#CBR7 Review #17: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

A couple of things have reminded me of the movie Stardust lately, which ultimately led to me feeling the need to read the book, of course! Because why wouldn’t I delve into the source material of something I like so much? And I wasn’t disappointed! As always, there is so much more to the story and more detail than you’d see in a different kind of medium, and Neil Gaiman is very creative and always seems to be able to produce some sort of vivid and imaginative world that just somehow makes sense even with all it’s whimsy. Do I sometimes want to say, “You’re not as deep as you think you are, Sir”? Yes, I do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t immensely enjoy his writing and the stories and characters he creates.

On to the tale itself, Stardust follows the adventures of a young man named Tristan, whose birth came about by some peculiar circumstances, involving a magical land beyond the walls of his town (called Wall, of course). As he comes of age, his sights are set on a beautiful young woman, and claims that he would do anything for her, even retrieve a fallen star that crashed down in the land beyond the wall. And so… that’s exactly what he decides to do: to leave his home on an adventure to find a star, which, sure enough, is not a rock like you might imagine, but more like a woman (named Yvaine). But there are a whole host of other things going on in this land as well, involving a quest to become the new lord of the land, and some witches also on the hunt for the star to reclaim their youth.

As I mentioned before, the tale is imaginative and very fun, and you can’t help but become fond of all the different characters (well, except for Yvaine, honestly, there was just something missing from her that I can’t explain which stopped me from really enjoying her, though that doesn’t mean I disliked her by any means). I swept through the novel quite quickly, as it was hard to put down and I always wanted to know where it went next, even if I was already familiar with the overall story after seeing the film a few times. The one thing that I would bemoan, however, is that the end of the novel almost seemed a little anti-climactic, after everything that Tristan and Yvaine went through. Maybe that’s just me, though.

At the end of the day, I very much enjoyed Stardust, and I know that when I was younger I would have totally eaten it up! It’s just very fun and magical. And who doesn’t like something like that?

[Be sure to visit the Cannonball Read main site!]

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