“You can't cross the wall. Nobody crosses the wall.” Stardust(1999) is the colloborative result of authors Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.
The novel originally stems from the same titled DC graphic novel series published in 1997. Stardust(graphic novel) received the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards for Favorite Limited Series for 1998 and 1999, with the collected edition for the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Reprint Graphic Album for 1999.
Stardust(novel), in 1999, was awarded The Mythopoetric Fantasty Award for Adult Literature by the Mythopoeic Society and was also nominated for the Locus Award. In 2000, it received the Alex Award from the American Library Association, as one of the "top ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults".
The storyline has also been similarly converted to motion picture, released in 2007, as Stardust(film).
Stardust has a little of it all, in more than just its very broad publication spectrum. Neil Gaiman is a wonder worker with a fantastical touch, blending the humble disposition of Great Britain, beginning in 1839, with the mythical land of Faerie. Henry Draper would have just photographed the Moon, and Charles Dickens was serializing the novel Oliver Twist. Faerie is a land sustained of a more magical significance, where all manner of places that have been forced off the map by "explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there" must go. What definably separates the two is the town of Wall.
Notable characters are: Tristran Thorn, the main protagonist, who is half-faerie; Yvaine, a fallen star; Dunstan Thorn, Tristran’s father; Victoria Forester, whom Tristran is infatuated with; The Lord of Stormhold; Lord Primus, first son of The Lord of Stormhold; Lord Tertius, third of Stormhold; Lord Septimus, seventh of Stormhold; Lady Una, Tristran’s mother; Madame Semele/Ditchwater Sal, a peddling witch; Morwanneg, a witch-queen, one of the Lilim intent on devouring the heart of the fallen star in the preservation of her immortality.
It is a fact, Gaiman has a gift for writing a faerie tale. Reading through any novel he has thus penned, I would be greatly surprised if, within the first 50 pages, there were not at least one element that has already left every reader in its wake wistfully wishing for the silly, beautiful treasures of their wildest imaginations. It could seem overboard, but reading the story, there you are.
Stardust is primarily categorized as fantasy but can pass, arguably, as romance novel. I am personally not a fan of romantic fantasy, for what I consider to be 'good reason' but is more along the lines of preference. By no means does it touch close to being the gushy, steamy, inclusive of genericized Fabio-esque cover art paperback we all know and fear, but it is a world where the setting must be a start to finish faerie tale for the adult audience.
How confusing is that? A world with all the rules broken connected to the average unknowing shmoe's hoedinger hobble trying to raise their livestock. The only time villagefolk allow themselves to wander beyond the wall, located at Wall, is once every nine years for the May Day festival. The supernatural are to be exchanged monetarily, and that is always where the trouble must start. Isn't it? Maybe its where all our problems get solved.
I'd say to get lost reading and figure it out, but you might choose to never come back. I do recommend this title, though by all means it is atmospherically aloof.
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