Norse Mythology

Norseome

Neil, tells the stories of the Norse Gods with ease and in his own relaxed style that, in my opinion, bring the characters to life in a way that relates to now, its current..and I, for one absolutely loved it...I've read all the classic tomes on North Mythology, poetic Eddas, Sagas, quite heavy going for even the most dedicated seekers of the Nordic Deities ..!
I recommend pouring a large glass of mead, throwing a log on the fire, sitting back and be transported back to the world at it's very beginning with Ginnunganap, until its end with the coming of Ragnarok.
Skäl! :)

74 of 80 people found this review helpful

Blood and ice and lots of mead!

Great myths, so many so similar to other modern tales and yet so distinct and rowdy. Made me want to go back to Iceland!

37 of 42 people found this review helpful

Great stories, incredible adaptation.

Of course Neil Gaiman is a great writer. But when he tells the story himself you can feel the personality of each character. I especially enjoyed the shift in Thor's tone from unintelligent and slightly playful to serious as the book progressed.

21 of 24 people found this review helpful

Excellent

I really enjoyed this as did the family who listened to it on a long car trip.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

Amazing tales from the North

What did you like most about Norse Mythology?

I love the way that Neil Gaiman has updated the stories and made them accessible, whilst still being true to the originals.

What other book might you compare Norse Mythology to, and why?

Almost like a book of fairy tales, but for adults

Which character – as performed by Neil Gaiman – was your favourite?

Thor; I love the way he just wants to hit things with his hammer.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Watch out, the Gods are back...

Any additional comments?

I love anything by Neil Gaiman and this definitely does not disappoint.

17 of 20 people found this review helpful

If in doubt, blame Loki

It seems from the other reviews that Gaiman's narration is a bit controversial, but I personally really liked his reading style.
These are great adaptations of the myths - a tad more adult/gory than the last time I read them, aged roughly 12 (!), but certainly not distasteful for anyone who is concerned - and the tone of the stories is brilliant. I laughed aloud with a lot of regularity, and the ever-popular dynamic between Thor and Loki is played very effectively; I get the feeling that Gaiman really likes Loki, and this version of the stories rather makes me do so too, much of the time.
It's hard to pick a favourite story out of the group as well; some of the tales here are totally new to me and learning them was fascinating, but you also have to love the old favourites, like Thor travelling to the lands of the giants. Ragnarok in particular feels very prescient right now, and that moment of hope at the very end was truly bittersweet in the best possible way. It's worth six and a half hours of your time, very, very easily.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

a great collection of short stories

Read by Neil Gaimen (which I think helps give the listener more of an insight as to the mind of the author), they are fun yet interesting and hold up well against Neil's longer books. It is clear they are a compendium of ideas that perhaps were going to be larger things but as a collection of short stories there is a general theme running through them and I can keep going back and enjoying them over and over again.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

nice

kind of short. enjoyed the stories but as the writer said they are just bits and pieces. I would like something more fluent.

21 of 26 people found this review helpful

A Solid re-telling

Based on the blurb I was expecting a lot from this book, maybe too much. What could be better than an imaginative writer such as Gaiman taking the Norse Legends and putting them through his creative processes. The blurb talks about how he has applied what they term crackling, brilliant writing. All well and good but I didn't see that, they still came over as a collection of pleasant but straightforward re-tellings of the old myths.

It is well read by Gaiman himself but in the end I found them used best as fillers between other books. I did enjoy listening to them even though I'm not really someone who normally enjoys listening to fables. It just feels like it could have been so much more.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

Great short stories. <br />

very much enjoyed listening to the short stories, great performance by Neil although in some places seemed a little childish and straight forward. I would recommend this book as a introduction to the mythology genre.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful