Stardust
Neil Gaiman
Thristran Thorn doesn't belong in his small hometown of Wall, and when a promise to retrieve a fallen Star in the promise of love from Victoria leads him through the hole in the wall (in Wall, kinda how it got its name) into the land of Faerie he finds adventures bigger and more perilous then he could ever imagine. When he finally reaches his fallen star he is surprised to find it is actually a woman, and with that he changes the course of his life forever!
I'm a big fan of what I like to call Adult Fairytales, and Stardust easily fits into this category. Gaiman has a knack for creating really interesting 'other' worlds. After reading The Graveyard Book last year I'd been really interested in trying something else by Neil. I was really impressed with Stardust. I saw the film when it came out several years ago and remembered liking it, but very little about the story.
Overall I really enjoyed Stardust. The story was solid, with enough suspense to propel the plot forward, and really interesting scenario's. I mean people turned into animals? Magical glass flowers? Ships in the sky? It was nice to see a fresh fairytale. My only real problem was with minor characters. I remember watching the film years ago that the old witches were really fantastic, and the caption of the sky ship hilarious, and really, most of the people Thristran encountered were full characters. In the novel they fall flat. Thristran is a fully developed character, as is his star counterpart, but other then that people, or animals come and go, and they have no existence outside of the story. It would have been nice, especially with three intersecting stories to see more of the potential Stormhold Earls or of the Witches. Even with this complaint I would wholeheartedly recommend Stardust. It was a quick read, and really drew me in.
So, I guess that's my short review of Stardust. I've got my second to last day of classes for the semester today! I'm super excited to get back to really reading, because I've been slacking these past few months
1 comment:
Gaiman and his fairy tales, I just love him. I read this book while I working at a small town daily newspaper. I was covering the 4H fair and I kept reading chapters in between the goat and llama showings. It was the perfect way to escape.
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