FAQ

Q: Is The Deluding of Gylfi the same story as Gods of the Ragnarok Era?

A: Kind of. It’s a rewrite / reboot / expansion.

Q: Will there be audiobooks for Ragnarök Prophecy?

A: Not in the foreseeable future. We ran a Kickstarter for this, but sadly it did not fund.

Q: Is Ragnarök Prophecy just a compilation of existing material?

A: It’s a bit of both. The Ragnarök Prophecy recombines all previously published Ragnarok Era stories (Gods of the Ragnarok Era, Runeblade Saga, and Legends of the Ragnarok Era) into a single narrative that also includes quite a bit of amount of new material. It therefore represents a definitive edition of these Norse mythology stories.

Q: Is it worth it to read this if I already read all the other Ragnarok books?

A: For sure, 100%, this is a vastly different, vastly improved experience. If I had a doubt I would have just uploaded a new version of the same book, not done major surgery when I could have done a whole other series in that much time.

Q: Are Gods of the Ragnarok Era and Runeblade Saga still part of the Eschaton Cycle canon?

A: No. While I kept the overall plot flow roughly in line, there are definite changes.

Q: Is there a particular reason you think Ragnarök Prophecy is so much better [than GoRE]? I’m certainly very intrigued though as I thought the original was very good indeed!

A: I’ve had seven years to improve my craft, find my voice, and deepen my work on the Eschaton Cycle. This new series features:

  1. Material from Runeblade Saga, Darkness Forged, and The Son of Nott is moved into the main narrative instead of as side series
  2. All new chapters
  3. New POV characters
  4. Greatly enhanced worldbuilding
  5. Updated canon including new events, changes to events, removed events, changes to timeline, and so forth to create the best possible story.
  6. Inclusion of new myths, some of which were only alluded to, such as Beowulf, Hrolf Kraki Saga, Thidrek Saga, Kalevala, Song of Roland, Saga of King Heidrik, and others
  7. Adoption of the structure established in Tapestry of Fate: four parts, each introduced by an epigraph, and bookend by interludes that allow for inclusion of material outside the main timeline or main characters
  8. An adjustment to the timeline to present the best reading experience, namely a parallel timeline structure running between the past (Æsir chapters) and present mortal heroes chapters. This necessitated minor shifts in the timeline of events.
  9. Exploration of additional themes previously only touched on, such as Odin as a necromancer.
  10. Sentence-level updates to prose.
  11. Enhanced characterisation for most characters.
  12. Updates to spelling of names and terms.
  13. Updates for clarity within the framework of the Eschaton Cycle.
  14. New edits from the new team.

You can find out more information about The Ragnarök Prophecy on the live Q&A I did for it on YouTube: Matt Larkin Live Q&A for the Ragnarök Prophecy

An additional thought: the Eschaton Cycle is a massive interconnected story of many mythologies (with a focus on time and fate), with Ragnarok Prophecy focused on the Norse side of it. That cycle alone is really big, so delving in is daunting. The story features an ensemble cast. As the EC is about time, most of these stories utilise nonlinear storytelling. In this case, parallel timelines between the mortals manipulated by Odin, and Odin’s timeline in which he’s becoming the person who does all this.

Q: Your most recent series is Tales of Dark Faerie? How is it different than the mythology series?

A: It actually does incorporate various bits of Celtic mythology, but it also blends that with classic fairytales like Grimms Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson. One big difference to my other writing is, that most of the book is in first person, which was a nice way for me to go really deep into one character

Q: I love the use of imagination the reader uses to visualise these characters. Your description of many characters is often left to the reader. Why have you decided to use this style and is it something you have emulated from other author? 

A: I think to me, whatever details I’m trying to include are usually there for a reason, conveying something about the character or their perspective or whatever. So describing the every dress or tapestry kind of slows down the narrative, but that’s a stylistic thing. I definitely have writers who’s style I’ve tried to learn from, though I don’t think that particular thing is something I consciously studied