanir, and perhaps you’ll run into the goddess Freyja’s hall, Fólkvangr. Gotta warn you, though, she’s kind of a cat lady and the ancient Norse didn’t have scent-masking kitty litter. Head northwest and you’ll be in Alfheim, home of the elves, and I’ll let you know right now that they don’t look like the ones in Lord of the Rings or Elfquest. Directly west, on the other side of the Asgard Mountains, lies Asgard itself.  Gladsheim, home o’ the gods, is a majestic place that Hamlet would have thought “fretted with gold and fire,” and you’re definitely going to want to stand in front of it and have your picture taken. There will probably be some random gods and goddesses walking about who will be happy to pose with you if you buy them a tankard or two.

If you’re especially intrepid, you could travel further west and visit Valhalla, fabled resting place for so many brave, dead Vikings. If you catch them at the right time, they might let you join in their nightly feasting. They have this mead that apparently fountains from the teats of a goat named Heiðrún, and since it’s a fair bet you’ve never tasted any other goat-tit mead in your life, it might be worth the trip if you’re on the lookout for culinary adventures. If your timing is atrocious, however, you’ll arrive while the Einherjar are on the Field of Vigrid, practicing for Ragnarok and busy hewing down anything standing in front of them. You might accidentally stand in front of them and then you’d be doomed, so it’s a tough call—you have to balance your death against the possibility of scoring the warm, sweet nectar of a goat udder.

There’s a convenient map to consult on page 82 of Hammered with additional details if you’d like to visit places like Bilskirnir, Thor’s hall, or perhaps visit the idyllic hall of Freyr in Alfheim. Take warm clothing and praise Odin early and often.

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About Kevin Hearne

Kevin is the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles, an urban fantasy series published by Del Rey Books. The first three books of the series will be released in May and June of 2011. An Arizona native, Kevin got hooked on comic books at an early age and embraced his inner nerd. Later he got hooked on coffee, but that did nothing to ameliorate his nerdhood. He spent time as a singing waiter in college and also contributed to the college newspaper as an editorial cartoonist and feature columnist. It was during this time he got the writing bug, thanks to Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He now teaches high school English, reads lots of fantasy, and paints miniature dwarfs because the redundancy amuses him. He's currently working on the fourth book in The Iron Druid Chronicles Visit Kevin online: Website|Facebook|Twitter

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Giveaway provided by Del Ray

3 copies of HAMMERED by Kevin Hearne

Available now from Del Ray

Description:

Thor, the Norse god of thunder, is worse than a blowhard and a bully—he’s ruined countless lives and killed scores of innocents. After centuries, Viking vampire Leif Helgarson is ready to get his vengeance, and he’s asked his friend Atticus O’Sullivan, the last of the Druids, to help take down this Norse nightmare.

One survival strategy has worked for Atticus for more than two thousand years: stay away from the guy with the lightning bolts. But things are heating up in Atticus’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. There’s a vampire turf war brewing, and Russian demon hunters who call themselves the Hammers of God are running rampant. Despite multiple warnings and portents of dire consequences, Atticus and Leif journey to the Norse plain of Asgard, where they team up with a werewolf, a sorcerer, and an army of frost giants for an epic showdown against vicious Valkyries, angry gods, and the hammer-wielding Thunder Thug himself.

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