[FicusFan]

Ok so has anyone else read this book ?

It was not a book that I would have read other than for a group choice. I had looked at it but it seemed too traditional and I am not a fan of NG's writing.

I usually find his writing to have a dullness that makes him a chore to read. With this book oddly I had the opposite reaction. The tone was bright and squeaky and seemed almost cartoonish. In fact the book seemed to be YA in disguise ( it wasn't marked that way on the spine of the book I have). The type was also something like 14 point - to stretch it out to make 333 pages.

I thought the characters were very simple and rather shallow and I pretty much knew what was going to happen before it did. Though the star was a bit of a surprise, but I knew there would be the 'other woman' out there who was his real true love.

I liked the travels in Faerie and the things that lived there, and the whole idea of how it connected to the real world. Though I thought that since NG set up the 9 year cycle of fairs that since there was a fair when Tristan left, and when he returned he would have been gone 9 years. Though he seemed to have missed a few seasons, nobody said anything about 9 years.

I thought the whole 'Lord of Stormhold' thread dovetailed too perfectly, but I liked the murderous brothers and their shades. I also thought the killer witch was too easily defeated and wasn't much of a threat.

It was an ok read, but since it didn't grab me it took me much longer to read than it should have. I kept putting it down.

[Nimea]

Yep, I read it.

I like Neil Gaiman - even though I enjoy his books for children way more than his general fiction (Neverwhere did not really blow me away but I liked American Gods).

This book is more like my Neverwhere experience. The writing did not blow me away, did not get me really connected to the story and/or characters but I did recognize the humor.
Then again, while I was somehow dissappointed by Neverwhere, Stardust had the feeling of a fairy tale from the beginning which made the whole style fitting.

There were elements - just as FicusFan mentioned - that I did like. Like all the fairy magic and trickery or the Stormhold brothers.
Those things together with the fun and the fact that it's a rather quick read makes it a nice book. But on closer inspection nothing I would recommend. :(

But FicusFan - I read it about two weeks ago, so my memory can fool me ;) but I thought there was no fair when Tristan left, only when he returned. Which by the way would work out quite correctly: he was eight when a fair took place and when he set off he was 17 - only weeks before the next fair . . .

[FicusFan]

No you are right Nimea, and I just finished the book :o I guess the fairs are some of what stood out for me.

[Rob B]

Life is busy right now, so I'm only halfway through it, but I like it quite a bit so far.

I like his explorations of the Faerie world here and he is putting a good amount of story into sparse wording, a good thing in my book.

I can't help but compare this book to Dunsany's Elfland's Daughter, tone is much the same, similar story.

[Phedre]

I've read Stardust a couple of weeks ago. Can't even remember if I read it in Dutch or in English (in Dutch apparently, I checked my library-history).

I loved Coraline and expected a lot from this book. It's always dangerous to expect the same from a completely different book, even if it is by the same author. I was a little dissappointed by 'Ster' (Dutch titel of Stardust). It was a fun read, but nowhere in the book it becomes great. I would rate it a 7 probably. I liked some of the stuff in the book, like the 7 sons and the despair of the witch who is trying to steal the heart of the star to be young again, but instead is getting older and older, because of the amount of magic she is using. Her ruthless behaviour is fun. I too thought of the book as a YA-book.

I still 'believe' in Gaiman though..:-)

[Rob B]

I thought the characters were very simple and rather shallow and I pretty much knew what was going to happen before it did. Though the star was a bit of a surprise, but I knew there would be the 'other woman' out there who was his real true love.
Gaiman gets a decent amount of criticism for his characters, in this story, I felt the journey and the setting(s) were of more importance than the characters

I liked the travels in Faerie and the things that lived there, and the whole idea of how it connected to the real world. Though I thought that since NG set up the 9 year cycle of fairs that since there was a fair when Tristan left, and when he returned he would have been gone 9 years. Though he seemed to have missed a few seasons, nobody said anything about 9 years.
I didn't get that he was gone 9 years, either, but by the logic he set forth in the early part of the book, it makes some sense.

I liked how he ended it and the epilogue as well. Not his best work, but still very very good, IMHO.

[FicusFan]

I didn't get that he was gone 9 years, either, but by the logic he set forth in the early part of the book, it makes some sense.


No I screwed up, and Nimea was right. The story opened with the fair when he was little. He became a teenager and left for his journey (no fair at the time) and then came back when there was a fair - but he wasn't gone all the time in between them (9 years). I just conflated the opening events, which is my bad, but also a comment on how unmemorable to me the book is.

Besides his tone, and his characters, his writing to me also seems to be short little episodes within a larger work, perhaps because of his comics background. So it seems jerky and often unconnected, though to be fair this work had larger episodes than the other book of his (American Gods) that I have read.

[Soon Lee]

I liked it. A lot.

There is also a graphic novel version which is essentially the same text but with illustrations by Charles Vess (http://www.greenmanpress.com/home.html) which is gorgeous. It's by DC Comics; (July 1, 1999), # ISBN: 156389470X and well worth seeking out.

Others have remarked about the similarities to Lord Dunsany. Gaiman has mentioned elsewhere that Dunsany is one of his many influences. The story itself reads much like a traditional fairytale which is no bad thing. Apart from one instance of swearing, STARDUST doesn't contain offensive language. I thought that like all great YA tales, and STARDUST is YA, it can be read and enjoyed by both young and old.

STARDUST is up there with Gaiman's best work. This is Gaiman's take on the traditional fairytale, and for my money, he nails it.

[Priestvyrce]

Yes, I think that Gaimen nails the fairytale aspects of the genre, but....I felt that there was more of a novel than we got. What I mean, I felt that I was only reading an outline to the total story. There were parts that I wished that Gaimen embellishjed on, like the floating ships their adventures and maybe more about the Mountain King and his ilk. Still, it is a lovely novel with some very picturesque(sp?) images.

[Eventine]

I read this book about 2 months ago, but it still sits pretty squarely in my mind.
I thought it was a predictable yet charming story. It was pretty obvious what was going to happen, but Gaiman managed to convey a lightness and charm that still made it a fun journey.
I can see this as the sort of book someone would sit and read to their kids.

On the whole graphic novel thing, I have a strong feeling that Gaiman originally did it as a graphic novel and then wrote this novelisation. That would explain the length, and maybe Fic's perceived difference to his normal novel writing.

I'm a big fan of Gaiman's lately and have been slowly but steadily gobbling up everything he has to offer, and was not dissapointed by this book at all.