February 3, 2012

• Week 5: Stardust

  So I have a list from NPR of the Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books. My cousins and I marked off the books that we read, and together we've covered a good chunk. I thought that I might as well chip away at this list, and glanced through the list of books that none of us had ever read. There were quite a few books by Neil Gaiman, and although I had made it a point to put Gaiman on my to-read list, I'd never gotten around to it. The Sandman series were my primary concern, as I'd heard vague, good things about it. But I was too lazy last week to figure out what the actual books in the series were called, so I just searched up some of Gaiman's other titles on the library website. After finding that most of them had quite long request waitlists, I stumbled upon one that was immediately available:
  Stardust: Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie.

  I was surprised to find that it was an illustrated volume. Apparently this book, and Stardust are different works. I'm not quite sure how they're related, but I suppose I'll find out when I get around to reading the other one.

  As for this book, it's a neat story with lovely illustrations by Charles Vess. The world described reminded me of the Sabriel by Garth Nix: a town in "our world" that borders a magical world behind a wall. When the wind blows from across the wall, various mysterious things occur. The magical world reminded me a little of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. But I think those are common legends of faeries (do not take anything from them, do not consume their food or drink, the powers of your "true name," effect of iron, etc.) that I just happened to encounter in Butcher's novels first.

  It definitely piqued my interest, has me wondering about Stardust, and has given me a taste of Gaiman, so that I'm relatively confident that I'll enjoy his other (longer?) works.

  • 6:34 pm
  • 2 Comments