Norse Mythology in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 19, 2018 Ann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-aty-52

Neil's love for the Norse mythology shows in the very vividly-painted characters, with their supernatural strengths and almost-human frailties. ...more

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Oct 21, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Best parts of the book:

Something bad happens, Thor immediately suspects Loki. Why? It saves a lot of time.

Something bad happens. This is too bad even for Loki, must then ask Loki for advice.

This was an entertaining read, but it seems to be a very shallow reading of Norse mythology. I'm left with the feeling that there is so much more! ...more

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Oct 09, 2017 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: r2017-in-2017, based-on-a-folk-tale, myth, audio, gods-known-and-unknown

This is a nice collection of Norse myths, it's well-written, and Gaiman breathes life into the old tales. Clearly, Loki is his favorite. (I would have liked some more stories about the WOMEN among the Norse gods, but perhaps he could not find enough source material for that.)

Based on all the four and five star reviews, I was expecting something MORE. But, it's not "more," it's just the myths, straight up, exactly what you would expect. This is excellent for anyone who doesn't know the myths and This is a nice collection of Norse myths, it's well-written, and Gaiman breathes life into the old tales. Clearly, Loki is his favorite. (I would have liked some more stories about the WOMEN among the Norse gods, but perhaps he could not find enough source material for that.)

Based on all the four and five star reviews, I was expecting something MORE. But, it's not "more," it's just the myths, straight up, exactly what you would expect. This is excellent for anyone who doesn't know the myths and wants an introduction, and also excellent for anyone who can't get enough of Norse mythology, but I'm not in either of those camps.

Once I recalibrated my expectations, I enjoyed this quite a bit. This is the entertainment of the time, meant to be told around the hearth to an audience already familiar with the tales. It's interesting to peer into the culture and ancient history of the Norse people. Their gods and heroes - much like the heroes of Greek, Roman, and Celtic myths, are petty, childish, selfish, and also brave, loyal, and honorable. They are benevolent, in their way. They stick to their ethical code, but their ethics are not our modern ethics. I began to wonder why is it that the ancient heroes are flawed, but our modern gods and heroes are portrayed as perfect (or expected to be perfect)? How did we become such a black and white society? Where are our grey areas?

It's always interesting to see the similarities in our stories. There are echoes here of Celtic myth, Greek & Roman myth, and Jewish & Christian myth (the only myths I'm really familiar with - I'm sure there are similarities with others, also). Some of these similarities are from human cultures merging and blending over time, but some of them must be the basic stories that the human spirit craves, all over the world. The stories are rather male-centric, but I guess that's because those are the stories that were saved and passed on.

At first I didn't care for the "Kindergarten teacher" style that Gaiman adopted for the audiobook, but it grew on me. And I'm glad I listened to the audiobook, because I never would have known how to pronounce some of the names, and that would have bogged me down quite a bit. Plus, these are stories that are meant to be told aloud.

The stories are violent, of course, but mostly light-hearted, with slapstick humor. So I was unprepared for how grim the last two would be (The Last Days of Loki and Ragnarok - The Final Destiny). Dang! ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, short-stories, mythology

For someone who doesn't know anything about Norse mythology (except from Marvel's movies), I pretty much enjoyed these stories. It's a bit different than the usual Neil Gaiman's stories, but still captivating and very informative.

But to think that the Thor version in this book is all muscles and just a little bit of brain - I feel bad for Chris Hemsworth XD ...more

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Nov 23, 2020 superawesomekt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fairy-tales-fables-and-myths

3.5 stars, audiobook performed by the author

I loved Gaiman's performance, but I'm not sure how much I would have liked the book had I read it on my own. It was interesting to see the commonalities and differences between Norse mythology and other mythologies and religions, something I always enjoy. (I also don't keep up on Marvel movies so this was a fun way to know more about Thor, Loki, and Ragnarok when my extended family mention them. Bonus!)

I might even listen to this again. I definitely wo ...more

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Aug 07, 2017 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-and-essays, magic-sci-fi-fantasy, audio

3.5 stars. If you like reading fairy tales and mythology, this book is for you. If you have ever fantasized about Neil Gaiman reading fairy tales to you (in a voice that is almost Alan Rickman-like), then this audiobook is definitely for you.

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