The book’s ending is apt and wonderfully delivered, particularly given the way that you are not sure whether or not the ending will be a tragic one, after all Gaiman has already shown us this is one fairy tale where the heroes are not safe, indeed quiet though parts of the final section are, I was still holding my breath at certain moments. Very rarely does a quote send me looking. After reading this story, I paid attention to stone fences around pastures and farms, hoping to find an entrance to the Wall. Gaiman is known to write dark fantasy, and however seemingly dreamlike or unassailably wondrous things get, there is always the sense that this is a world which is as savage as it is beautiful, particularly given the characteristic Gaiman touch of this being a book where not everyone is safe. This is typified in a scene involving the nursery rhyme conflict of the lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown, complete with blood and mauling. Yet, Stardust never descends too far into being grim for the sake of grim, indeed it is in many ways one of the most truly lovely stories I have ever read. This is due entirely to the writing style.

But the pure fantasy adventure is surely something cinema's could use a little bit more of these days. If movies can get actors like Robert De Niro to do some of the ridiculous things he does in this movie, then I think we have a winning formula. But in all seriousness, Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michele Pfeiffer, Henry Cavill, De Niro, and Sienna Miller make for a fantastic ensemble cast of witches, Kings, a star (?), and one special prince to make for a thrilling adventure. Stardust was originally conceived by Gaiman and Vess as a "story book with pictures", created by both, to be published by American company DC Comics. During an interview to be included in the audio book, Neil Gaiman explained how one day while driving he had seen a wall on the side of the road and had conceived the idea of Faerie being behind the wall. This sparked an idea in Gaiman's head about an American novelist who moved to England where he would find out about this wall; at this time, the book was to be called Wall. Soon afterwards, Gaiman was nominated for a literary award, which he won, and at a celebratory party for the award he saw a shooting star and immediately came up with the idea of Stardust. Gaiman dragged Vess out of a party that he was at and outlined the plot to him and Vess agreed to do the illustrations. Initially, Stardust was released in 1997 as a prestige format four-issue comic mini-series. Stardust came out once a month in a square-bound, high-gloss booklet with high grade paper, high quality color and no advertisements. So yes, this is not the happiest of the tales, but it's real and this is better. Every story that was ever written ends with death, but it's just life. Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:Tales are stories about humans and creatures in magic worlds, but no little girl think Cinderella or Snow White one day is going to die. But she will, and this is why kids have the right to know that. It's not ending but the journey, right? Matthew Beard and Sophie Rundle star in a brand-new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Eleanor Bron. My only complaint is that it was so short, that is why I must now read the book to get the full experience.

Lord Primus: The oldest of the Lords of Stormhold. In comparison with his brothers, he is benevolent, compassionate and reasonable. I truly believe you have to be the right kind of scifi fan to enjoy Gaiman to his fullest and unfortunately, like two strangers forced to interact occasionally, we just don't quite mesh together. It’d be useless to say how good Gaiman’s narrative style is, or he wouldn't have written all those books in his life. Still, the ability to combine dialogues and descriptions so well is rare, especially if in one story are narrated three tales which will eventually meet. Yet when Tristran returned to her, Victoria's reception was not what he had so idealized. For in his absence, the vain Victoria had foreseen that Tristran might indeed make good on his word, and came to regret making a drunken pledge of betrothal she had not truly meant. She confessed to Tristran that she never had faith that he would cross the wall and retrieve the fallen star, and that while she remained bound by her oath to marry, she rued having made it.I loved it. I loved the story, the world, the characters, the usual quirkiness of the writing. This world was amazing and so utterly magical and so much fun, it reminded me why I love Neil Gaiman's work so much. In 1999, the Mythopoeic Society awarded it the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. [12] The novel was nominated for the Locus Award that same year. [13] In 2000, it received an Alex Award from the American Library Association. [14] Adaptations [ edit ]

Stardust essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Challenged to retrieve a fallen star, Tristran Thorn leaves the sleepy English village of Wall and crosses into the land of Faerie and the realm of Stormhold. Locating the star, he discovers it is no meteorite, but a young woman, Yvaine. Unaware of the woman's identity, the old witch placed a transformation spell on Tristran to turn him into a mouse, allowing him to ride in her caravan unnoticed while Yvaine walked alongside. After many days of travel, their caravan passed through the wall breach and arrived at the meadows on the other side, where the Wall fair was soon to be held once more. It was there that Tristran regained his human form and returned home to the village to fulfill his promise and present Victoria with the fallen star he had quested so tirelessly to find.

That seems like such a contradiction, and few other people than Neil Gaiman could make it work (so thank god he's the one who wrote it).