Ragnarok in space?

Question

I'm trying to identify a novel that retells the story of Ragnarok as a space opera. If I recall correctly, the protagonists were a small group of extraordinary individuals named after the Norse gods, while the antagonists were ordinary men who crewed starships with names like Surt, Fenris and Garm. It had many elements of Starship Troopers, Armor, and Ender's Game, although with a mythological rather than political slant. I bought the novel in a supermarket in the mid-to-late 1980s, so it was most likely published around that time. It predates Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap Cycle. I've since lost track of the book, and I haven't been able to figure out the title or who wrote it.

The story is primarily written from the point of view of the godlike protagonists, although if I recall correctly there are also counterpoint sections following the antagonists. The climax features a space battle roughly following the story of Ragnarok, with heavy losses on both sides (e.g., Odin is killed in combat with the ship Garm).

Answer 1

Project Millennium (1987) by Curtis H. Hoffmann

"After long generations of peace, a kind of nostalgia has come to Muspell's Planet. And so some carnage is to be staged as 'entertainment' --- using entire planets as backdrops, and populations as expendable extras."

Ragnarok is being staged for a millennium celebration.

"But one question remains --- what will happen when the cannon fodder learns that every man, woman, and child of them has been created to be slaughtered for entertainment?"

The Science Fiction Encyclopedia's description is:

a tale told within a Space Opera frame, as it is set on a distant world (Muspell's Planet) run by Computers for the benefit of a jaded populace; but which focuses on another planet which the Muspell AIs have populated with battalions of Heroes out of Earth's past, both mythic and historical, and have set them against each other to entertain their own humans.

Answer 2

Could it be The Survivors by Tom Godwin?

The Survivors is a science fiction novel by author Tom Godwin. It was published in 1958 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which 1,084 were never bound.

A ship heading from Earth to Athena, a planet 500 light years away, is suddenly attacked by the Gerns, an alien empire in its expansion phase. People aboard are divided by the invaders into Acceptables and Rejects. The Acceptables would become slave labor for the Gerns on Athena, and the Rejects are forced ashore on the nearest 'Earth-like' planet, called Ragnarok. The Gerns say they will return for the Rejects, but the Rejects quickly realise that that isn't going to happen.

Ragnarok is not so 'Earth-like.' Its gravity is 1.5 times that of Earth, it is populated by deadly, aggressive creatures and it contains little in the way of usable metal ores. This, combined with a terrible deadly fever that kills in hours, more than decimates the population.

The novels follows the stranded humans through several generations as they try to survive there, and their unswerving goal to repay the Gerns for their cruelty.

And here's a picture of the cover:

.

There's also the sequel, published in 1964, called 'The Space Barbarians'

It is explained elsewhere that the humans on Ragnarok develop extraordinary feats due to living in the harsh environment for generations.

Answer 3

Could it be the Northworld trilogy, by David Drake? Came out in 1990, so shortly before the Gap cycle. It's not the 80's, but I think everything else matches (humans as gods vs human technology, warriors training for upcoming Ragnarok, etc). It's even freely available (Baen free library).

Answer 4

I saw a book fitting that description today: Absorption, by John Meaney. Is that possibly what you were looking for? It looked like this book may have been a new release though.

(Funny you should ask this question in the exact same day I saw this book.)