Synopsis: In Norse Mythology, Gaiman fashions primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds; delves into the exploits of the deities, dwarves, and giants; and culminates in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods and the rebirth of a new time and people.
Title: Norse Mythology
Author: Neil Gaiman
Pages: 281
Genres/Shelves: (Adult) Fantasy, Mythology, Short Stories
This Edition Published: February 2017 by Bloomsbury
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This isn’t a novel, for anyone else like myself who was confused, it is a true mythology- a collection of myths. Most of these stories are as ridiculous as you’d hope a Norse myth would be. At the same time, so many of the stories are really just pissing contests between the gods and giants, or accounts of self-fulfilling prophecies. The absurdity gets a bit redundant.
I would recommend getting a print copy of this and reading the stories here and there. The patterns become very repetitive and a bit predictable if you just sit down and read them all back to back. I think they were probably intended to be read in one go, with pieces of a previous story being called back to in the next, it just wasn’t that exciting all of the time. There could have been one less story about Thor trying to out-lift others.
That said, while the writing is perhaps a bit dry in the introductory chapters, Gaiman’s writing style suits the stories. The writing is simplistic and doesn’t call attention to itself, which is good when the events it tells are so ridiculous.
Don’t stop to question the “why” of each story, or the motivation behind any of the gods’ spite or goals, and you’ll be just fine. A lot of these stories are really fun.
3.5 Ships
The Book Armada 
Oh wow… I really thought this was a novel too until I read this. Haha.
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