Monday, August 6, 2007

Stardust (novel) (nat)

I just finished reading Stardust and now I think I shouldn't have. I liked it. But now I think the movie is going to be bad because just from the list of characters on imdb, I can tell they changed it quite a bit--giving Yvaine a sister and Tristran a son. And from stills they have, I can point out the things that don't happen in the book. Hmpf. We'll just have to see about that.

Anyway, I like the book a lot. It's about a boy (illegitimately born of a woman from Faerie--illegitimate children are becoming a theme in my reading/watching) who promises to retrieve a fallen star for a girl he loves, but who obviously is just trying to get rid of him. The novel does a good job of planting you firmly in the Faerie world even though it glosses over certain events (just saying something happened rather then showing) and the passage of time is uncertain. I wish Gaiman had described more of the events and that some of the "evil" forces had culminated into something of a showdown (which is what I suspect the movie might do) instead of the sort-of weak resolution to the conflict. I mean it made sense and it's ok but wouldn't it have been more fun if there were a sword fight or some magic thrown around or something? I think the book could have been about twice as long and sustained a more intricate plot. But, for a fun summer read, I like it. It would probably also teach well . . .

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