Stardust by Neil Gaiman - Book Review

Neil Gaiman, one of the finest fantasy storytellers of modern times, wrote Stardust to honor the simpler fairy tales and fantasies of times past, where a town was akin to a place magical and a person could wonder without restraint if he or she so choosed. What Gaiman accomplishes with this storytelling endeavor is as imaginative as Tinkerbell’s pixie dust in transporting the reader through a tale of love, danger and adventure.

It’s hard to review a fantasy book that makes you feel like a child again as easily as Neil Gaiman’s Stardust does. Gaiman’s narrator’s voice in Stardust is like a rascally father tucking you into bed and winking as he gives you bits of wonder and temptation. His characterization and plotting is wry and witty with a hint of the dark British humor that makes you feel like you’re learning something a bit more adult.

The tale is a wondrously curious one set in the town of Wall divided by a wall that separates its people from the magical world on the other side. Sometimes something magical from the other side crosses the barrier, but most people just keep to themselves. Then one day a boy breaks through the wall in search of a falling star for true love and finds more than he possibly could have imagined. What lies ahead features somethings familiar and somethings not, but Gaiman tells it in such a fresh way, there are surprises at every turn and courage and compassion unseen in similar tales.

The Dallas Morning News said it best about the novel Stardust: “Thrilling…reads like a mix between L. Frank Baum, the Brothers Grimm, and a Tim Burton movie script.” Throw in that it also has the potential to join the type of classic status of The Princess Bride and I think you’ll get how much I enjoyed the novel.