Stardust by Neil Gaiman

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Genre - Fairytale



You know how it is sometimes with a book.... your friends and colleagues come up to you and say that this is a book you would really like but for some perverse reason you decide that it really isn't for you and you choose not to read it... and then you come across that book some while later and pick it up and start reading and find that you are totally entranced and wonder to yourself "Where has this book been all my reading life and why hasn't anyone told me about it?" and then you realise that they have and you have just been too obtuse to sit down and just read it!!! Well such a book is Neil Gaiman's "Stardust".

It begins with the line....

"There once was a young man who wished to gain his Heart's Desire."

and then continues to tell you of the many adventures and misadventures of young Tristran Thorn as he discovers what his Heart's desire truly is.

It has undergone several iterations having been a Graphic Novel, then a Novel, then a Movie, then a Movie tie-in, an Audio Book and now a DVD.
I enjoyed the movie, and I know it's a cliche, but the book is so much better. Gaiman went out of his way to write a fairy/faerie story for adults and he has succeeded brilliantly. I recommend that you get the original graphic novel with illustrations by Charles Vess and then as a special treat request the Audio Book read by the author himself.

---- Reviewed by Paul, Administration