Title: Stardust Author: Neil Gaiman Published by: Avon Books Published on: 1 February 1999 Pages: 256
"Because," announced Tristran, "every lover is in his heart a madman, and in his head a minstrel."
-- Chapter Four: "Can I Get There by Candlelight?"
Ahh, February. The month of looove. What better way to begin than with star-crossed lover romance? (Literally)
Stardust is the first Neil Gaiman's book I picked up. I think I was still in high school, only just beginning to read full English books. The narration is like one of those folk stories; I love how different Neil can sound from one book to another, btw. A friend said Stardust is like a fairytale for adults, and I concur.
The setting of the story is set in an idyllic villace in England called The Wall, some time in the 19th century. The name is spot on, as the village was surrounded by a massive wall separating the world of men as we know it and a magical world called Faerie. Every 9 years, a bazaar called Faerie Market was held outside of this wall.
One young lad named Dunstan Thorn went there to buy a gift for his fiancee, approaching a certain shop guarded by a mysterious woman, who turns out to be Princess Una of Faerie. See, she was kidnapped by the Semele the witch who owned said shop. Dunstan bought a glass of snowdrop, then decided to meet with Una later in the forest. His family thought he was under some spell, but truly Dunstan was under Una's spell. Love spell, if you get what I mean. *winkwink*
However, Dunstan never met Una again after that night in the forest. He then went on to marry his fiancee. Things seemed to have gone back to normal in the Thorn's household, until a surprising gift in a basket appeared one February morning: a baby boy, from Dunstan and Una's meet cute in the forest. The boy was named Tristran Thorn, and he never found out of his unique birth.
Eighteen years later, Tristran grew up into a not-so-dashing young lad as one would guess from these stories. He fell for a popular beauty in the village, Victoria Forester. One night, he asked to walk her home and spontaneously confessed his love. At the same time, a falling star crossed the sky, which spurred Tritran to swear that he'd bring the fallen star to Victoria as proof of his love. Victoria, who wasn't the least bit attracted to him, agreed simply to shut him up. Erratic, Tristran ran home to prepare for his adventure, which gave his father a chance to finally explain about his birth mother. Then, off he went in the search for twue wuv.
What Tristran didn't know was that the dying King of Stormhold was trying to determine which of his sons would inherit his kingdom. See, the grand royal family tradition states that each son should murder each other until there is only one strong and cunning enough alive, proving his valour as a King-to-be. The king had some sort of headache, as there were still 3 of his sons left alive. He then decided to threw the Power of Stormhold (a gem that was the symbol of the kingdom) into the evening sky, which resulted in a direct hit to a Star minding her own business and caused her to fall down to Earth. The King then oh-so-conveniently informed his sons: Primus, Tertius, and Septimus, before he died, that whosoever succeeded in collecting the Power of Stormhold before the others, would be King of Stormhold.
But Tristran and the princelings weren't the only after the fallen star. Deep in the forest of Stormhold, three ancient witches known as the sisters Lilim saw the fallen star and decided to follow her path. Why? Well, it has something to do with a bit of mutilation and staying young. No biggie.
Soo could Tristran get there first before the cunning princelings and the dangerous witches? And how could he drag a literal fallen star to Victoria? What did a fallen star look like anyway -- was it a chunk of rock, a brightly lit object, or I dunno, maybe... a woman?
EGGLYSIS
If you happen to have watched the movie first, you might wonder of several key differences, particularly the tone. Where the book has that slow and sweet tone, the movie is more action-packed, and the romance more thrilling. Both are good for their medium and honestly, this might be the only time a movie adaptation differs so much from the book, it's basically a different story altogether, that I approve of.
As our main character is Tristran, the focus of the story is his character development. In fact, Stardust is basically about him coming of age, from a silly boy to a grown man. Someone who used to be the laughingstock of the village, was very shy and timid, along the way grew to be a responsible, charismatic, and loving man. The pairing is very sweet and I just want to protect them from this cruel, cruel world! But what I applaud the most is how Neil chose to end the story. Bittersweet. Perfect.
Overall, Stardust...
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