I give the story 4 (4.5, really) stars instead of 5 for only one reason-- I want ANNOTATIONS, Mr. Gaiman. If you want a full five you'll need to republish a hardback edition of this with excerpts from the primary sources. I want to know which delightful turns of phrase were your own, and which were mined from the original Norse poetry. As a fellow student of culture and history and language, I'm sure you understand. 
 Okay as for the book as-is, it was a brilliant, ethusiastic retelling of the Norse stories. For the most part I was familiar with the broad strokes of the tales-- there were a couple new ones but I'd actually heard the majority before because I was really into mythology of all kinds as a kid. With Neil Gaiman's voice, however, they really came to life with a world that could be visualized as fantastic and fun. 
 My favorite part was they way he was able to characterize the gods with very recognizably human traits. I was especially struck by how relatable Loki's character is. You think of him as an inconsistent character because he is both one of the gods and also their greatest enemy, but Gaiman paints a picture of the character that ties his contradictions together into a holistic portrait. Loki is a misanthrope who has never felt truly welcomed by the gods (they express hatred and bigotry towards his frost giant origins, and imprison his children). His troublemaking behavior has all the hallmarks of an internet troll-- he derives pleasure from sowing chaos, while harboring resentful, self-aggrandizing thoughts. Gaiman doesn't go so far as to make the gods sympathetic, but he effectively conjures up the unique archetypes that they represent. There's a lot to unpack in these stories, which only further whets my appetite for a deeper deconstruction of the fables.