Just Finished Reading Neil Gaiman's Stardust

The 1999 fantasy novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman was published earlier in comic book form and was later adapted to a movie. As is usually the case and to my consternation, I've heard that the film version significantly diverged from the book.  I just finished reading the book and have no intention of allowing myself to be affronted by the movie...the story was that good...

In Stardust, Gaiman looks back on an fictional rural English town in the mid-nineteenth century called Wall.  Its name owes itself to the very old wall that rises north and east from it.  In the middle is a small opening, which is continually guarded by the townsfolk to keep anyone from entering the meadow beyond.  You see, the opening is a passageway to the magical land of Faerie and contact between the two is kept to a brief period, once every nine years, in which the townsfolk are allowed to cross over to the "other side" and trade with the magical people during a fair.  Dunstan Thorn makes this passage and encounters a young woman, Una, who is a slave to a mean witch.  Their interactions ultimately lead, nine months later, to a baby lying in a wicker basket being pushed across the opening into Wall from Faerie.  That infant is Dunstan and Una's son, Tristan, who is raised in his father's family and finds himself going back to Faerie eighteen years later to find a fallen star in order to win the heart of his love, Victoria.  The nature of this star and Tristan's subsequent adventures in Faerie comprise the bulk of Stardust...

There is a great tenderness in Neil Gaiman's writing here: even the villains are given a break, so to speak...after all, they are only acting in accordance with their natures.  This is a true fairy tale and has the same feeling for me that I would get when being read fairy tales in my early childhood.  Yet it is not necessarily intended for little children: there are some very adult issues brought up here...

I was impressed by how the author ended Stardust...and a bit distressed to discover that those who made the film adaptation decided to completely change it.  Maybe you've seen the movie, which came out in 2007.  It might be worth your while to try out this well-written book, which is now right up there with Neverwhere at the top of my Neil Gaiman "favorites" list...