Stardust by Neil Gaiman
In search of love and the completely impossibly difficult, Neil Gaiman embarks on a fascinating journey into the mysterious and dark. Grab a falling star, please. Tristran Thorn stated that he will bring back a lost star. In order to satisfy his beloved Victoria Forester’s desire, he embarks on a voyage. However, on the way, he accidentally enters the enchanted world that lies outside the town’s wall, which is in his own England. One of the most cherished stories by the master writer Neil Gaiman, Stardust is full of magic and adventure and served as the basis for the popular film.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
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A boy named Tristan resides in Wall city. He has lived his entire life as a modest shopboy who is ignored by Victoria, the woman of his dreams. Tristan has no idea that he is about to go on an odyssey to restore his origins. Although his mother is from Stormhold, a city outside the wall, his father is from Wall. Stormhold is more legendary than real; kings are haunted by ghosts; witches seek the secret to eternal life; unicorns exist; the moon speaks; and the stars watch.
Living next to the Wall in the English town of Wall, Tristin Thorn. There is only one opening in the Wall, and it is continually watched over by Wall’s villagers. This is done not to prevent outsiders from entering, but rather to prevent Wall’s citizens from entering the Faerie realm. Only then do the inhabitants of each land mix; there is a sizable fair held within the field beyond the gap once every nine years.
Tristin doesn’t know that his father, Dunstan, helped him cross the Wall into Faerie on the day he watched a falling star with the girl he wanted to marry and made a promise to bring her back the same star. His father Dunstan is from across the Wall, but Tristin doesn’t know that half of his family is from there.
It is now appropriate for the Lord of Stormhold to pass away and appoint one of his sons to rule in Faerie. The old Lord, unable to decide which of his living sons is most deserving, throws the Power of Stormhold (a topaz set in an amulet) into the air and declares that whoever recovers the amulet will succeed him. It won’t be simple for the old Lord’s descendants because four of his seven sons have already passed away after being eliminated from contention for Stormhold by their living brothers. The Lilim, three old women who have lived on and on forever and consumed the hearts of dying stars to maintain their youth, also reside in Faerie.
Tristin’s mission is aided by some and harmed by others, but he always prevails thanks to his tenacity and, unexpectedly, innocence. He is surprised to discover that the Fallen Star is a female and that she also has a broken leg as he is carried by a magic candle to the location where the star had fallen. Tristin’s adventures on his trip back to The Wall and through the market in the field are imaginative, enchanting, and occasionally even a little frightening. Even if the plot’s conclusion is quite obvious, Tristin’s escapades and the situations he finds himself in are nevertheless tremendously enjoyable.
Although the main cast comes together towards the conclusion, I find the supporting cast to be as well-developed and believable as Tristin, Yvaine the Star, and Madame Semele with her enigmatic bird.
