Stardust

Summary:

Hopelessly crossed in love, a boy of half-fairy parentage leaves his mundane Victorian-English village on a quest for a fallen star in the magical realm. The star proves to be an attractive woman with a hot temper, who plunges with our hero into adventures featuring witches, the lion and the unicorn, plotting elf-lords, ships that sail the sky, magical transformations, curses whose effects rebound, binding conditions with hidden loopholes and all the rest.  (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Review:

This is the second Neil Gaiman book that I have read and I was really hoping I’d love it since I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and he seems to be such a well-loved author.  I would say 90% of the time even if I see the movie first, I like the book better, but this was not one of those times.  I couldn’t really get into it.

The book felt like it was “The Princess Bride” (particularly with the consciously-chosen clichés) from an alternate universe with more explicit sex scenes and violence.  I almost want to recommend the book for a younger audience, but it wouldn’t quite be appropriate so it’s a bit of an odd situation.  I can see how this could be a light “fun” read for adults if the fantasy genre wasn’t so well-developed, but I feel like there are a lot of better options out there.  Much like “American Gods”, I felt like Gaiman was trying to provide some deeper meanings, but it didn’t come through as well in “Stardust”.  Perhaps Gaiman is just not for me!

Warning: Contains sexual content and violence.

Rating: 3 stars!

Who should read it? MEH.  I liked the movie better. *gasp*