Stardust

A well told tale of magic and adventure. And more of a starting point for its movie counterpart

The Stardust film is amongst one of my favourite of the modern films I've watched in my lifetime, and so I've seen the film a number of times and know it well. I was a little wary of pre-expectations but the novel did well to bring something new to the story of Stardust.

However, since the movie is so close to me, there's no other way for me to review the book other than in context of the movie (sorry to those who haven't seen or read either).

I will say I still probably enjoy the movie more (but movies are my jam and the movie got my affections first). However, the book on it's own merits is also really quite good.

The novel follows the movie (or rather the movie followed the novel) fairly closely for the 2/3rds of the story but the movie diverges significantly from the book for the ending, perhaps going for a wilder ending with more “movie going climax”. The book ends more in a way that wonders out into the sunset with a tidy, but kind, epilogue.

I can't honestly say whether the novel is split into acts (as a movie might be), but we follow Tristran Thorn as he promises to return a fallen star in exchange for “what his heart desires” of Victoria.

The prices of Stormhold are off to retrieve the topaz the 81st Lord of Stormhold threw into the night sky (inadvertently knocking Yvaine out of the sky) to claim their position on the throne of Storhold.

Whilst at the same time, The Lilim, three witches, get wind of the fallen star and send out the Witch Queen to retrieve her heart to bring them back to their young.

The story, in novel form, is a sort of travelling adventure slow moving story through the magical world of Faerie (which I'm sure I've read before in a Gaiman book...). In retrospect it does feel like some of the supporting characters are a little sidelined and certainly (probably because of the movie) expected more from the Witch Queen.

But a nicely told tale all the same (except perhaps when the Witch Queen slices off the head of a Unicorn that's already had a spike rammed through it's eye socket!).

A very short an pleasant adult fairy tale. The movie as I remember it was very faithful to the book.

The young Tristan crosses over the wall that separates our rational world to magical world of fairy. The idea is that every single story ever imagined in our world and then forgotten, inhabits this land. As such, it has no limits. A perfect analogy to our imagination.

He is looking for a fallen star to give it to his true love, so that she would wed him. He is surprised to find out that the star is actually a girl, but that don't change his goal to bring her back to his village.

At first they're at odds because Tristan doesn't take into consideration her desires, treating her like the object he expected her to be. Of course along the way things start to change.

The two other main plots revolves around a witch that wants the star's heart to make a spell that gives her youth back, and two princes that needs something the star has in her possession in order to find out who is going to be the new king.

Comfort reread. Oddly, I love the hell out of this book, but it's also one of the Very Few books where I really like the movie better? And I don't think that's just because I saw the movie first. They're both spectacular in different ways-Stardust the movie feels like the spiritual successor to The Princess Bride, with delightfully strange characters and really fun quotes, and Stardust the book is full on fantasy magic land where the major conflicts just sort of Resolve Themselves by the people involved being smart enough to give up when needed.

I read the first third of this book physically but then switched to audiobook for the rest.

I did enjoy this book, it's super whimsical and fairly witty at times. It's also weird while still being cute.

The part I found most interesting were the brothers of Stronghold and how their ghosts spoke and watched on after their deaths. I wish I could maybe have a whole book drawing that lore out.

However the ending really kind of knocked this down for me. I just felt like nothing really happened.

I look forward to seeing the movie as some say it's a little bit different, but I just don't see myself re-reading this book again or really thinking about it long after hence the just 3 star rating.

I have always disliked the movie, but a lot of people like it, so I figured I would read the book. This is my first Gaiman book that I've read, and to my surprise, this book worked much better for me than the movie. This is a fairytale, plain and simple. It knows its place and doesn't try to do more.

Admittedly my disdain for the film adaptation may have been that I didn't fully understand that this is a fairytale for adults. Perhaps I will give the film another chance.

This book still isn't exactly what I want to read, but ultimately, it's not a horrible book.

A few years ago, the Stardust movie floored me. It was one of the most surprisingly great stories I'd heard in a long time. In wanting to learn a little more about the world, I decided to check out the book. To my surprise, the movie really did the book justice. There are marginal changes, but nothing serious. Like the movie, it had me enthralled throughout.

You did it again Mr. Gaiman. It seems like I can only enjoy the shorter books from you. But that's not a bad thing, because those are awesome. After loving “The Ocean At The End Of The Lane”, this one transported me once again right back into a magic fairy tale.

It's really fast paced and many of the adventures are just hinted at, so you need to form them in your head. But this really blends perfectly with the style. It feels like reading a more awesome Grimm tale.

The main protagonists are lovable and all the other people, creatures and animals are full of fantasy.

I really didn't want this to end. But the ending was once again fairy tale style, which left me happy.

I remember watching the movie first, being really obsessed with it, and then being somewhat disappointed by my first reads of this book. This was also many, many years ago. I decided to pick it up again this time knowing that I now have some distance from the movie and also that my reading preferences and tastes have changed in the intervening years, so I was curious to see if my opinions may change. Boy, it sure did. I think I might've rated this around 3 or 3.5 stars before but I'm bumping this up to 4 and even 4.5 stars.

In the village of Wall somewhere in Victorian England, Tristran Thorn sets out to find a fallen star to impress his lady love, Victoria Forrester. He goes through the Wall from which the village derives its name, into Faerie. He doesn't understand why Faerie seems so familiar to him, or how he's managing to find his way to the fallen star without any guidance, but he does. He just didn't expect the star to be a very, very sassy lady made even more irritable by a broken leg from falling from the sky. He attempts to convince her to come back to Wall with him to be presented to Victoria. Along the way, they meet several witches, unicorns, devious brother-princes, and lightning-harvesting pirate ships in the sky.

The events of the book and the movie were generally almost the same, so I really need to give Gaiman some props for having come up with such a rich, beautiful, fairytale-esque story that translated so well into the movie that I still love. What is the point of contention here, and what really drove me to have such different impressions of the book during my first and current read, is everything else - the storytelling, the setting, the whole vibe of the story. While the movie is light-hearted, campy and family-friendly fun, the book has a distinctively more adult-fairytale feel, which I was disappointed with before but now am delighted by.

This book also explores the idea of consent and boundaries that was way ahead of its time, and which also sadly did not translate into the movie.

“I was a wood-nymph. But I got pursued by a prince, not a nice prince, the other kind, and, well, you'd think a prince, even the wrong kind, would understand about boundaries, wouldn't you?”“You would?”“Exactly what I think.”

I also kinda weirdly love that parting scene between Yvaine and the old lady that used to be the witch-queen. Even though she's done so much harm and killed the poor unicorn, somehow Yvaine found it in her to be just the right amount of forgiving - not to the point of trying to save her from her sisters' wrath, but also just letting go of the past and leaving her be since she's lost the capacity to harm her. I did kinda wish that Lady Una would've been the next Ruler of Stormhold, that would've perfected the book for me.

Spoiler-free review:

I picked up this book for 2 reasons. First, you never know when you will need a quick read to fill space, and second, I love the movie Stardust! The book was very similar to the movie and it was nice to be able to picture the characters from the movie to visualize those in the book. Obviously things were different in the movie for dramatic effect, but I found it to be fairly similar. This was a quick read (only 233 pages) and such a sweet fairytale. Epic adventure, fantasy and even a little romance thrown in there. I docked a star simply because the writing style was hard for me to understand at times. If you're looking for a quick read with lots of adventure, definitely pick this up!

I'd never heard of the book until after multiple watches of the 2007 film, and I loved the film every second of it, so I thought I'd pick up the book, and wow what a read it was, draws you in for every page, and puts you in Tristran Thorn's boots as he explores, what is essentially, a whole new world with dangers at each corner, and at each gap of the tree line. Reading this book just goes to show that the writers of the film definitely followed the source closely, with a few action-y theatrics cleverly placed. Amazing read, would recommend to anyone and everyone regardless of taste in media.

I saw the movie some years ago and liked its story and its ending. So, it was natural that I felt some anticipation before reading this book.

It was the first Neil Gaiman book that I've read, and I can say that I will try to read other books from him (American Gods/Neverwhere/Sandman I'm looking at you!). However, right now, I'm not sure if I appreciate his writing pace. It's too quick. Only in a paragraph, months can pass, and I'm left wondering about the details of what happened during that time.

For the story itself, sometimes it felt short or rushed, but the moral of it, and some of its characters are charismatic.

I recommend it. Maybe it can be a good point of entry for people thinking about starting to read Neil Gaiman's bibliography like myself.

Considering the movie adaptation is in my top favourite movies of all times, I went into this book expecting great things. That isn't to imply the book wasn't good, it was in fact quite enjoyable. However, it had many differences to the movie and I couldn't help but feel cheated of great moments. There were scenes in the movie that I absolutely loved that never occurred in the book. But to remain fair to the book I will rate it separately from my feelings for the movie. I felt the book was reasonably well paced, and engaging throughout. I felt that the characters were believable if somewhat underdeveloped. And I liked the overall plot. My only critique would be that sometimes the characters felt secondary to the story, almost as if they were an afterthought to the immediate situation. And I felt that there were many unnecessary scenes that did not further the story in any way or seem to have any real purpose.
Overall, a quick read for mild distraction.