This was rather short and quickly read. Leeming was concise and yet, because I read it straight through over about three days, the text seemed somewhat repetitious. This was probably because the same gods keep appearing in slightly different guises among the various ancient peoples of the Middle Eastern area Leeming took as his territory. Then there was the tribal God of the nomadic Semitic people whose descendents are still squabbling over territory and over who is really the chosen people. And we get the Christians of various varieties whose religion also came from these lands. All in a very slim book. Leeming also makes it clear that he has very little time for fundamentalists of any description. As the other reviews note this book is not for everyone.

Since a huge percentage of the world's people belong to one of the Abrahamic faiths, Leeming could not possibly avoid offending some of them. He is respectful of the myths of all religions, although he honors them more for spiritual than literal truths. He is also hopeful that monotheisms, at least related monotheisms, can find common ground and avoid violent conflict. I can only suggest that the reader choose materials with this in mind. If the reader cannot bear the inclusion of Abrahamic faiths with ancient pagan religions, this is not for them.

I have no expertise in this area, I cannot really judge its accuracy. It is a brief, straightforward and informative guide. I would certainly recommended it as a first book on the subject, and perhaps as a reference guide in reading more extensive works. The myths are not recounted in story-teller form, although they are interestingly told. I particularly liked that the multiple (and sometimes overlapping) names of the deities and variants of myths. I am sometimes bewildered by the different renderings of tales that I thought I knew, and this is quite helpful in pulling them together. Leeming notes continuing themes and motifs, such as the sky god as bull, and relates the material to Joseph Campbell's works on commonalities among world mythologies.

Leeming says that the ancient religions took their myths more metaphorically than literally, and I would have liked a little more information on this point.

There is both an extensive bibliography for further research and a detailed index with helpful cross-references, e.g. Enlil, see also storm gods. The one feature I might have suggested is a listing of the variants of deities, perhaps with some sort of graphic timeline of cultural exchanges, but this is pretty well covered in the text. ( )

This book is set up almost like a miniature encyclopedia. The order of the information in the chapters is a little unusual, but the information is fascinating. It is not exhaustive, but is a good starting point if you are looking into further study and already have a clue what a myth is.

If you don't handle a book hinting that your faith (if you are one of the 'book religions') stems from various ancient cultures' odd sounding belief systems, skip this. Otherwise, you'll be offended and your cries of outrage will irritate those around you. ( )