Welcome to Nox the Reader, I'm Nox, and I really want to talk about Neil Gaiman's Stardust, which I feel is a give me ALL the merch!
boring, terrible, why did I ever watch that movie adaptation of The Golden Compass. Gramps was flipping through the movie channels a few weeks ago and we caught the last thirty minutes of this movie that I had a vague recollection of, and I absolutely loved those last thirty minutes (which had a lot to do with the overall quality and Claire Danes' speech at the end but also so much to do with Tristan being played by a young Daredevil...). So naturally, I had to pick up the book!
Stardust was a bit of a ride for me. It's a short read, a bit more than 200 pages, and it starts off heavily with exposition surrounding the town of Wall and the world behind its... well... wall. We briefly follow Dunstan Thorn (who starts off as kind of bland), and then the story focuses on the true protagonist, his son Tristran (you know, the one played by Charlie Cox, this cutie down below).
Tristran is on a quest to find a falling star and bring it back to Victoria, a girl in his village of Wall that he has fallen in love with. When Victoria promises to marry him if he brings her back a fallen star, Tristran crosses the literal wall in order to journey into the land of Faerie and follow the star, who he is surprised to find out is a young woman named Yvaine. Tristran takes Yvaine (who broke her leg in the fall) with him, still intent on taking her to Victoria in order to prove his love.
Throughout the story, other characters are chasing after Yvaine - a group of brothers vying for the throne, and a witch who wants Yvaine's heart so she can live a longer, youthful life (think the Sanderson Sisters but way gorier).
"Every lover is, in his heart, a madman, and, in his head, a minstrel."
Some of you may remember the movie Stardust from 2007, which for some reason gets lost in my memory alongside the What I Loved About This Book
- Yvaine! She doesn't go with Tristran easily, and you can see her trust for him grow as their relationship does from kidnapped to indebted, to friend to lover. She's stubborn and intense but has several moments of kindness and mercy (especially at the ending of the book), and the banter she has with Tristran makes their relationship much stronger for me. I think she's an interesting and well-developed character, and I loved hearing her talk about her life with the other stars, how unicorns are gifts from her mother, the Moon, and how she misses her sisters. I also like how she clearly has a code that she follows, even in moments when she'd rather do anything but follow it. I think that makes for an interesting character moment.
- The writing! This is probably my favorite thing about the book. Neil Gaiman has this magical style that somehow manages to pack so much into such short books! There was a lot to unpack and I was surprised with how much detail he included!
- The worldbuilding! The world of Faerie is amazing! I love the lore behind it, especially about the princes and how there's usually only one heir left before the king dies. The world is completely developed, down to the riddle that binds Una to the witch, why Wall is separated from Faerie by... well, the wall, and even to what life is like as a star, surrounded by star sisters and a mother moon.
- Victoria! This is a movie comparison, but the version of Victoria at the end of the movie is much different than the one at the end of the book. Movie Victoria stays cold and materialistic, while Book Victoria truly cares about Tristran and felt regret over sending him after the star. Book Victoria grew as a character while Tristran was away, and I appreciate her much more in the book than I do in the movie, which is why it's great to see her get her happy ending.
What I Disliked About This Book
- Ensemble Cast! Having such a large group of characters and numerous subplots makes it difficult to follow everyone. While it all ties together neatly in the end, the cast in Faerie alone is large, not to mention remembering those that live in Wall. By the time I finished the book, I couldn't remember most of the characters outside of Primus, Septimus, Victoria, Una, Tristran, Dunstan, and Yvaine (and the witch, whose name I can't remember, and Mr. Monday - but only because of the riddle we're given). And there are so many more characters that are mentioned, I just can't remember them! We spend so long with these characters that at certain points I forget we're supposed to be focusing on Tristran and Yvaine. Speaking of which...
- Tristran! Unfortunately, while I do love Tristran, compared to the other characters he fails to really shine (ba dum tss). He isn't a bad character at all, but when you have a book filled to the brim with cruel and cunning princes, conniving witches, and an actual fallen star, I feel that the protagonist needs to be a bit more interesting than Tristran was. It's not Tristran that's interesting so much as it is the story surrounding him: his background, Yvaine, his mother... Tristran is the middle of all of that but doesn't contribute as much. Nevertheless though, we couldn't have the story without him because then who else would be chasing Yvaine - oh yeah, everyone else who chases Yvaine.
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| Sorry darling, but I still love you! |
- The romance! Listen, I really wanted to like their relationship! But as much as I saw their relationship progress, it felt like it all happened too quickly, especially when Tristran has initially claimed that Victoria is his one true love. There are lots of great things that we get in so much detail, but because we're constantly hopping to others in the story, we lose parts of the romance between Yvaine and Tristran, which feels like it goes from 0 to 100 in ten days when it's really a couple of weeks.
Overall Thoughts
Stardust is a quick, fun little read! I know it seems like it has a lot of problems, and that's because... well, it does.
But Nox, you ask, why on earth would you want merch from a book that you think has problems?
Because, dear readers, we all have problems. Even I, as unbelievable as it may sound, have problems. But if you take it for what it is, it's still pretty fun!
There's so much packed into Stardust, and the main thing that you find in it is magic. It's a beautifully written story fit for a fairy tale (minus the sex scenes)! There's a fallen store, a rush to claim the throne, witches, pirates, faeries, and love! It has all the ingredients for a great story! If you take it for mindless fun, which I recommend, instead of deeply analyzing it (which is kinda the point of a book ramble?) then you'll have a blast! But I'm not going to lie and say that it's perfect!
Either way though, I love Stardust, both the book and the movie. And I definitely had a blast getting through it!
I shall leave you now with these GIFs of Claire Danes as Yvaine (wow she's super pretty) and Charlie Cox as Tristan (which yeah, in the book he's TristRan, and in the movie he's TristAn. That surely didn't get confusing AT ALL *heavy sarcasm*) (wow he's also super pretty).
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