"Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

As a modern retelling of Norse mythos, I think the book does its job quite well. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the adaptation, but based on the Notes at the end of the book it appears to be well researched. Norse mythology has always existed in a bit of a blind spot for me; I grew up familiar with Greek and Roman mythos, however for a very long time my only exposure to Norse Mythology was through Marvel’s rendition of the characters.

It’s hard to give a fair evaluation of what I disliked because I don’t know what is a result of the original stories (as much as “original” can be said) versus what can be attributed to the adaptations. It’s entirely possible that I’m overly caught up in my own premonitions on how stories should go, or how a moral should be given, or how blame should be attributed; it feels as if just enough characterization, depth, and insight was given into the characters’ motivations, thoughts, and ideals to make me want to know more— and then the book ended. It’s a somewhat moot criticism that I was hesitant to include based on the fact that these are a collections of myths, not a novel, but at the end of the day it felt ‘off’ enough to me to be worth mentioning. As soon as I was invested, it ended.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend purchasing anything written by Neil Gaiman at the moment given the allegations levied against him at present (and it looks quite likely that ‘at the moment’ will become ‘indefinitely.’)