Have been unavoidably detained by the world.
Stardust
by Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy
About: Tristran Thorn is often caught saying nonsense things, such as, 'the clouds look like woolly sheep' or 'I'll bring you that fallen star'. He lives in the village of Wall which borders the world of Faerie, and on that side of the wall stars are not rocks or balls of gas, but very opiniated young ladies. They are also highly sought after and the fallen star he seeks is also being chased by murderous princes and centuries old witches.
The Good
I've tried Neil Gaiman's writing before and not finished the books, but this short novella is one I really enjoyed. Perhaps it helps that I loved the movie and knew the story very well, but I also did find the writing style compelling. It has a surreal fairytale style, an interesting world and I really enjoyed a lot of the descriptions. Also one change I liked from the movie is that Lady Una's character is way more interesting in the little snippets of her that we get.
The Bad
The climax is not as good as the movie. The movie has this huge epic battle with both villains (the witch and the last prince) fighting it out in a dramatic setting and where our main characters feel in real danger. In the book, a lot of the tension is lost and the reveals don't hit those same emotional peaks as it's just not that kind of book. The same goes for the romance, which is still there but we don't see it develop in the same way - it's more distant.
The Somewhat Iffy
There's one chapter where it feels a bit like 'insert mini adventures here' and we simply get short burst paragraphs of things that happen to our main characters without experiencing them. Also an all-powerful witch sets a curse on another witch so that she'll neither be able to see, hear or become aware of the star's presence in any way - all very good, except that when she meets with the witch again (and the star is in this cursed witch's caravan) the witch merely asks her who she's travelling with to determine if she's come across the star. But even if the star had been standing in front of the cursed witch, she wouldn't be able to perceive her so what was the use in asking?
Overall
I can't decide how much the enjoyment of the movie influenced my enjoyment of the book but it felt like a nice, well-written fairytale. There are princes and witches, stars and unicorns, all wrapped around a true love quest. I was missing the pirates of the film, but it was a fun read overall.
Comments