Stardust by Neil Gailman

"A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really... ”Do the stars gaze back?" Now that's a question." - Ian McKellen, Stardust Movie, 2007

To be honest, I was excited to read this because this is a tie for my favorite movie with The Princess Bride. And I was extremely disappointed.

The premise was exactly the same as the movie but there were a few key differences. Firstly, the characters first name is not Tristan but Tristran. His father is not a single father, but rather got married a few months before Tristran was born.

Before I go off into the bad points let me tell you a few reasons why I like it:

• The story was extremely unique and wonderful, interesting plot lines.
• Very understandable (especially since based in Victorian times) but still was true to the language.
• While multiple deaths, the dead Princes still come back from the after life to watch, showing that death might not be an ending but could be a beginning.

Now, the reasons why I was disappointed:

• The novel was quite dark while some tend to thrive on it, it only seemed to bring it down.
• Quite violent for a child/teen's novel.
• The explanations of things were jumbled and a little confusing (not even as confusing as Jurassic Park, which was written by a doctor).
• The ending isn't ended well.
• Instead of Tristran falling for Yvaine, it seems more like he went to her because he had no other choice because the girl who was orignally in love with got pregnant by some other guy.

There are many, many, many things that have to wrong before I can hate something, or even become disappointed by it but this novel seemed to manage it. Why is it that most books that seem to win so many awards and become movies and make authors popular don't seem to be that good at all?

I myself can not answer that but my recommandation, don't bother reading it and stick with the movie, while a little lengthy it will be a better use of two and a half hours than a week of getting through this novel.