Stardust, by Neil Gaiman; 10/10

(Read by the author)

A difficult review me to write, on account of the complicated nature of my feelings about the author. A couple of years ago I got into a bit of a spat with him on the internet. We argued intermittently for a month or so about something that felt like important principle at the time, neither of us presented our best side to the other, and it ended badly. It sounds paltry and unimportant, and I suppose it is. He'd not remember it. But it had a bit of an impression on me, for Gaiman was at the time my favorite writer, and more than that, my favorite famous person, a guy I idolized a bit more than seems healthy in retrospect. Not an obsession, I didn't do much other than read his books, I just liked them a lot, and believed that I liked him a lot.

Having a bad experience with one's hero is probably not an experience many have had, and it tends to leave one feeling extremely unwell. It took me quite some time to stop the occasional revolution of the frustrations and negativities of that episode. But it is two years later and I feel sufficiently over it to finally go back and read him again after such a long time, so perhaps it is also a good time to review the first book of his that I read.

Anyways.

Stardust is a great book. Gaiman has been influenced by fantasy you've never heard of and by fantasy you have, from pre-Homeric myth up to Stephen King, and really every kind of fantastical story, legend, tale, or parable that came in between. His stuff is, in my opinion, definitely of a quality that deserves to be called "literature," if such a distinction deserves to exist at all. The tradition here present is that of faeries and witches that you might find in older English folk tales before they all got turned upside down by Lewis and Tolkein. Like Jonathan Strange, if you've read it first, though somewhat less ambitious.

You know, Faerie. Right?

Tristran Thorne is a young boy who travels to Faerie on the quest of returning with a newly-fallen star in order to win the heart of a girl he believes to be his true love. There are a numerous interested parties, and lots of great original ideas and adventures happen along the way. The best of this book to me was the children of the old, dead Lord of Stormhold. I'd go into greater detail here, but my memory is a little fuzzy as it's been a while since I read the book.

It isn't Gaimain's funniest work (that would be Good Omens). It isn't his most ambitious work (Sandman). It isnt' his most popular work (American Gods). It isn't my favorite of his works (Neverwhere). But it is a great starting place for the author, and he is absolutely an author that anyone and everyone with any interest in literature, fantastical or otherwise, ought to read, and will probably enjoy. He has the world's biggest literary cult following for a reason.

I would strenuously that you read this or any other Neil Gaiman book (excepting Sandman, for obvious reasons, and Good Omens and American Gods because I can't vouch for the readers) on audio book. Neil performs his books perfectly. The only other narrators I have come across in my many years of reading audio books are guys named Jeremy Irons, Eric Idle, and Alan Rickman, whose voices are extremely famous, and even in their cases I'd say he was just as good. He knows his work perfectly and does everything exactly right. It beats the shit out of the voice in your head. Check it out from your library and put it on your iPod. It is how it is meant to be read, even this book which was originally published with stylized illustrations. Even when we were pissed at each other Neil and I agreed that audio books are the bomb.

I have a very happy memory of listening to Neil read this book on audio in Autumn. It was cold outside, and I went out and chopped wood for our fireplace. We got takeout, had a lovely roaring fire, and drank glasses of one of our favorite local beers while listening to Stardust. Books can make for a romantic date too!

This movie was made into a great film, which, while having relatively little overlap with the novel, is itself hilarious, fun, and worth your time. It is weird to think that I was introduced to one of the top writers of our time by a movie, but I guess that's not that unusual after all. Just don't make the mistake of equating the two- they are completely separate and succeed or fail on their own merits, each independent of the other.

"And that's all I have to say about that."