Ragnarok and Roll: Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet

by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Cassie Zukav has always been a bit of a weirdness magnet. Strange things always happened to her, even before she came to Key West for vacation and never left. She's dealt with sea monsters and nixies and dragons, and shares her room with the ghost of an old wrecker captain, whom only she can see and hear. Now she spends her days leading scuba diving jaunts and her nights at Mayor Fred's Saloon watching the house band, 1812, rock the joint. But when 1812 takes a break, they're replaced by Jotunheim, a band everyone but Cassie loves. Their lead singer is Loki, the Norse trickster god, who is trying to bring about Ragnarok-the end of all that is. Cassie learns that she's a Dis, a fate goddess, from Odin himself, the Allfather of the Norse gods. She's the only one who can stop Loki from destroying the world. And then things get really weird... Here are eight stories of Cassie's adventures in Key West, from her encounter with a rock and roll star who's not what (or who) he seems, to stopping a water elemental from killing one of her friends (by marrying her), to the ghosts on the island all becoming active (and destructive), to a surprise appearance on the island by Thor, the thunderer. Plus, as an added bonus, the first-ever Cassie story, back in print! A new collection by USA Today best-selling, award-winning author Keith R.A. DeCandido.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun collection of linked stories about a woman who learns she is is an incarnation of a Norse goddess of fate. She's a diving instructor in Key West with an unusual fixation on the cover band in a local bar who has encounters with Odin, Loki, and other supernatural entities, not to mention her wealthy lawyer parents from California and the ghosts of Harry S. Truman and Ernest Hemingway. The individual story framework is a little annoying at times because some of the same concepts and characters are re-introduced in each story, but it's a fun collection with many classic rock references. There's one little bit that struck me as remarkably racist and sexist, but other than that I enjoyed it most thoroughly. In addition to the songs the band in the stories perform, I recommend an old Robert Calvert album as a soundtrack, Lucky Leif and the Longships. Bar...bar...bar-bare-ee-ans...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supernatural hijinks on Key West, with lots of shared characters and content to keep that sense of comfortable familiarity going. Lots of references to music, and some to literature, too. More would not be a bad thing.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's annoying these stories are only 20 pages long, and ~2-3 pages are re-explaining the backstory. They keep dropping notes about past adventures both present and not-present in the anthology.

1. Ragnarok and Roll - 3/5 - Loki rolls into town disguised as the lead singer in an indy rock cover band, and uses glamour to assemble followers. When he tries to start Ragnarok, Odin, disguised as a tourist, tells Cassie she's one of the fates, and can cast the spell to stop him. Odin claims he doesn't want to directly oppose his brother because reasons, but then does anyway when Cassie starts to falter.

2. Undine the Boardwalk - 3/5 - Russ, the half-rusalka, rolls into town to murder his dad, a regular bar patron, who left the family. He also entrances one of Cassie's friends. Cassie fetches his mom to get him to break it off. Apparently, if the human leaves the rusalka, the human dies when they fall asleep. The human is functionally immortal otherwise though.

3. I Believe I'm Sinking Down - 3/5 - John Robertson, a famous rock musician, has been collecting other bands soul shards (the musical bits) in lieu of payment for a bargain he made with the devil as Robert Johnson, a real (famous) blues musician. 1812 is his latest victim. Cassie confronts him, and makes him feel guilty. He finally pays off the bargain with his own soul.

4. Love and Over - 3/5 - Back history of Loki and Sigyn (Ginny). Reintroduces him as a cast member instead of villian.

5. Cayo Hueso - Part 1: A Farewell to Cats - 3/5 - This story was mostly scene setting. Cassie's parents drop by for a visit, and while sightseeing, ghosts start being visible and semi-corporeal to all. Hemmingway apparently had a home in Key West, and now, there are lots of cats in honor of his love of cats. His ghost has a freak out because pride, but so though he liked cats, he wasn't a crazy cat person.

6. Cayo Hueso - Part 2: The Buck Stops Here - 3/5 - The mystery continues. Ghosts still visible and corporeal to all. Bobbi is worried that her 18-year old brother's wife is a total bitch, and she hopes that the reason might be supernatural. When Cassie finds nothing, she gets all (suspiciously) huffy and disinvites her and her parents from Thanksgiving. At the end, Cassies's brother, another fate, who she and her parents haven't heard or seen from in years, rolls into town.

7. Cayo Hueso - Part 2: Twisting Fate - 3/5 - Mystery resolved. The ghosts were a result of Loki having fun, but there was a vengeful Native American shaman ghost that started murdering people and ghosts. Cassie, her brother, Loki, Odin, and Sigyn (Ginny) team up and defeat it. Odin 'dies'. (It felt very deus ex machina, and I didn't really feel any tension.)

8. God of Blunder - 3/5 - Amusing. Thor is a immature bro with cringey pick up lines.

9. Bonus Track: How *You* Can Prevent Forest Fires... - 3/5 - Prequel. Weird. Not about Cassie's powers, just her first? encounter with the weird. A conspiracy theory is going around that scuba divers are getting picked up by helicopters fetching water for forest fires and dropped to their death. Cassie is super annoyed by the absurdity, but then her friend goes missing. Ends on a cliffhanger, with the search party finding a tentacle-y sea monster instead.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassie Zukav is a weirdness magnet. After graduating from college and driving across the country, she found herself in Key West, FL, where a planned two-week stay has turned into a new life for herself. A life that includes dragons, nixies, nymphs, Norse gods, and a really kick-ass band. Ragnarok and Roll collects all the Cassie Zukav stories to date (three previously published, six new) plus her not-quite-in-continuity first appearance from 1997. The writing is light and breezy, with the true strength of these stories lying in the narrative voice and characterization. While the stories aren't overly complicated, and sometimes feel as if they wrap up a little too quickly, the charm of the characters carries them along. It's a lot of fun, and I definitely hope we haven't seen the last of Cassie and her friends.

[Amanda]

This was a reasonably entertaining read. Despite reading the acknowledgements, I can't figure out why it would have seemed like a better idea to write a collection of short stories rather than a novel about these characters. If I understand correctly, only a few of these stories appeared by themselves in other anthologies, so the repetition of expository details that's required to make these stories able to stand alone doesn't exactly make sense for the stories that have only appeared in this volume, and it's a little annoying when you read them all together. Plus, the kinds of adventures that Cassie experiences seem a little grandiose in scale to be resolved in 1-3 short stories.

[Ann aka Iftcan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collection of short stories all dealing with the same person, Cassie Zukav, who calls herself "a weirdness magnet."

Each of the stories, except for the last 3--which are interconnected, all deal with different weirdness. In the first story in the book, Cassie is up against Loki Himself. She's aided by Odin and Loki's ex-wife in this battle. This is also the story where she finds out why she's such a weirdness magnet.

I enjoyed the stories, and am hoping that Keith gives us more tales of Cassie.

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are light fantasy/humor about Cassie Zukav, a scuba instructor in Florida, who finds out she is a Norse goddess of fate and has encounters with Odin, Loki, and Thor, who is more than a bit of a lout and wants to go to Hollywood to have a few words with the actor of the Thor films. These stories are fun, amusing diversions.