Last night, in the middle of watching Amish in the City, I read the last of Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. I had started this book a long time ago, but at the time I was so stinking sick of fairies and the fae that I couldn’t get past the second chapter. Honestly, the word “fae” invokes such distaste for me and yet does not jibe with how I feel about the actual topic. It’s absurd.
Anyway, the book is not about the guy that you meet in the first chapter, but rather about his son, who was born to a cat-person (another thing I find distastefully commonly desirable - plushie folk) and promised that he would fetch a fallen star for the woman that he loves.
Well, things go awry. I shouldn’t ruin the story if you’ve not read it. What I can say is that Gaiman (of Sandman fame) is in typical form, and I think I might actually like this book better than American Gods. American Gods was ok, but just lacked something. Stardust migh be good, but it’s not as good as Neverwhere, still Gaiman’s best book, in my opinion.
The story is colored with a lot of fairy stuff. There are vivid descriptions of everything imaginable and even of most things not. There are plenty of good moments where the book loops around on itself in a pleasant way. I should describe this aspect a bit.
Have you ever watched a stand-up comic perform? Did you ever notice how they tend to start with a certain joke, and then do quite a bit of other funny stuff, and then circle back around to that joke? Doesn’t it always please the crowd? It’s like a comedian skill - returning to reference a prior joke. It’s like asking a juggler to do a cascade or a car mechanic to change the oil.
Anyhow, Gaiman does that a few times. The characters overlap so often that one might wonder if everyone in the story would recognize everyone else, if only in passing. I guess this is an interesting way of illustrating what a small world Fairie is, and how unusual it is in its social intricacies.
There are other scenes of typical Gaiman dialogues. When Tristran, the main character, meets Yvaine for instance, she’s very rude to him. Not that all of Gaiman’s characters are rude, just that it plays on the twist of her fate very well.
You have no idea how difficult it is to write a review of soemthing when you can’t say anything about it.
To dissemble- Stardust is a good book. Go read it.
Another small note- This book is not for kids. There’s sex and violence and other very true-fairie things that are quite unfit for readers who aren’t already too jaded for a fairy novel.
