Rating: 5/5
Disclaimer: I received a free copy via Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review.
I love Neil Gaiman's writing. I don't think I've come across a single one of his books that I have not enjoyed immensely. His book on Norse mythology is wonderful. The main reason I liked it so much is because of the writing. As I read the stories, I could imagine them being told aloud. It was like they were written to follow the oral tradition, which is how these stories would have been related in the beginning.
Now, I don't know if he took much liberty with the content. The introduction admits that there are gaps of information for many of the characters/gods present in Norse mythology. This book focuses on three of the gods: Loki, Odin, and Thor. I feel like these are the most familiar characters, which goes a long way to drawing the reader into the stories. It's accessible for readers that don't know these characters; the ideas and traits they represent will be recognizable.
This is really a collection of short stories all written by Gaiman around a single subject. They connect to each other and tell a common story, yet it isn't necessary to read them in a particular order (except maybe the first and last stories, which sort of bookend the whole mythos). If something is significant that occurs in another story, he gives you the basic information you need. These tales were fun for me because I had no expectation for them to reflect reality. So when one of the gods does something amazing or ridiculous it doesn't pull me out of the story or make me question it. I could just let things be.
No comments:
Post a Comment