Stardust is one of Neil Gaiman‘s novels. [It was also adapted to the big screen a couple of year ago.] [And, *sniff*, it’s the last of Gaiman’s novels (except Good Omens) that I hadn’t read… now, there’s only the comics…]

Plot:
Tristran lives in a small town in England called Wall. Wall gets its name from a wall that divides our world from the world of Faerie. One day, a star falls from the sky and into Faerie and Tristran promises the girl he is in love with, Victoria, to bring him this star – if she will give him anything he wants in return. So Tristran goes into Faerie…

Stardust is very different from everything else Gaiman has written. It’s a fairy Faerie tale and equally light hearted and funny and moralistic and dark. It’s full of lovable characters and not-so lovable but still great characters. And the story is really sweet.

Before I delve deeper into the book, I have to admit that I’ve seen the movie before I read the book. Something, I usually try to avoid. But anyway, this might have surely has coloured my perception of the book.

The story itself is not necessarily surprising [even if you haven’t seen the movie before]. But that’s kind of the point. Fairy Tales don’t often surprise you, you usually know how they will end, often you just have heard them so many times that you can’t even remember when you first heard them and might have been surprised by the ending. And that’s part of the charm. You can just let yourself go and experience the story because you know that in the end, all will be well.

And Stardust delivers on that account. It adheres to the rules of Fairy Tales, the way the story is told just as much as the story itself. Yet it is not completely a “comfort” read. There are so many details that are so utterly fantastic (in both senses of the word) they make the whole thing seem new and innovative.

The characters are great, though I have to admit that both Tristran and Yvaine (the star) are a little bit bland. Though I still like them. But this is more than made up for by all the secondary characters, starting with the seven princes to the witches and the pirates. Which makes me wish that they’d have gotten more time in the book (as was the case in the movie). Especially the seven princes.

Though it’s not my favourite Gaiman novel, it’s definitely among the Top 3. And I’d recommend to everybody who likes Fairy Tales, Gaiman fan or not.