Neil Gaiman has encountered the Norse gods before - using them in past works... but this is the first time he's been able to really indulge in their sagas. The book is arranged as a collection of short stories, covering various well known myths. Odin, Thor, Loki, Tyr, Frigg, Balder... they're all here, but their legends, while mostly intact, are embellished with Gaiman's unique voice and particular flourishes. Gaiman's gods often sound like school children, bickering over who gets to do what on the playground, but in this case, the playground is typically filled with frost giants or massive sun sized wolves. The book starts with a rather dense introductory chapter, but then flows into a set of short stories that are mostly gems. Finally, things escalate as you near the end of the book; as you approach Ragnarok... and beyond. ( )

An excellent, delightful to read series of tales about the Norse Gods. Freya and Thor and Loki and Odin and so many more are here, quarrelsome and loving, tricksters and killers.
Women of course have few roles other than to stand about and be admired, but every once and awhile one of them does something noble. It's the way the sagas were written...
Gaiman takes the tales and makes them readable and accessible. I've been thrashing through some of the sagas and it's heavy going at times. Thanks to Gaiman for creating a book that is a pleasure to read. ( )

First of all, Neil Gaiman is just a superb storyteller. He is excellent at telling fairytales and mythological tales like this. And he is excellent at narration as well, I listened to this on audiobook because if I ever get the chance to listen to Gaiman storytelling, I will take it. The way he reads his books is like they never had to be written down, they could just be a form of oral storytelling. It’s like someone telling you stories they remember before you go to sleep or around a fire or after a meal and everyone is just a little drowsy.

It was really cool to see more of where these well known tales actually came from, a closer retelling than the more popular ones of Marvel. And to learn stuff like: Loki and Thor aren’t brothers (not even in a foster sense), Loki is the reason that Thor’s hammer Mjölnir exists (and has a shorter than intended handle), the origin stories of Loki’s children Fenrir, Jormungandr, and Hel, the events of Ragnarok, etc.

I love that the first thing Thor thinks of when something goes wrong is that it’s Loki’s fault “because this saves a lot of time.” And if he ponders on the situation and determines it isn’t in fact Loki’s fault, his second thought is to go and ask for Loki’s advice, because he is after all known for being clever. Besides the MCU, this has been my only other dive into Norse Mythology and I really enjoyed seeing all these stories tie together. I am definitely interested now to read more into the traditional tales.

Norse Mythology: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ( )

I've always liked stories of mythology. These stories are great! ( )

Neil Gaiman chose his favorite myths and spiced them up! Great retelling! ( )