OPUS#172 Yank at Valhalla, A

by

OPUS: #172
Title: A Yank at Valhalla
Author: Edmond Hamilton
Year: 1950
Type: novella
Variant Titles: The Monsters of Juntonheim (1950) – Edmond Hamilton
“… American Invades a … Land That Time Forgotten … Finds a Wonder … That Is Forbidden to All Mortals!”–TOC
“The gods knew a science that was older than man … but they looked to the human intruder in order to find their salvation”
Publications:

  • Startling Stories, Vol. 5, no. 1, January 1941, (Jan 1941, ed. Mort Weisinger, publ. Better Publications, Inc., $0.15, 132pp, Pulp, magazine) Cover: E. K. Bergey; Illust: Wesso
  • The Monsters of Juntonheim, (1950, Edmond Hamilton, publ. World Distributors / Sydney Pemberton, 1/6, 160pp, pb)
  • Fantastic Story Magazine, Vol. 5, no. 1, January 1953, (Jan 1953, ed. Samuel Mines, publ. Best Books, Inc., $0.25, 148pp, Pulp, magazine) Cover: Earle K. Bergey
  • A Yank at Valhalla / The Sun Destroyers, (Mar 1973, Edmond Hamilton, Ross Rocklynne, publ. Ace (Ace Double #93900), #93900, $0.95, 128 + 156pp, dos, omni)
  • A Yank at Valhalla, (2003, Edmond Hamilton, publ. Renaissance E Books, 1-58873-167-7, $4.99, ebook)
  • A Yank at Valhalla, (Sep 2008, Edmond Hamilton, publ. Baen, 978-0-505-51336-6, $4.00, ebook)
  • King of Stars, (Sep 2008, Edmond Hamilton, publ. Baen, $20.00, ebook, omni) Cover: Doug Chaffee

Reviews:

  • Gammell, Leon L., The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories, Starmont House, 1986, p. 9. “Excellent mixture of lost race adventure and mythology. Keith Masters discovers a hitherto unexplored region at the North Pole where various prominent figures out of Norse mythology—both the malevolent giants of Jotunheim [i.e. Juntonheim] and the rugged AEsir gods of Asgard—are still alive and well, kept in a state of perpetual immortality by radiations from Muspelheim, the radioactive subterranean world directly beneath their land, from whence all life on Earth originally came. Much of the following plot concerns the escape of Loki, the Norse god of evil, in this version a brilliant but renegade AEsir scientist attempting to harness the forces of nature in order to control first Asgard and then the world, from the seemingly impregnable prison in which his fellow Asgardians have trapped him with his two horrid pets, the Fenris wolf and the Midgard serpent, terrifying monsters endowed with superior size and intelligence by their master’s scientific magic. Due to the machinations of his various allies among the Jotuns, of course, Loki does ultimately escape from his scientifically-induced imprisonment, and from then on the story’s conclusion is well-nigh inevitable. Ragnarok, Twilight of the Gods, comes, and the all-too-mortal immortals of Asgard go down to their last defeat, valiantly dragging their enemies with them into the darkness, while the subterranean world of Muspelheim disrupts into final cataclysmic destruction beneath them. Published in paperback first in 1950 as The Monsters of Jotunheim [i.e. Juntonheim] by World Distributors/Sydney Pemberton, Manchester, and then in 1973, under its original title, by Ace as part of a double novel.
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