Stardust

Published by Hachette UK Audio

A breathtaking and magical novel from master storyteller Neil Gaiman.

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall - named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette UK Audio
• Release date: Jul 12, 2007
• ISBN: 9780755341931

Reviews for Stardust

[kslade-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good fantasy novel. I read the regular novel, not the graphic version.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to a full cast recording and it was genuinely excellent. Full of set pieces that are touching and funny by turns. Yes, there's a love story, but it doesn't get in the way of the rest of the adventure. While there were a lot of characters to keep straight, the voices were all sufficiently different that it was possible to identify who was speaking without too much intervention from the narrator. In this format there was little in the way of description, such that you can, in a sense, invent your own landscape for the most part and picture the characters yourself. As someone with no visual imagination, that's a drawback, so I wonder if in novel or graphic novel format I might get something different from this. As it was I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent in Faerie.

[familiar_diversions · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This begins with the story of an ordinary young man who wants to gain his Heart's Desire, spends some time at a mysterious market that only happens every nine years, and ends up accidentally fathering a son with the probably-not-human slave of a witch. When that son, Tristran, turns 17, he's head over heels in love with Victoria, the most beautiful girl in his town. She, not realizing he'd take it seriously, sets him an impossible task to win her heart: bring her back the star they both saw fall. And so begins Tristran's journey away from his ordinary village, into a world where witches, unicorns, and magic exist, and where fallen stars take the form of young women. Multiple characters' stories end up intertwined: a witch seeking the fallen star so that she can harvest her heart for its power to grant youth; several brothers competing for their late father's throne; and of course Tristran.I had previously read this book but remembered almost none of it - just that there was a young man traveling with a star who looked like a woman, and that they somehow fell in love. I also recalled not being very impressed by it.The beginning, with Tristran's father, was long enough that I initially mistook him for the book's protagonist. Thankfully he wasn't, although Tristran didn't appeal to me much more than his father did. Okay, so he was 17 and nursing his first big crush, but knowing that didn't make him less annoying. Besides, I had trouble remembering his age - he came across as a sort of generic "young and naive." I outright flinched when he found the fallen star and just sort of accepted that he'd have to chain her in order to bring her back to Victoria. He wasn't malicious so much as stupid, as evidenced by a later event involving the chain, but I definitely felt sympathy for the star for having to deal with him, and their eventual feelings for each other never rang true for me.I suppose feelings were never really the point - this was basically a fairy tale, and I did at least admire the way Gaiman wove all the various characters' stories together so neatly. It was a decent enough read, but it never engaged me enough to feel like a great one. It was just...okay.(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[xofelf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great story line, enjoyable characters. All in all a great read. And the movie they made out of it wasn't half bad.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A somewhat odd fairytale, but a good one.

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first time, I'd read Stardust. Usually I like to read the book then see the film if I liked the book. I almost always like the book better then the film. For some reason, I hadn't known the film was written by Gaiman or I'd have read it first. I really liked the movie, and now many years later when have finally read the book, and enjoyed the adult fairy tale very much. It's fairly short so the characters don't get a lot of development side from the main two, but that's alright a fairy tale is more about the story than the character development and the main character does indeed grow and change as he moves through the story.

But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again
C.S. Lewis

[zoes_human · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An utterly charming adult fairy tale, magnificently read by Neil himself.Despite promises of smut in one negative review, nipples appear only once and briefly at that.

[jamestomasino · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short review: I loved it.

Long review: Gaiman's skill at storytelling, the piece that makes his comics and books such a success, is his voice. I mentioned before that his book, "American Gods" was one I didn't like, but I respected him a lot as a writer. Stardust shows why. His tone and voice as a writer walk a very specific and wonderful line between humorous fantasy and serious realism. I liken it to the move "The Princess Bride". Everyone knows the movie is a comedy, but the tone treats its subject seriously... and that's the magic.

Stardust is a romantic fantasy filled with unicorns, fallen stars, witches and princes. At the same time, it is a quirksome coming of age story. The writing is strong. The characters are interesting. The adventure isn't cliche or the same old expected fare. With all that going for it the real gem, as I said, is the voice.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

adult fantasy fiction (magic, faery world, fairy tales)
Count on Neil Gaiman for a great story. There is one love scene at the beginning, and some violence by/against unicorns, but this would also suit older teens.

[renbedell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fun, entertaining, ridiculous portal fantasy story of a young man entering a magical world to catch a falling star. The story is great with many exciting characters. There is action, romance, magic, and character growth all in this short novel. It is a fantastic book that I highly recommend, especially for fans of Neil Gaiman.

[ssperson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I ADORED this book. It's a fairy tale that incorporates other fairy tales, and it was just lovely.

[sarah220-732610 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

For an English teacher this is painful to admit, but I liked the movie better. The book lacked good pacing and the characters were somewhat blah. I couldn't figure out why the two main characters would fall in love except that they were supposed to. The movie also added a great deal of humor that was not in the book.

[missbrangwen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a bit hard to write this review because on the hand I adored it. But on the other hand there were aspects I didn't enjoy at all, so they sort of interrupted my reading pleasure. These were the use of modern language in specific situations, the sex scenes (I have nothing against sex scenes, but to me they didn't quite fit the story), and also some of the things that I suppose should be funny but that to me weren't in tune with the overall style. I should explain that I love high fantasy and I'm not drawn to "funny fantasy" (I have no intention to ever read Terry Pratchett, although so many people tell me I must do so). I love a realistic style in fantasy, the feeling that there could be a world just like that - which is why J.R.R. Tolkien is my most favourite writer.Gaiman's language is too artificial for my liking, and I had a hard time getting into the story and to let myself fall into this weird world of Faerie behind the wall.But here's the thing: Despite of these aspects that I didn't like, I really, really loved the story. There was a moment when I held my breath and thought: "This is Faerie!" - in Tolkien's sense of Faerie, the Faerie of Smith of Wootton Major, the place we all need to be healthy and to stay sane. And sure enough, on the next page it was mentioned for the first time: Behind the wall there is Faerie, and if you go there, you will not be the same when you come back. So throughout this story, Faerie weaves its wonderful web and catches you - and I think no novel ever gave me such a Tolkienesque feeling, although on the other hand the style is so far away from Tolkien.My edition contains two afterwords and the first chapter of a novel that was Gaiman's first idea about Wall, but that hasn't been written so far. My husband's edition contains an interview with Gaiman where he mentions Tolkien (referring, no doubt, to his lecture "On Faerie Stories") and explains that according to him, fairytales are not only for children, but for adults, too. It's an interesting interview about the history of fairytales, although I wish that it would have been longer, because I am curious to know more about Gaiman's influences. In the first afterword, he also mentions Tolkien's fellow inkling C.S. Lewis - and I am absolutely sure that if Gaiman had lived a few decades earlier, he would absolutely have been an inkling, too, and I think that's the highest honor I can give to any fantasy author!

[octoberdad · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is perhaps my favorite of Gaiman's novels that I've read so far. Gaiman is a fantastic storyteller, and his descriptions are extraordinarily vivid.

[drfuriosa · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An entertaining adventure with a few scary moments--very Gaiman. I do like American Gods far better.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed the film, but I think the book is more enchanting and has a lovely ending.

[lorifox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve read the book, watched the movie, and now listened to the audiobook delightfully narrated by the author himself. Each effort is 5-star worthy. A whimsical, light-hearted, slightly dark, and imaginative journey into the heart of faery—in this instance from the border town of Wall—has never been presented in the way Neil Gaiman delivers a story to his readers. Highly visually descriptive without being overwhelming, Stardust is both a fun read for fans of fantasy and a portal for novices entering the genre for the first time to experience “the slow dance of the infinite stars.”

[jpeterman-190606 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'll get raked over the coals for this, but I saw the movie long before reading this and I VASTLY prefer it to the book. I love love love the movie. I'm just kind of meh about the book.

[isana-943166 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Um . . . wow. I love fairy tales and I love modern adult fairytales and honestly this was amazing. It's got the fairytale story telling and the grown up writing and it's actually just wonderful. I was worried that I would hate the ending like I do with a lot of books, but this had a very wonderful ending.

[rrkreads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I personally liked the movie better than the book. The characterization of the witch-woman seems to be better in the movie than in the book, somehow michelle pfeiffer brought out a chutzpah that the witch in the book cannot match.
It is an easy read, though, I do not know if I could have grasped it as much as I did if I hadn't watched the movie beforehand.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I literally didn't even know this was a movie but after reading it I HAVE to watch the movie now. Where was I and how did I not know this was a thing?! A perfectly charming, unique, and wonderful fantasy about a boy who vows to bring back a fallen star to prove his love to a village girl. To get to the star he must cross over the fairy wall and enter a new realm - one where everything is different and nothing is what it seems. It reminded me of The Princess Bride and The Hobbit. Super cute and adorable; I loved all the characters and the storyline was superb!

[pdcread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The town of Wall exists at the point where the real and imaginary worlds join. The entrance is guarded, and almost no one is allowed to pass except on one weekend when the fair comes. Tristan, the result of a liaison between a Dustan,a human and a faerie is returned to the human side in a basket where he is grows up with his father and sister. He is much taken with a girl, Victoria, and one night when they see a falling star, he pledges to bring it to her, and so he sets off through the gap in the wall to fulfil this promise.

The King of Stormhold is almost dead, but he still has three sone who must fight to the death to be able to claim the kingship for themselves. As the king reaches his last moments he casts the Power of Stormhold for them to find and claim the kingdom.

As Tristan sets off he gains a companion who helps him through this magical land, who he saves and who in turn gives him some artefacts to bring the star back. He makes his way to where the star fell. Where he discovers a beautiful girl with a broken leg, he slip the silver chain around her which binds them together and slowly starts his return journey to bring her home.

Others have an interest in getting to the star, and his journey is not trouble free. He stops a fight between a lion and a unicorn and they ride it to make the journey quicker. At a tavern he slips his bond when getting food, and she escapes. As he pursues her the others searching for her start to close in. They are reunited at another inn, where she is in mortal danger and they escape, together once again, where they join a old woman travelling to the fair and where he can cross to keep his promise to Victoria. It concludes with a really nice twist

Gaiman has a way of telling a story that is rooted in the real world whilst being able to soar with the tales of the old folk, faeries and of magical creatures. It is fairly short, but it is very intense, as Gaiman does best. Can recommend for people who want a faerie story that has a little more depth.

[anna_maria_29-518642 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have struggled with Gaiman's books in the past more than I liked, I was very happy to find that Stardust was an exception. This was a delightful story, weird, magical and it made no sense half the time and all these made for an enjoyable experience. The journey through Fae was one I'll remember and it did remind me how we can live and experience so much through reading. Stardust is a book that every person who likes fairy-tale types of stories should give a try.

[charrlygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Magical. In the way, (sort of), that Boy's Life by Robert McCammon is magical. Read it and you will see.

[mrnattania72 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This magical tale of a boy's desire to impress a girl. Along the way, he meets a Unicorn, a Witch, a Captain of a flying ship, an Heir to a throne, a few ghosts a.s and his mother. This light and wonderfully told story, by Neil Gaiman, is an easy read that also warms the heart.

[linyarai · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book every time. It's simple, it's exciting, and it's comfort food.

[lydia1879 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

right, so this is awful. the film is far superior.

the characterisation in his books is flat and uninspiring. the plot is meandering. the reasons things happen seems to be a bit thin.

i loved the film. it had fun dialogue, it was sharp, full of drama, twists and turns, it was a real visual spectacle. but what happened in this book??? i mean really. tristian wandered around the countryside for a bit with a star, who was, in my opinion, poorly written.

gaiman seems to save all his good writing for details about the background and backdrop rather than the characters, often leaving their motivations a mystery and their true feelings left unsaid.

gaiman is really the king in all that is Cis White Het Male fantasy. I've enjoyed his writing in Doctor Who, and other things, but I was really disappointed with this. I keep going into his work and expecting to like it and instead I find his writing to be like drinking tea that's steeped for slightly too long and gone all cold and undrinkable.

but oddly enough I keep looking through his catalogue thinking, there must be something here for me. I mean really. somewhere he must've written something good.

(i think I've already read it -- Coraline. spectacular book, really wonderful.)

oh well.

[junipersun · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A gentle fantasy. It started out a bit slow, but once Tristan was born, the story focused delightfully.A mix of perils dangerous and foes mighty, overcome with the aid of others. Tristan is a bit of an innocent Jack, but during his journey comes to learn what it is he truly wishes for.A fallen star becomes a young woman in faerie, captured by Jack but set free on her bond to journey with him.

[malexmave · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Once more, I find myself with a book I find hard to rate.

I am definitely not as taken with the book as many others seem to be. I liked it, but I did not love it. The style it was written in is similar to what Patrick Rothfuss, my favourite author and avid fan of Gaiman, is writing, but fails to capture me as fully as Rothfuss does.

The book gets better in the end, but all in all, many other books have engaged me more in recent memory. I may pick up another more recent Gaiman, just to see how his style has evolved over the years.

[codonnelly · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

While it absolutely pains me to write this, it appears that Neil Gaiman’s work and I are still not friends. His beloved novel, Stardust, is my latest attempt to read (and hopefully enjoy) Gaiman’s repertoire. The novel is an “adult” fairy-tale about a star-crossed young man, Tristran, on a quest to earn a young woman’s hand in marriage. Along the way, he meets many strange characters, most notably a star named Yvaine, and entangles himself in some very dangerous situations. Unfortunately, Tristran’s dull and—dare I say?—vacuous personality pales in comparison to all of the other characters, including the extremely minor ones.

Gaiman’s worlds are always fleshed out incredibly well. He is clearly quite talented at conjuring a magical scene. But when a reader cannot feel engaged by a main character, a gorgeous setting alone will not save a novel. Luckily, Yvaine’s introduction somewhat alleviates this problem. Unlike Tristran, she at least thinks before acting, and cares about more than just herself. Gaiman’s inclusion of a sub-plot involving royal brothers vying for their late father’s throne, and another story-line following a trio of elderly witches seeking lost youth and power also managed to bring much-needed life to a mostly tedious main plot.

On a structural level, Stardust is a bit of a muddled mess. While the main plot unfolds chronologically, it is interrupted from time to time by the subplots. Chapters jump back and forth with wild abandon. While all of the plots do eventually meet as one, until that moment the reading experience is unbelievably jarring. Too much is going on, and of course, if I had the choice to release one of the story-lines, Tristran’s journey would be the first to go.

The adult elements of the novel intrigue and occasionally amuse. And by adult, I mean sex and violence. There is a decent amount of both, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I appreciated their inclusion. I will say that Stardust is most likely not a novel a parent will feel comfortable reading aloud to a young child. A few topics are potentially a tad too mature for a younger audience to fully comprehend, particularly the enslavement of women, as well as the ruthless murder of family members and innocents.

Most disappointing of all, the ending fails to make much of an impact. The adult moments within the story, while interesting, never seemed to have a point beyond just shock value. Maybe I misinterpreted their addition in the plot, but I was hoping for some element of deeper meaning or even just realism to rear its ugly head, but neither happened, and I finished the novel highly underwhelmed.

Neil Gaiman’s Stardust is not for everyone. While his descriptive writing and elaborate world-building remain enviable, many of the characters and their exploits fail to intrigue. Luckily, Gaiman’s work is popular enough that I don’t feel too awful when I write that I wouldn’t recommend this novel. I’m also not giving up on him yet! Here’s to hoping American Gods will save my streak of disappointment.