I almost feel guilty not giving this a higher score; Neil Gaiman is a great writer, and I generally really enjoy his works. But I wasn't as happy with this :-(. I recognize that mythology is not the same as a novel, and as such, it does not need a beginning, middle, and ending. But this seems like only a terse set of stories that really didn't even tell what the gods are all about. Yes, Loki is a trickster, but what kind of god is he? I feel that there should have been a bit more discussion about the Norse gods as a whole, and what their influence and religion really stood for in The North.
As it was, it was okay. And I like the ending talking about the end of the world and the end of the time of the gods. It tied it all up, but it didn't give a base for/at the beginning :-(.
Sigh