Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Fantasy

Tristran Thorn lives in the English village of Wall, which is separated from faery land by a guarded wall. Once every nine years, a market is held on the faery side, which is how Tristran was conceived. As a teenager, he falls in love with a beautiful young girl and promises to bring back a fallen star for her. Off Tristran travels to the other side of the wall to bring back the star.

Tristran meets plenty of odd characters in this new land and eventually finds his fallen star, who ends up being a young lady that has broken her leg in the fall. However there are many others after this heart as well. An old witch wants to cut out her heart for youth and brother princes want to capture the stone the star wears.

I hated the names used in this book. They were always one character off from a normal name and I went through the entire book calling Tristran "Tristan" because that's what I expected it to be.

The book itself is charming. There are some details skipped at the beginning of Tristran's journey that I would have liked to know more of but I think Gaiman was saving up for the return journey. The ending was a bit predictable but kept up with the charm factor.

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

Rating:
(3.5/5)