Unlocking the Secrets of the Valhalla Key: A Journey Through Myth and History
From the icy edges of the Arctic to the roaring spectacle of the 1939 World’s Fair, James Richardson’s The Valhalla Key takes readers on a whirlwind ride through hidden history, Norse myth, and golden-age thrills. But how much of this epic is rooted in truth—and what inspired Richardson to set his story on the edge of war?
In this episode, we sit down with the author-adventurer himself to explore the real-life research, legends, and historical obsessions (looking at you, Nazi occultism) behind the novel. We talk classic adventure storytelling, lost civilizations, and what it takes to capture that pulpy, globe-trotting spirit on the page.
Richardson shares stories from his own expeditions—volcanoes, jungles, ancient ruins—and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how his archaeology background fuels his fiction. If you’re a fan of Indiana Jones, ancient secrets, or stories where myth collides with history, this is one you don’t want to miss.
An ancient secret. A Nazi death squad. A race to stop the end of the world.
As war looms, New York P.I. Jackson Raine is pulled into a deadly hunt for a lost Norse relic—said to unlock the Hall of Valhalla itself.
From the World's Fair to the Arctic ice, he’s up against gangsters, spies, and SS killers. The prize? A power that could unleash Ragnarök.
The Valhalla Key is a pulse-pounding historical thriller packed with golden-age adventure.
Buy now and uncover the secret before it's too late.
Episode Takeaways:
- James Richardson's novel, 'The Valhalla Key', expertly intertwines elements of history, myth, and adventure.
- The setting of 1939 serves as both a pivotal moment in history and a rich backdrop for the narrative.
- Researching historical settings such as the World's Fair requires extensive investigation into archival materials.
- The characters in 'The Valhalla Key' navigate a world filled with both tangible and mythical challenges, emphasizing the blend of fiction and reality.
- The concept of keys in Norse mythology reflects deeper themes of unlocking knowledge and destiny throughout the narrative.
- James Richardson's personal adventures and archaeological background significantly inform his storytelling approach in 'The Valhalla Key'.
Got a Story Idea?
If you have a mystery, legend, or adventure you’d like me to explore, drop a comment or email me at hello@lukerichardsonauthor.com. I’d love to hear from you!
Join the Adventure Society!
Need more adventure in your life? (And let’s be honest, who doesn’t?) Join The Adventure Society, my weekly newsletter, where I share real-world explorations, book updates, and exclusive podcast insights. Sign up at:
LukeRichardsonAuthor.com/AdventureSociety
Get a Free Adventure Thriller!
A missing Picasso... A master thief... A thrilling race against time!
When a priceless Picasso disappears in Paris, legendary thief Bernard Moreau is the prime suspect. But as two unlikely allies—Eden Black and Adriana Villa—hunt him down, the chase turns deadly. It’s a race through the shadowed streets of Paris, where every twist is as unpredictable as the city itself.
Grab your FREE COPY of The Paris Heist here:
LukeRichardsonAuthor.com/Paris
A Huge Thanks to My Patrons!
This podcast, my books, and all my creative projects are made possible by my amazing supporters on Patreon. Want to support the show and get some awesome perks including:
🎧 Ad-free podcast downloads
📚 Early and free access to my books
🎁 More fun stuff as I invent it!
Join the crew on Patreon:
LukeRichardsonAuthor.com/Patreon
Love Adventure Stories?
If you enjoyed today’s episode, you’ll love my books—fast-paced thrillers packed with action, history, and mystery.
Check them out at LukeRichardsonAuthor.com
Thanks for tuning in! See you in the next episode of The Adventure Story Podcast. 🏆🎙
Transcript
But what inspired this epic thrill ride through both history and myth?
Speaker A:Is there truth in the fiction?
Speaker A:And watch the story, as always, behind the adventure.
Speaker A:Hey, I'm Luke.
Speaker A:I'm an author of archaeological adventure novels.
Speaker A:I traveled the world looking for stories to put into my books and to share with you right here on the Adventure Story podcast.
Speaker A:Now, James Richardson is the author of pulse pounding historical thrillers that blend golden age adventure with.
Speaker A: s from the shadowy streets of: Speaker A:A real life explorer with a degree in archaeology, he's trekked jungles, climbed volcanoes, and visited nearly 40 countries in search of inspiration.
Speaker A:James, I'm excited to speak with you.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker B:Thanks for having me here.
Speaker B:It's really exciting.
Speaker C:Oh, it's my pleasure.
Speaker C:I'm looking forward to this conversation.
Speaker C:So the Valhalla Key, your novel we're talking about today, why did you choose specifically the period of time that you did?
Speaker C:1939, that late 30s period.
Speaker B:So it kind of developed purely from sort of inspiration from my old route into work years ago, where I used to walk on this route pretty much every day.
Speaker B:And there was this busker, and he called himself the crooked crooner.
Speaker B:He has some sort of spinal disease or something, but he had this, you know, this absolutely amazing voice.
Speaker B:And there always sort of these sort of massive crowds around him and he was there pumping out all the.
Speaker B:The old tunes, like the old Rat Pack stuff with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, like, you know, come fly with me and the way you look tonight and here's to losers, that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:And that was never sort of my music, sort of never followed that sort of music before, but it just really, really captured your attention.
Speaker B:And he'd play the trombone or the trumpet and voice to D.
Speaker B:And so every time I walk past him, I'd be tapping my feet and humming and be these ear worms stuck in my head all day.
Speaker B:And I don't know, from there it just started sort of daydreaming, I guess, into this sort of idea of this sort of big casino, sort of these shady mobsters and, you know, your crooked PI characters and beautiful singers and shady cops and.
Speaker B:But, but I kind of had this sort of idea in my head of this being really classy and sophisticated rather than a lot of gangster movies, which was really gritty and hard hitting.
Speaker B:I sort of sat on that for years before I sort of started writing.
Speaker B:And then one day, just on the whim, just kind of sat down, started writing out this idea of this PI tied to his steering wheel.
Speaker B:Without giving too much away, that's how we meet Jax, who's the main character, and he sees, yes, dodgy gangsters around him.
Speaker B:And it just sort of developed naturally from there.
Speaker B: g an archaeological thriller,: Speaker B:It kind of fit all those mobsters and gangster elements, but still had this sort of sense of adventure.
Speaker B: r thing as well is, you know,: Speaker B:I really quite like that idea of this bigger world and these things that, you know, are going to happen that these characters can't escape from, but this thrust into these situations where, you know, they're trying to control destiny.
Speaker B:But you kind of know as the, the reader that, yeah, war is going to break out.
Speaker B:Whereas, you know, a lot of our sort of genre, you know, always the hero saves the day and sort of saves World War three from breaking out, hopefully.
Speaker B:Kind of like the idea of almost a bit of a tragedy that no matter how hard they try, you know, World War II is going to be breaking out very soon.
Speaker C:It's interesting stories like that, isn't it?
Speaker C:When the reader is, and this must be a great thing of writing historically, is that the reader is more aware than the characters.
Speaker C:We know what's coming.
Speaker C:We know that, you know, at the end of that book or somewhere near the end of that book, that news is going to come that in a way their mission isn't successful.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Because the war breaks out anyway.
Speaker C:We know that that's history.
Speaker C:Talking about the setting sort of physically rather than in time based, you've, you start the novel starts in New York.
Speaker C:As you've, as you've mentioned, you visit all sorts of places from the World's Fair that was in New York at that time, to Niagara Falls, to the Arctic.
Speaker C:It's got a real great diverse cast of settings as well as characters.
Speaker C:How did you research these places and.
Speaker A:What sort of challenges did you have in that?
Speaker C:They, some of them are very far away, some of them are very different.
Speaker C:Now, you know, how did you do that?
Speaker C:Well, how did you make that work?
Speaker B:Yeah, you're right, it was quite a massive challenge.
Speaker B:So perhaps bigger than I had anticipated beforehand.
Speaker B:I used to, when I first started sort of writing, which is very much like writing fan fiction, if you like, it was very sci fi orientated.
Speaker B:So it was so easy.
Speaker B:You just, you know, picture something in your head and that's that.
Speaker B:And even to a certain degree writing modern thrillers.
Speaker B:I've been lucky enough to traveled and seen a lot of the world.
Speaker B:And so again, you can sort of fairly easily sort of transplant your experiences and what you've seen, look back at your old holiday photos, that sort of thing, and develop the story from there.
Speaker B:But yeah, you're quite right.
Speaker B:When all of a sudden I came across these things and they're again, like I said earlier, they're recognizable but they're different.
Speaker B:So Niagara Falls, for instance, is totally different today.
Speaker B:I mean, maybe not the shape of the physical falls and stuff, but what's around it, you know, now you've got loads and loads of tourist stuff.
Speaker B:Back then they still had lots of tourist stuff, but it's very different.
Speaker B:And you had these, these crazy like daredevils walking across on tightropes, which, you know, health and safety I'm pretty sure would not allow that to happen these days.
Speaker B:And people going over the falls in barrels and all these sort of crazy things.
Speaker B:Like even I've never been to Niagara Falls, but even if I went to Niagara Falls, I don't think I would have been able to research those elements of it.
Speaker B:And the World's Fair like you mentioned, I mean, I really, really loved that sort of writing that section in the World's Fair, it was just this crazy sort of wonderland, if you like.
Speaker B:But there's no website.
Speaker B:I couldn't just go and find the World's Fair website online and, you know, get some snippets of information to build my scene out of.
Speaker B:So it took me ages and ages going through, finding mainly images, like on Google images of an old program that someone has scanned in, some of them, even handwritten, and trying to go through this text, try and work out, you know, what was there and where things were.
Speaker B:And I found a map, it was like not an animated map, but like a drawing of the World's Fair with the different zones and images dotted on it.
Speaker B:And it took me ages going through and trying to work it out and where I could put my fictional setting.
Speaker B:And there's a bit of a chase scene in it and how that could unfold.
Speaker B:So yeah, it's still relying very much on the Internet, but not on the tools that it might have relied on previously like Google Earth and Google Maps and that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:The Niagara Falls we were saying about actually wrote a scene in the very, very first draft where the heroes have to get across the U.S.
Speaker B:canadian border and they, they go on, they go across a bridge initially.
Speaker B: wasn't actually built in the: Speaker B:I was like, okay, go back to the drawing board on that one.
Speaker B:And it's same with like New York.
Speaker B:The, the skyline is so instantly recognizable.
Speaker B: line was so different back in: Speaker B:And it's really difficult to not just immediately jump in and write what you know.
Speaker B:You've really, really got to double check absolutely everything you're writing.
Speaker C:Yes, yes.
Speaker C:And make sure it sort of fits together.
Speaker C:Because as you say, putting that bridge in there when there wasn't a bridge for the, at that time and for the next 40 years, it just feels slightly disingenuous, doesn't it, to have that and to make that happen.
Speaker C:I mean, you have worked, you work in the sort of field of archaeology anyway, don't you?
Speaker C:So did you use skills that you've used in that sort of field to research the book?
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I've got a degree in archaeology and I work in a museum.
Speaker B:So yeah, I've done a lot of research in my time.
Speaker B:So yeah, definitely sort of factored those sort of things into it, unfortunately, because obviously I live in England, you know, got in the museum I work with, there's access to loads of amazing historical records and stuff, but they're all local history or at least British history.
Speaker B:So it didn't help me that much with that.
Speaker B:But the concepts of researching, I suppose it's taking slightly more of an academic type research level because you can't just wash away sort of something you get wrong.
Speaker B:And you know, if I've got anything wrong in it that anyone ever a reader ever picks up on, you know, just got to put your hands up and take it on the nose and be like, oh, yes, I got that wrong.
Speaker B:Thanks for pointing that out, you know, because I'm not a, not a historian in that sense.
Speaker C:Yeah, I find that with my books as well, because whilst they are not historical, they're set in the modern day.
Speaker C:They do relate to historical facts because they're archaeological thrillers.
Speaker A:You're Balancing, aren't you?
Speaker C:You're really trying to balance the whole time between the truth and the great story, I suppose.
Speaker C:But you also go into the Norse legends in this story, which I love.
Speaker C:The way you tied New York and gangsters and PIs and that sort of.
Speaker C:I've got a vision of that character from stories in those genres, you know, like Mike Hammer and Raymond Chandler and those sorts of guys.
Speaker C:But you tied it into Norse legends as well, which is fantastic.
Speaker C:How did you go about that?
Speaker C:Are these things real?
Speaker C:Were these things something you've looked up, or are these something that you have taken a bit of a creative license with?
Speaker C:I suppose, yeah.
Speaker B:So kind of a balance of both.
Speaker B:I suppose so.
Speaker B:We write archaeological thrillers, but in some ways I kind of think of.
Speaker B:Of certainly this one almost as a mythological thriller in that there's a lot of, like, say, the Norse mythology that filters through to it.
Speaker B:The majority of what's featured in the Valhalla Key is based on actual Norse mythology, but obviously mythology itself is story that has been told and retold and elaborated and changed throughout the years.
Speaker B:So I think you're allowed a little bit of poetic license to.
Speaker B:To adapt a bit of the mythology to.
Speaker B:To fit your own needs, which I imagine has probably been done by storytellers and bards and stuff for centuries or millennia when it comes to the actual, like, archaeology of it.
Speaker B:You know, my story is in the title the Valhalla Key.
Speaker B:It sort of centers around this idea of key.
Speaker B:And as far as far as I know, no one's found a physical place called Valhalla, even though the.
Speaker B:The concept of Valhalla is arguably sort of linked to great halls of Norse chieftains and leaders from many years ago.
Speaker B:But keys have been found in Viking burials and Norse burials, but they're really, really sort of hard to come by.
Speaker B:They're only found something like about 100 keys in burials out of about 8,000 burials that have been excavated.
Speaker B:So there's this idea of maybe they were sort of status symbols.
Speaker B:They showed that you were someone very important.
Speaker B:And then the idea of unlocking kind of comes really a lot into Norse mythology.
Speaker B:The story is about getting into Hel, which is not hell, like the Christian sense of it, but still the Norse Underworld is in 1L instead of 2.
Speaker B:But you couldn't just wander in there when you died.
Speaker B:You had to go through various processes to sort of unlock the way into Hel.
Speaker B:Like Odin, for instance, who's the main God.
Speaker B:He unlocked knowledge.
Speaker B:He unlocked the secret of the runes by Hanging from Ydrazil, excuse the pronunciation, which is the world tree.
Speaker B:By drinking from a me as well, he unlocked like cosmic knowledge.
Speaker B:So this locking and unlocking and keys and stuff is kind of, this element filters through a lot of Norse sort of mythology and stories.
Speaker B:So I found that really, really fascinating.
Speaker B:I just love how fantastical they are.
Speaker B:Out of all the sort of myths and legends you can read and discover around the world, these are really almost Tolkienian sort of myths.
Speaker B:Like I can kind of picture giant statues of Odin and 4 and whatever.
Speaker C:I love that I do.
Speaker C:And it's one of the things that I think we're very lucky to be able to do in our writing is tie together these strands that perhaps really have no business being tied together, but we do so just for our own amusement and hopefully the amusement of our readers.
Speaker C:And you have tied in a third strand here, which is the.
Speaker C:The Nazis obsession with occult artifacts and their want to reach Valhalla, to use Valhalla for their own ends, which I suppose ties into the period of time that you, that you set the book.
Speaker C:What history did you use in that?
Speaker C:Because we, you know, we've heard about the Nazis obsession with sort of occult things, but I never quite know how far to believe that.
Speaker B:I was really shocked.
Speaker B:Like you say, it's kind of like it's been done.
Speaker B:Indiana Jones, you know, the main villains in Indiana Jones and in dozens of different books and TV series and movies, the Nazis are trying to find some occult power to, you know, further their war machine or.
Speaker B:And even sort of modern day Nazis and some stories doing the same and.
Speaker B:But it's true.
Speaker B:And that's the most shocking thing about it.
Speaker B:You think it's Hollywood and ized.
Speaker B:But the more I delved into it and even taking some of it that you find online with a pinch of salt, you know, they really, really did invest a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of resources into developing.
Speaker B:They call them wonder weapons, which I'm sure is a terrible pronunciation, especially from someone who, I believe you're learning German, but, but wonder weapons.
Speaker B:And some of them are sort of based on science and technology and you can actually see evidence of them like the V2 rocket and the, the first ever jet plane, the, the Messerschmitt, the ME62 or something like that, which is the world's first operational jet plane.
Speaker B:And they were classed as these wonder weapons.
Speaker B:But then sort of myth and the occult and stuff sort of factored into it as well.
Speaker B:There's something called Vril energy which apparently they became quite obsessed with.
Speaker B:But it's actually based on 19th century literature appeared fictional stories.
Speaker B:But they became almost obsessed with harnessing this Vril energy to develop super weapons.
Speaker B:And there was something called Die Glock, which again, it's a terrible German pronunciation, but is basically the bell, which I've heard of before.
Speaker B:And you know, you might come across.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And that supposedly, I think from what I can gather, no one really knows exactly what the bell was supposed to do, but there's links to sort of time travel or anti gravity and that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:And it was supposedly powered by occult sort of initiation rituals and stuff.
Speaker B:And so it's just, just really shocking.
Speaker B:It's things like the Spear of Destiny.
Speaker B:Apparently Hitler himself was obsessed with trying to find the Spear of Destiny that pierced the side of Christ on the.
Speaker B:On the cross and finding Atlantis and all these things.
Speaker B:I, yeah, I've read about these ideas, but the more I actually researched them, I was like, they actually did that.
Speaker B:It's not just for show.
Speaker B:So I kind of sort of feel like some of the bits I added into the Valhalla Key that when I first started writing I thought maybe it's a bit far fetched.
Speaker B:No, it's not actually, you know, I could probably elaborate on it more if I wanted to.
Speaker C:I think that's fantastic.
Speaker C:And there's so much to unpick there, isn't there, in my writing.
Speaker C:I haven't gone down that route yet because I.
Speaker C:As you say, they're the villain in a lot of stories and quite rightly so because they're very villainous people with lots of villainous sort of aims.
Speaker C:But yeah, you've used that well and I like the way you play that in.
Speaker C:To bring us back to sort of terra firma, to bring us back to solid ground.
Speaker C:Where did this love of adventure come from?
Speaker C:What's your relationship with adventure?
Speaker C:Do you seek these thrills yourself?
Speaker C:You've mentioned your background in archaeology, working in a museum.
Speaker C:I've got these images of you messing around with artifacts every day, you know, or do you do this or do you sort of live vicariously through the characters that you invent?
Speaker B:So I'd say these days it's more vicariously through my characters because I'm now a father with two children, so two young sons.
Speaker B:So a little bit more restricted on some of the activities I can do or, you know, want to do.
Speaker B:You know, put yourself in dangerous situation situations, but certainly not that long ago.
Speaker B:I love adventure.
Speaker B:I love going off, I love exploring the world, which I Know you do as well and you know, going certainly beyond like your package hop holidays and that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:And I sort of trekked through the, the Arowana river, which is part of the Amazon basin and came across like anacondas and Caymans, piranhas, things like that, and sort of canyoning in, in the Andes in Ecuador I think it was, and jump off this, this waterfall that was like 25 meters tall and just free jump off it.
Speaker B:And so these are crazy things which I probably wouldn't do now, now I've got kids, but certainly at the time it's great.
Speaker B:And diving, love diving.
Speaker B:And Fiji went diving, sharks and stuff.
Speaker B:And one of my favorite memories is it was actually my, my honeymoon and managed to drag my wife along on this little adventure with this bit of a dodgy looking supposed tour guide who sort of took us through this, this big patch of jungle in, in Guatemala.
Speaker B:And then we had to climb down this limestone cliff face way through this river and to this cliff, sorry to this, this cave.
Speaker B:But the only way to get in there you had to dive under and swim through the submerged passage.
Speaker B:Came up on the, under the other side and we walked for, I don't know, about an hour or so, climbing through potholes and at this big steep ramp.
Speaker B:And at the top it was, it was a, it was a proper like adventure moment.
Speaker B:Like at the top was all these urns and jars and even some skeletons that were part of a Mayan human sacrifice from years ago.
Speaker B:And you know, it's just like proper like.
Speaker B:Yeah, like an Indiana Jones moment.
Speaker B:I just love that sort of sense of adventure.
Speaker C:That is fantastic.
Speaker C:I, I can see that in one of your books, you know, the, the swimming through the tunnel and you.
Speaker C:I mean, I've written scenes like that and yeah, they're just so enigmatic of the genre, aren't they?
Speaker C:That, that sort of undiscovered cave, undiscovered tomb, whatever it might be.
Speaker C:So this book, you, it's branded as, and I love this, it's branded as having the Golden Age adventure charm.
Speaker C:What does that mean to you?
Speaker A:What do you mean by that?
Speaker C:And how did you capture the classic adventure sort of theme in this story?
Speaker B:Well, I guess the Golden Age adventure charm to me is things like the stories of Hiram Bingham when he found Machu Picchu and Howard Carter opening Tutankhamun's tomb and that sort of stuff and Colonel Fawcett going on his expedition to find the lost city of Zed.
Speaker B:And you know, I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, I don't even know if the, the golden age of adventure is a, an identifiable period of time.
Speaker B: But certainly I think by: Speaker B:Some elements of, of travel again, a little bit easier.
Speaker B:Airplanes are starting to become something you can travel to other countries in a few days.
Speaker B:You know, certainly not a few hours, but not necessarily a few weeks that had taken not long before.
Speaker B:And so you got that element of adventure and excitement where every journey is part of the adventure.
Speaker B:And it's not like just sitting there and saying, oh my characters went from A to B and then the adventure continues.
Speaker B:It's like that A to B is part of the adventure and they have to rely on their, their own wits and their own cunning and their own knowledge.
Speaker B:They can't just whip out the smartphone and Google the answer to a, to a riddle or yeah, sort of get out, you know, digital maps or use lidar and sonar on these sort of things.
Speaker B:So I guess that's what I mean by the golden age of adventure.
Speaker B:So not having that backup, I guess, and to sort of feed it into the book.
Speaker C:It's so true.
Speaker C:I, when I write, one of the challenges I have is stopping.
Speaker C:And I said this on the podcast episode last week, is stopping people just using their phone to find the answer or put a tracker on the thing.
Speaker C:How many times do they just put a tracker on the thing and that's the end of it.
Speaker C:It's so boring, isn't it, as a reader, for them just to be doing the same.
Speaker C:It's solved by the same technological thing, you know, and you, you want them to use some initiative or some, some sort of old school spycraft to fix the thing instead.
Speaker C:If you could go on one real world adventure, then that's related specifically to this book.
Speaker C:You've talked about trekking in jungles and climbing mountains and stuff, but specifically related to this book, what would that be?
Speaker C:And I'm not sure if you're allowed time travel or not in your answer.
Speaker C:I think I'll leave that open to you.
Speaker C:To.
Speaker B:I would have said going to the Arctic, which features in the book because that's always been a bit of a dream of mine, but actually did it a few months ago, went up to finished Lapland and in minus 33 degrees temperatures and stuff.
Speaker B:So saw the northern lights and that was a fantastic experience.
Speaker B:So see Niagara Falls.
Speaker B:I'd love to go see Niagara Falls.
Speaker B:I'd actually like to go.
Speaker B:So what's really silly is most of the stuff written in the past is always based on places have been.
Speaker B:This one, actually, I've not been to New York City, I've not been to Niagara Falls.
Speaker B:I have now been to the Arctic.
Speaker B:But if I'm allowed time travel, I think the place I'd really, really love to go and see would be, of all places, the World's Fair.
Speaker B:Because I just think, you know, these days were so almost immune to, you know, big tech sort of rolling out their latest invention and, you know, the latest thing that AI can do and latest smartphone and wearable gadget and that sort of stuff.
Speaker B: But to the people in: Speaker B:The world of tomorrow, and it was so futuristic, they had.
Speaker B:They had a kitchen that, like, talked to you and.
Speaker B:And like, quite chauvinistically, that was supposedly going to.
Speaker B:To give wives more to attend, that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:And, you know, they had all these technological marvels, sort of cityscapes and dioramas showing what the world was going to be looking like, and all glass skyscrapers and lots of it didn't come to pass.
Speaker B:Some of it did.
Speaker B:They even have an actual giant walking robot who could talk and walk around and he could even smoke, which, you know, I don't think you get away with a Disneyland these days.
Speaker B:But, you know, the people who went to that fair, they must have been like, mind blown, like, really, really.
Speaker B:I don't think there'd be that much these days that we could see if we went to a fair that you'd be really shockingly sort of mind blown at.
Speaker B:You know, even if you saw a robot, you might go, that's really cool.
Speaker B:But I've seen that on TV or on YouTube or something.
Speaker B:But I'd love to experience that sense of wonder and excitement that they must have felt when they saw these things.
Speaker B:So I think, yeah, one place would be the World's Fair.
Speaker C:That's a lovely answer.
Speaker C:I like that.
Speaker C:And I suppose it.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's that coming together of the creative countries, isn't it?
Speaker C:That did that.
Speaker C:Wasn't the Eiffel Tower built for one of the World's Fairs?
Speaker C:I don't know if that's correct, but they decided to keep it.
Speaker C:It was built as a temporary exhibition and they left it in the.
Speaker B:Possibly.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:I'm going to have to look that up before I.
Speaker C:Before I look like an idiot and say it One way or the other.
Speaker C:But, yeah, I think that's a really, really lovely answer.
Speaker C:And yeah, I think you're.
Speaker C:You're right that perhaps we're all of the leaps in engineering, we see a sort of.
Speaker C:We're used to them, aren't we?
Speaker C:We're used to that sort of.
Speaker C:They're incremental is what I'm saying.
Speaker C:Nothing is like, boom.
Speaker C:If someone bought a teleportation device or something, you'd be like, yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker C:Yeah, you know, or.
Speaker C:I don't know, whatever.
Speaker C:Whatever the thing was, that was literally like 100 years into the future.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, really sci fi, I think to shock us now wouldn't.
Speaker C:Would it?
Speaker C:Would.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Final question then.
Speaker C:I ask this to everyone on the podcast.
Speaker C:I love it.
Speaker C:It's one of my favorite ones.
Speaker C:Looking back, what adventure stories, whether they're books, whether they're movies, whether they're legends, whether they're something that a family member told you, whatever it might be, first sparked your imagination and made you want to go out and see the world and then write about it in your adventure stories.
Speaker B:Indiana Jones, you know, without a doubt.
Speaker B:You know, I got this great memory of watching, I think it was Temple of Doom when I was, I don't know, seven or eight, and just thinking, oh, wow, that's a proper adventure.
Speaker B:And I remember jumping around the house with Mercury, my granddad's old hat.
Speaker B:I think it was a trilby or something, certainly not a fedora.
Speaker B:And it had checkered patterns on it, so it looked like a proper old man's hat, but it still felt Indiana Jones enough.
Speaker B:And I remember jumping around with a piece of string or wool and reenacting that and just thinking, that was great.
Speaker B:But also, my dad used to tell me all these stories about.
Speaker B:He loved the old Tarzan stories, Edgar Rice Burroughs, isn't it?
Speaker B:And I remember watching some of them, which, you know, really cheesy and corny by today's standards, and watching things like the old.
Speaker B:The Lost World without, like, iguanas, you know, standing in for.
Speaker B:For dinosaurs, like blown up, you know, using not.
Speaker B:Well, not computer imagery, but, you know, clever filming techniques and that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:And again, it was that sense of going on an adventure.
Speaker B:And they almost, I guess they were about Victorian times, weren't they?
Speaker B:Jules Verne and H.G.
Speaker B:wells, that sort of stuff.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So yeah, I love all of those things, like books.
Speaker B:I love the.
Speaker B:The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That one.
Speaker B:I mean, I've read all of his his Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase series.
Speaker B:But I think that one in particular really gets this nice blend of like Indiana Jones crossed with James Bond and love that.
Speaker B:More recently I got, yeah, Guilty Pleasure, which probably I can't sort of say inspired me to go traveling but but certainly makes me long to go to some places is the Fast and Furious saga, which me and my wife, we watch pretty much like once a year.
Speaker B:We sort of sit down and we just finished watching them like last weekend.
Speaker B:Watched the final one so far.
Speaker B:But again, yeah, just when you see them in like Havana and Rio and Berlin and all these places in Tokyo and you think, oh yeah, you know, and you know, they've got real fun, bombastic sense of adventure to them again.
Speaker A:So James, that's absolutely fantastic.
Speaker A:Thanks so much for joining me.
Speaker A:So if a New York PI racing Nazis to stop an ancient Norse relic from unleashing Ragnarok on the eve of World War II sounds like something right up your street.
Speaker A:Sounds like something you'd like to read.
Speaker A:Search for the Valhalla Key by James Richardson on your favorite bookstore.
Speaker A:That's the Valhalla Key by James Richardson on your favorite bookstore.
Speaker A:This is the Adventure Story podc.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for hanging out today.
Speaker A:It's great to spend some time with you.
Speaker A:If you've enjoyed the show, please subscribe.
Speaker A:Please like and please share.
Speaker A:It'll take you just seconds, but really.
Speaker C:Helps me spread the word about this show.
Speaker A:If you have a story you'd like me to explore, let me know in the comments or on helloukerichardsonauthor.com via the email.
Speaker C:That's good too.
Speaker A:And if you need more adventure in your life, and let's be honest, who doesn't, you might like to join the Adventure Society.
Speaker A:This weekly newsletter is your ticket to travel with me to share real world adventures and find out when a new story or a new season of this podcast drops.
Speaker A:It's lukerichardsonauthor.com Adventuresociety is where you need to go for that one.
Speaker A:And if you're a fan of adventure stories like the ones we've talked about today, check out my books at.
Speaker C:Luke.
Speaker A:Thanks so much.
Speaker A:Bon voyage.
Speaker A:Enjoy the adventure and I'll see you next time.
