Author Interview with A.K. Morgen & My Review of Her Book, Fade

It’s the end of the world! Maybe, you might just have to read A.K. Morgen’s Fade, Book 1 of the Ragnarök Prophesies, to find out. Ayden has written in a variety of genres since her first story at the age of seven, and recently released Fade through Curiosity Quills Press.

Today, Ayden is submitting to the curiosities of The Peasants and then I’ll be sharing my review of her take on the ancient Norse prophesy of destruction.

Interview with A.K. Morgen

Welcome to The Peasants Revolt, and thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.

Thanks so much for having me over!

The first Peasanty challenge is to introduce yourself to readers in 140 characters or less.

I’m Ayden. Tiny to friends, Bestie to Jen. I’m a dreamer. Idealist. Lover of ballet, cookies, mischief, hockey, laughter, and mythology.

I couldn’t help but notice a Cookie theme on your website. Do cookies help fuel your writerly time? And, do you favor a particular kind of cookie?

I wouldn’t say they fuel my writing time, but I do have an unhealthy obsession with cookies. Need to bribe me? Just slide me a box of chocolate chip cookies (or Tagalongs!), and I’ll probably hand over my soul. It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love them.

If you could have any job for a single day, and only a single day, what would it be?

I would love to spend an entire day as a traffic cop. I’m the most impatient driver in the world, so handing out tickets to people doing twenty and thirty under the speed limit would be a dream come true. I’d also love to sit at one of the red lights in town and hand out tickets to every driver that runs the light. It’s sad how little attention drivers in Little Rock pay to red lights!

(LOL, I admit, I’ve had similar fantasies)

I love that your book, Fade, is based around Ragnarök. What was your experience with Norse Mythology before you began writing? And, how did this idea for this story develop?

I’ve been a big fan of mythology since I was a kid. The Norse myths have fascinated me so much more than Greek and Roman mythology over the years, so when I started playing around with ideas for Fade, the mythology aspect of the story came to me in the form of the story of Ragnarök. I think we’ve beaten Greek and Roman mythology into the ground in so many ways, but Norse mythology is still so new to so many. Introducing readers to a set of myths and an end of the world scenario they haven’t heard before has been so much fun. I always recommend that readers check out the Poetic Edda to learn more about Norse mythology. It’s such a fascinating read.

(One of my favorites is Thrymskvida or “Lay of Thrim.” Who can resist Thor in drag?)

I noticed you started a Ten Rules series on your blog last month, and it looks like a lot of fun. What are your Five Rules (we’ll shorten for the sake of this being an interview) for establishing a working relationship with Norse Gods?

1. Walk softly and carry a very big stick.
2. Don’t get too comfortable. Someone will eventually stab you in the back. It’s inevitable.
3. Never trust Loki, no matter how awesome his plan may seem. It will not end well for you.
4. Learn to appreciate a good battle. You’re dealing with warriors here.
5. Do not go gently into that good night. Fight like hell, and if you happen to take out one or two of Loki’s offspring while you’re at it, you’ll be in good shape.

Let’s take the questions full circle, what are Arionna and Dace’s favorite cookies?

That’s a good question. Dace loves chocolate chip cookies, specifically the tiny variety some wise elf decided to put in a big box and call cereal. Arionna is a Southern girl, and no one loves a butter pecan cookie better than us Southern girls.

One last thing, where can you be found (just the ones where you’d like people to friend and follow you at)?

Blog
Goodreads
Twitter
Facebook

Thanks again for participating!

Review

Arionna is reeling after her mother’s recent death. She moves in with her father, a professor of mythology at ASU-Beebe. A new town, new college, and a strange teaching assistant named Dace Matthews will unravel everything she thought she knew. As soon as Arionna meets Dace, she knows there’s something strange about him, like a caged animal within him that wants little more than to claim her. They both feel drawn to one another, in ways they can’t explain, and they also feel something bigger is about to happen.

For the first couple chapters, I couldn’t escape the familiarity to Shiver. It was a little distracting, but luckily this book had a compelling voice that pulled me in and kept me reading (I didn’t hate Shiver, but in the beginning, the voices made me feel uncomfortable).

Readers begin to connect with Arionna just after her mother’s death. As a young woman who doesn’t know how to handle the death of the most important person in her life, Arionna spends a good deal of the first chapters grieving, and figuring out how she’s supposed to move on. Just before the inner turmoil becomes too much for the beginning of a novel, in comes the boy who changes everything–Dace Matthews, a gorgeous and mysterious teaching assistant.

While I enjoyed the book from the very beginning, it really began pulling me forward with Arionna’s third encounter with Dace in Chapter Four. By this time, enough of his secrets are beginning to leak out to keep me hooked.Dace’s character is a bit of the typical brooding, quiet, supernatural type. He’s a shifter, the alpha shifter in the area, but something is fundamentally wrong because unlike other shifters, he has no connection with the wolf that shares his body (an interesting dilemma). However, both he and the wolf seem to have an innate connection with Arionna–the desire to have her and protect her.  I’m not really a fan of “meant to be” lovers knowing from the moment that they meet that they belong to one another, but I went with it to see where the story would lead.

This book has shapeshifters, descendants of fallen angels, reincarnation, and some references to other kinds of mythological and supernatural beings (what, vampires don’t exist??), but I was excited to dive in largely because of the reference to Ragnarök. I haven’t read into the mythology or the Poetic Edda for quite some time, but I’m familiar with the legends, and there were times I felt like I was missing something because the Norse mythology wasn’t really mentioned until very late in the book. I would have preferred the Norse references to be picked up a bit more in the front of the novel, and sprinkled throughout.

My verdict — There are a lot of themes and characterizations that will be familiar especially to young adult readers, but the use of mythology is interesting, especially when all is revealed. I think the next book in the series will have a lot to offer, but I’ll have to give this one 4/5.