Thursday, August 13, 2009

Review - Stardust

StardustMy second review of Neil Gaiman's work; he really is a fantastic author, and he proves it in Stardust!

I entered the world of Wall and Faerie thinking, "I already know what's going to happen; I've seen the movie!" I was wrong. Yes, wrong. There are distinct differences between the two, which I won't go into very much detail on (why would I want to ruin the story on you?). I will say, however, that some parts are more violent in the book than in the movie, and less violent at other times.

Gaiman has an excellent style in the book. It read like a fairytale story... with a few swear words and a lot more evil. Perfect. There's nothing like evil and swearing to bring a fairytale alive! They melt into the text, become something of the world, make it more real.

I know a lot of people have read this book. I can see why now! It's not a romantic novel by far, as I feared it might be, what with Tristran and Yvaine's ultimate destiny (as seen in the movie), but an adventure story, a mock up of what a star should be like (she's bitter - it's funny). It was excellence in a book!

Stardust is highly recommended! Seriously, you'll love it if you're reading my blog right now. It fits neatly into my tastes, of which you are probably familiar with by now. I've thrown myself into worlds of demons and magic and sci-fi for years, with a few surprising indulgences of less fantasitical fiction in between, and I've loved every bit. It's an expansion of my choices for books. It's a fantastic feeling. Now I'm left with a slight despair that I don't have a lot of free time currently to go out and buy more of Gaiman's books! I'll have to compensate with other books in my possession, for now. A few more treats like Stardust will do me some good, I suppose.

Now go read it! (and might I just add, it's better than the film!)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi :)
Thanks for the great review Paul.
I'll add Stardust to my ToBeRead list
:)
RKCharron