The New York Times Book Review - Lidia Yuknavitch
…Gaiman brings voice to the old myths so viscerally that listening to the audiobook every night for a week, I thought my bedroom might explode into Valhalla…the entire Norse pantheon, including dwarves and giants and demons, plays out as vividly as a novel or film…There is a difference between reading a book and listening to stories, a difference amplified to epic proportions in the case of Norse Mythology. I knew it immediately when all of the hairs on my arm shot up during the retelling of how Odin lost his eye when he traded it for a sip from the well of wisdom. My theory was confirmed when my 16-year-old son passed by my bedroom door one night and could not stop himself from coming in to listen—for an entire hour…Hearing the great myths spoken in a language from my present with a trace of ancient history physically broke me open, Gaiman's voice bringing the characters to life.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
04/24/2017
Gaiman is a talented storyteller, as both writer and a narrator. In his latest audiobook, he turns both talents to an imaginative retelling of old Norse folklore. The figures in these myths are well-known to most people: Odin, the highest and oldest of the gods; his son Thor the Thunderer; and Loki, his conniving and treacherous blood brother. They, along with the other gods who inhabit Asgard, live in a universe of giants, elves, dwarves, and men. Gaiman chronicles the history of these gods and their varied adventures from the beginning of their creation to their ending at the final battle of Ragnarok, and on to their eventual renewal. Gaiman’s affection for these myths is evident throughout the audiobook. His gods bellow and rage and whine and battle and plot, but his reading is never over the top. His mellow British-accented voice keeps the pace consistent, hits all the right dramatic notes, and brings new life, for a new generation to discover, to these ancient stories. A Norton hardcover. (Feb.)
Publishers Weekly
12/12/2016
Having already appropriated Odin and Loki for his novel American Gods, Gaiman turns his restless imagination to a retelling of Norse folklore (a youthful interest of his). He begins by introducing us to the three main mythological figures: Odin, the highest and oldest of the gods; his son, Thor, who makes up in brawn what he lacks in brains; and Loki, offspring of giants and a wily trickster. In a series of stories, we learn how Thor acquired his famous hammer, Mjollnir, how Odin tricked a giant into building a wall around Asgard, the home of the gods, how Loki helped Thor retrieve his hammer from the ogre that had stolen it, and how a visit to the land of the giants resulted in the humbling of Thor and Loki. In most of the stories, a consistent dynamic rules as one god tries to get something over on another god, but novelist that he is, Gaiman also provides a dramatic continuity to these stories that takes us from the birth of the gods to their blood-soaked twilight. Employing dialogue that is anachronistically current in nature, Gaiman has great fun in bringing these gods down to a human level. Like John Gardner in Grendel, a classic retelling of Beowulf, and Philip Pullman in his rewriting of Hans Christian Andersen stories, Gaiman takes a well-worn subject and makes it his own. (Feb.)
Maria Tatar
"Who else but Neil Gaiman could become an accomplice of the gods, using the sorcery of words to make their stories new? The author of American Gods transforms Norse myths into addictive reading for young and old, with high-wattage retellings that preserve the monumental grandeur of the Nordic universe but also turn it into a world that is up close and personal, full of antic wit and dark intrigue."
Tor - Alex Brown
"Evocative and lyrical.… It is quite simply a breathtaking novel that is as matchless as the Norse gods themselves."
Newsweek
"Weaving together ancient Norse mythology with 21st-century sensibility, Gaiman's storytelling once again recreates an entire genre for the modern reader."
San Francisco Chronicle - Michael Berry
"Gaiman’s prose is bright and fluid, his storytelling clear and cogent.… Norse Mythology ably captures the essence of a myth cycle that deserves to be better known, in an edition likely to speak to readers of all ages."
A.V. Club - Bill Jones
"Norse Mythology introduces readers to a deeper world, rooted in the traditions of northern story telling. And what most of us know of Norse mythology only scratches the surface.… Gaiman’s book serves as a welcome point of entry to a new generation of readers."
Financial Times - James Lovegrove
"In reinterpreting the tales so faithfully and with such abundant joy, Gaiman assumes the role of fireside bard, inviting us to sit close on a chilly winter’s night and chuckle and wonder along with him."
NPR - Petra Mayer
"A lively, funny, and very human rendition of Thor the thunder god, his father Odin, and the dark-hearted trickster Loki (plus countless other gods and monsters)."
Newsweek - Chelsea Hassler
"Weaving together ancient Norse mythology with 21st-century sensibility, Gaiman's storytelling once again recreates an entire genre for the modern reader."
The Wall Street Journal - Tom Shippey
"A clear, continuous narrative, with big scenes the same as they always were but with emotional pointers added."
Jack Zipes
"Gaiman has such a profound understanding of the conflicts of Odin, Thor, Loki, and other gods that he revitalizes them through his imaginative depictions. His interpretation of major Norse myths will draw readers into a strange realm that will dazzle and baffle and lead to a new appreciation of Norse mythology."
Washington Post - Michael Dirda
"A gripping, suspenseful and quite wonderful reworking of these famous tales. Once you fall into the rhythm of its glinting prose, you will happily read on and on, in thrall to Gaiman’s skillful storytelling."
F(r)iction - Dani Hedlund
"Gaiman’s masterful storytelling transcends our most vivid dreams, exploring ancient territory from a fantastically fresh perspective. . . . [and inviting us] to listen to stories in the same way we would as children: engrossed and enraptured by the magic of myth. . . . [Norse Mythology] will breathe new life into these old gods, reminding us of the power that great storytelling still holds over us all."
Lidia Yuknavitch
"In Norse Mythology, Gaiman brings voice to the old myths so viscerally that listening to the audiobook every night for a week, I thought my bedroom might explode into Valhalla. The entire Norse pantheon, including dwarves and giants and demons, plays out as vividly as a novel or film. Honestly I may have to order a breastplate of some sort. As Gaiman puts it in the introduction, the stories feel like a journey from the ice and fire that created the world to the fire and ice that end it."
Los Angeles Times - Douglas Wolk
"No contemporary fiction writer gets more of his power from the mythological tradition than Neil Gaiman. . . . As always, Gaiman’s a charming raconteur . . . [and he] recognizes a ripping yarn when he sees one."
Boston Globe - Ethan Gilsdorf
"In these accessible, retold tales, fantasy is odd, and real, and dire."
The Atlantic - Lisa L. Hannett
"Remarkable. . . . Gaiman has provided an enchanting contemporary interpretation of the Viking ethos."
Library Journal
★ 02/15/2017
In his fiction, Gaiman (American Gods; Sandman) frequently explores the themes and tropes of mythology from around the world. Here, he operates within narrower confines, retelling the classic stories of Norse mythology but with no less humor, sense of adventure, and imagination than when he's playing in worlds of his own making. Here the adventures and misadventures of the Norse gods and goddesses function as short stories that, together, build an arc that leads the reader onward to Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods. Giants, ogres, dwarves, fantastical beasts, and the occasional human freely mingle with Thor, Odin, Loki, Freya, and other, less well-known gods and goddesses, all of whom are passionate, flawed, weird, and divinely entertaining. VERDICT A spectacularly entertaining and elucidating collection of stories with wide crossover appeal. Essential for all collections.—Stephanie Klose, Library Journal
FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile
Neil Gaiman’s retelling of Norse myths is destined to become a classic for both his sure-footed stories and his captivating performance. Listeners may be familiar with the main characters of Norse mythology—wise Odin, mighty Thor, and cunning Loki—but Gaiman delves deeper, introducing listeners to the dwarves who made Thor’s hammer; Loki’s half-dead daughter, Hel; and a huge cast of gods, giants, and beings who inhabit Asgard, Midgard, and the other realms of the world tree. The tales seem timeless, and Gaiman’s melodic narration so strongly echoes the oral tradition of myths that it’s as if the narrator has stepped out of the stories themselves. E.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-11-22
Fire and ice to begin, fire and ice to end. And it's not going to end well, friends: first come the giants, then the all-ravening wolf, and then….The ancient Norse had a cheerless view of the world: the gods are jealous, the elements fierce, the enemies—trolls and giants among them—many, and if you're lucky you'll be killed in battle and gathered up to Valhalla, "and there you will drink and fight and feast and battle, with Odin as your leader." So writes Gaiman (The View from the Cheap Seats, 2016, etc.), famed for his intelligent fantasy novels but long under the spell of that great body of myth. As an English schoolboy, he reveled in Roger Lancelyn Green's Myths of the Norsemen, a somewhat stodgy but valuable collection (as he notes, as a creature of his time, he was introduced to the Norse by way of the Mighty Thor comic books); now, as an adult, he gets to retell the tales, drawing from Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, sagas in verse, and other sources. As he notes, rightly, that body of work is incomplete and perhaps corrupted by later Christian intrusions, so that it has to be viewed with some degree of suspicion; by the same token, he writes, so many of the goddesses in particular have been "lost, or buried, or forgotten," overshadowed by the better-known likes of Thor, Odin, and Loki and all their busy kinfolk. Gaiman writes assuredly and evocatively and with a precise eye for the atmospheric detail: "Niflheim was colder than cold, and the murky mist that cloaked everything hung heavily," he intones, catching the ancient alliteration. There's plenty of mayhem and gore, and once the gods have had their fun, everything comes "crashing down and crumbling into ash and devastation." But before that happens and Ragnarok descends, we have this lively book to cheer us along. Superb. Just the thing for the literate fantasy lover and the student of comparative religion and mythology alike.
