Neil Gaiman has turned his considerable talents to writing a fairy tale. The author of such fantastic and macabre titles as Neverwhere, he now brings us a marvelously spun bit of story in Stardust.
The book opens on a simple sentence: “There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire.” With effortless strokes like this one, Gaiman introduces the mundane village of Wall and tells the story of Tristran Thorn, a misfit and a boy with a curious past.
Rash and earnest as all young men are, Tristran promises a girl that he’ll go looking for a fallen star. The problem, however, is that the star falls on the other side of the wall that gives the village its name – in Faerie, a land of mystery and danger for citizens of the real world.
It’s a land, too, of characters looking for Tristran’s star. Witches, lords, magic birds, furry little men and trees that talk crowd Gaiman’s imagination and give Stardust a lot of colour, give a reader no reason to put the book down when Tristran is otherwise engaged.
With simple, engaging words, a lot of humour and considerable grace, Gaiman crafts a tale full of magic and wonder that dazzles the mind. Stardust makes me smile all over, makes me sad to find the end.
It also makes me want to start reading again. “There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire…”
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