Stardust by Neil Gaiman
What they say:
In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.
Commentary:
Would you believe this was my first Neil Gaiman book? Yup. Again, it's the upcoming movie that prompted me to pick it up and see what all the hoopla's all about. I just read the regular text version of this title -- there were no cheap copies of the graphic novel available at the usual sites, and I wasn't about to shell out $40 for a new hardcover version... just in case it sucked.
Gaiman's writing is lovely. There were many instances where I thought his phrasing and descriptions were so dead-on perfect that I had to re-read the line in order to cherish and appreciate it fully. I s'pose that's his gift; to be able to weave words into pretty, shiny ideas that he then plants right in our heads.
The story itself, however, was a bundle of cliches. Young man vows to retrieve a star for his one true love. Young man ventures into the land of Faerie where he meets various and sundry folk, some who help him, some who want to kill him. Star ends up not being a star, but a beautiful (if bitchy ) girl.
Add a trio of witches, an unclaimed throne, missing heirs, transformations, unicorns, and flying ships. I mean, seriously, how many fantasy archetypes can you squeeze into a novel?
I also felt that the ending was quite anticlimactic. Highlight for spoilers.[When Lilim wasn't able to kill Yvaine because she was already such a gnarly old crone, the last thing that I would have wanted to see was for the witch to just end up there. I think I would have personally preferred being burned to death in my shack of sticks.
And really, who could not have seen Tristan falling in love with Yvaine? It just proves the age-old premise that boys naturally fall in love with the girls who hate and insult them]
In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.In the sleepy English countryside of decades past, there is a town that has stood on a jut of granite for six hundred years. And immediately to the east stands a high stone wall, for which the village is named. Here in the town of Wall, Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester. One crisp October night, as they watch, a star falls from the sky, and Victoria promises to marry Tristran if he'll retrieve that star and bring it back for her. It is this promise that sends Tristran through the only gap in the wall, across the meadow, and into the most unforgettable adventure of his life.
Commentary:
Would you believe this was my first Neil Gaiman book? Yup. Again, it's the upcoming movie that prompted me to pick it up and see what all the hoopla's all about. I just read the regular text version of this title -- there were no cheap copies of the graphic novel available at the usual sites, and I wasn't about to shell out $40 for a new hardcover version... just in case it sucked.
Gaiman's writing is lovely. There were many instances where I thought his phrasing and descriptions were so dead-on perfect that I had to re-read the line in order to cherish and appreciate it fully. I s'pose that's his gift; to be able to weave words into pretty, shiny ideas that he then plants right in our heads.
The story itself, however, was a bundle of cliches. Young man vows to retrieve a star for his one true love. Young man ventures into the land of Faerie where he meets various and sundry folk, some who help him, some who want to kill him. Star ends up not being a star, but a beautiful (if bitchy ) girl.
Add a trio of witches, an unclaimed throne, missing heirs, transformations, unicorns, and flying ships. I mean, seriously, how many fantasy archetypes can you squeeze into a novel?
I also felt that the ending was quite anticlimactic. Highlight for spoilers.[When Lilim wasn't able to kill Yvaine because she was already such a gnarly old crone, the last thing that I would have wanted to see was for the witch to just end up there. I think I would have personally preferred being burned to death in my shack of sticks.
And really, who could not have seen Tristan falling in love with Yvaine? It just proves the age-old premise that boys naturally fall in love with the girls who hate and insult them]
