2 stars for Neil Gaiman and 6 stars for old Norse authors.

A glance at the cover would lead one to believe that Neil Gaiman wrote this book. He is the “author” after all. But what did he actually do? He retold the tales. His language is entertaining, but he might have used invention and creativity to put modern spins on some of them or elaborated the tales somehow. He does not do this. He has been doing something like this since Sandman and maybe even earlier for all I know – that is, using old tropes, myths and fairy tales to sort of come up with a plot, or dressing up the skeleton. He is not a mythmaker in my opinion, he is a paraphraser. Don’t come to this book expecting original ideas. Come to it for tried and true, ancient storytelling, humor and wonderful metaphors illustrating human nature.