Stardust:
by Neil Gaiman

The first thing I ever read by Gaiman was Sandman; the second was American Gods. Both are fabulous, and may or may not be reviewed here someday. Gaiman is a master of the language and (by all indications) a nice guy to boot, so it is with great pleasure that I recommend his modern fairy-tale, Stardust.

Spoiler-free Recommendation

If you are not familiar with the larger body of Gaiman's work, Stardust will strike you initially as odd. It is not long and it is told quite casually--as my wife points out, Gaiman first breaks all the "rules" of writing. He introduces a city on the border of Faerie, and a young man whose destiny has literally fallen somewhere within those enchanted realms. The print editions are illustrated, and the tale is told with a certain deceptive simplicity--arguably the hallmark of all good fairy tales. Even the readily predictable "twist" toward the end is executed so beautifully as to assuage the objections of the most hardened critics. Read this book. Read anything by Gaiman, for that matter; he has yet to disappoint me.

In-Depth Review

Actually there's not much to add here. Stardust is the tale of a young man chasing a fallen star, in order to win the hand of his only love. But in the realm of Faerie, stars are not hunks of metal--and they are hunted by powerful and malevolent beings. Gaiman breathes new life into fairy-tale clichés; simple altruism is rewarded in surprising ways, bad deeds turn against their doers, true love is found in the most unlikely of places. The scenes are simple and the storytelling, sparse; the book is short, like most fairy-tales. It is a story for the sake of telling a story; engaging and interesting, with characters whose development is not belabored by deep psychological struggle or drawn out in a series of self-reversals.

Sometimes deep psychological struggle is the order of the day. But if you delight in whimsical tales, masterfully told, Stardust is well worth a read.