Stardust is one of my favorite movies of all time and every time I’m asked why, I never seem to have a very good answer. “Because I like it” is usually my retort of choice. I know it isn’t a reasonable answer and I realize the vagueness defeats the purpose of the inquirer’s intent, but I really cannot seem to put into words why I enjoy the movie so much. It’s fantasy. It’s adventure. It’s Robert DeNiro in a petticoat. So, when I discovered that my favorite movie was actually based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, I rushed to my local book dealer (who am I kidding? Barnes and Noble stores are EVERYWHERE) and picked up a copy that wouldn’t fit on my already overflowing bookshelves. Jumping to the top of my “To Read” list, I poured through the pages eagerly only to find that in this case, the movie was better.
This is a story about a young man named Tristan who adventures into the land of Faerie (Stormhold, in the movie) to find a star that has fallen from the heavens to bring back to the undeserving brat he has found himself in love with. As it turns out, fallen stars are quite desirable and Tristan finds himself matched in a race with a brutal prince of the land and a trio of dangerous witches. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot because it is such a fantastic story and I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun of putting the pieces together for anyone.
The reason I like the film more than the book is just a matter of personal preference. The movie has more instances of comedic relief than the novel and leaves out some of the more provocative scenes, whose detail was really quite unnecessary to the storyline, but to be expected from a title nestled on a shelf labeled “Fantasy”. I haven’t read any of Neil Gaiman’s other novels but I have seen many snippits of him floating around the Internet which make me quite intrigued by his nature. It seems the contributors of one of my favorite websites, www.neatorama.com, are equally as intrigued as Gaiman has been the topic of many of their posts. I would definitely give another one of his books a shot but I would probably scour the library for them rather than invest in owning a copy of my own.
Overall, Gaiman’s story is worth the effort. I recommend the movie over the novel, but if you are just one of those people who MUST read the novel first, go for it. Just note: I would not hand THE BOOK to anyone who is troubled by the details of a little sexual exploit.
-Harper
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