Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Norse Mythology

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Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

23 reviews

redheadorganist's review against another edition

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adventurous informative fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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elderwoodreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I loved this retelling of Norse Mythology. The beginning was a bit slow and dense for me but it picked up very quickly, and I can't believe how fast I devoured it! Neil Gaiman's narration definitely made it ten times more enjoyable than if I had read it as a text. Pleaae read the content warnings before reading/listening if you are sensitive to descriptions of torture and gore, they are behind the spoiler tag.

CW: eye trauma, intestines/entrail, genital mutilation/torture, graphic descriptions of death

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softanimal's review against another edition

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adventurous informative

4.0

Very fun to listen to Neil Gaiman read these stories!

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brittni_in_ink's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

Neil Gaiman uses his incredible storytelling to breathe new life into the Norse pantheon. The short stories that feed into the grand narrative of Creation to Ragnarök are expertly chosen and crafted to bring the reader right into the deceivingly sparse and simple language, echoing the oral tradition that kept these stories alive. The style is reminiscent of someone speaking aloud, perhaps in a great hall or around a campfire, telling these stories to whoever will listen. The important details are introduced, repeated, and we get to know the gods and all their flaws in the cycle of time that always ends and begins again in Ragnarök. The book is a fairly quick read, full of humor and strangeness, revenge and envy and marriage and love. I enjoyed it and learned a lot reading it.

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charliekjg86's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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triforcefusion's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I found that Neil Gaiman is a fantastic narrator. He gave such a good characterization to Thor in the way he spoke. The stories varied wildly from snappy, and fun to long and dull. There is also a barrier to entry if you are unfamiliar with Norse words. Sometimes there were so many Norse names that I couldn't remember who was who.

I feel like Neil did a good job presenting these myths, but the quality of stories definitely fluctuated.

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danny_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous informative inspiring relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was a delight from start to finish.

I don't know how accurate and true to the cannon these stories are (since this is pretty much my first introduction to Norse Mythology), but I still found it to be super enjoyable and interesting. Besides, I feel like retellings of stories from old mythologies don't need to stick that much to the "cannon", because their whole point is to be retold and see how each person will tell differently the same story.

Normally, I do my reviews by pointing out 3 things I liked and disliked about a book, but since these stories weren't made up and created by Neil, I can only judge it based on its writing style, which I had no issue with.

Instead, I'll separate it like this:

- The stories were super fun.
I found them all to be super interesting and the end even made feel quite upset. This book certainly got me into Norse Mythology.

-The writing style is simple, but in a good way.
I saw that a lot of people find Neil's writing style to be boring. Although, I understand why that is so, I find his more simplistic and not as crazy descriptive writing style to be very relaxing and easy to read. I could see everything in my head really clearly and I didn't feel bored at any point.
But I think it all just comes down to personal preference.

- The way Neil retells these stories is really fun.
The book made me laugh out loud a couple of times and it also made me feel really sad and bad for the characters. As I mentioned this before, the writing was nice enough that I could see everything clearly enough in my head, so I was really invested into this book.

- I don't think there is anything I didn't like about the book.
Again, I don't know how accurate it is to the original sources (and I honestly don't care), and writing style might not be to your liking if you are more into really detailed and descriptive styles. I think it just depends on the person. For me, I didn't have any issues with neither of these things.

Final thoughts:

If you like Norse Mythology or want to learn more about it, I'd suggest reading this book. Before getting into Norse Mythology, I only really knew stuff about Greek Mythology, which books that I read about I found to be a lot more darker and upsetting. I was expecting this book to also make me quite uncomfortable at certain parts (old times were quite brutal and disturbing), but I didn't really have any of those issues. So, the book was just really fun for me. It's definitely a solid 5 ⭐ from me.

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