Stardust - Softcover

Gaiman, Neil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006256434X ISBN 13: 9780062564344

Publisher: William Morrow, 2016

Synopsis

Now a major motion picture--this charming fairy tale by the #1 New York Times bestselling author, weaves a magical story set long ago in the tiny English village of Wall, a place where things are not quite what they seem.

Go and catch a falling star . . .

Tristran Thorn promises to bring back a fallen star for his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester--and crosses the wall that divides his English country town from another, more dangerous world of lords and witches, all of them in search of the star. Rich with adventure and magic, Stardust is one of master storyteller Neil Gaiman's most beloved tales.

"Eminently readable--a charming piece of work."
--Washington Post Book World

"Beautiful, memorable . . . A book full of marvels."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

About this title

Review:

The versatile Neil Gaiman is best known for scripting upmarket graphic novels, most famously the lengthy Sandman cycle. Stardust was a joint project with artist Charles Vess, a short novel of fairyland enriched by at least one sumptuous painting on every page. This edition contains only the (slightly rewritten) text, alas. Gaiman's story looks back to days before commercial genre fantasy, to Lord Dunsany's and Hope Mirrlees's visions of Faerie as a misty country which is at the same time temptingly close and "over the hills and far away". The simple tale is new but has a twice-told familiarity, crafted like a mosaic from many traditional elements. Hopelessly crossed in love, a boy of half-fairy parentage leaves his mundane Victorian- English village on a quest for a fallen star in the magical realm. The star proves to be an attractive woman with a hot temper, who plunges with our hero into adventures featuring witches, the lion and the unicorn, plotting elf-lords, ships that sail the sky, magical transformations, curses whose effects rebound, binding conditions with hidden loopholes, and all the rest. Stardust is by turns knowing, poetic, comic and grisly and exudes considerable charm. If only we had those full-colour Vess paintings too. --David Langford

Review:

"A twisting, wondrous tale full of magic that only Neil Gaiman could have written."--Chicago Tribune

"Strange...marvelous...Stardust takes us back to a time when the world was more magical, and, real or not, that world is a charming place."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"The multitalented author of The Sandman graphic novels and last year's Neverwhere charms again, with a deftly written fantasy adventure tale set in Victorian England and enriched by familiar folk materials."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Eminently readable---a charming piece of work."--Washington Post Book World

"[A] tale about love, danger, friendship, magic, and adventure . . . a short novel that delivers big-time satisfaction."--Detroit Free Press

"A wonderful tale . . . mythic."--Denise Hamilton, Romantic Times BOOKclub

"Beautiful, memorable . . . A book full of marvels."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"A wonderful novel . . . A pleasure to read."--Denver Post

"Thrilling . . . Stardust reads like a mix between L. Frank Baum, the Brothers Grimm, and a Tim Burton movie script."--Dallas Morning News

"Sparkling, fresh, and charming. Superb."--Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 006256434X
• ISBN 13: 9780062564344
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 288