Stardust in Into the Forest

Nov 25, 2012 Batgrl (Book Data Kept Elsewhere) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: neil-gaiman

I ordered the hardback of this book after reading about it - and what the publisher wanted to do in a hardcover version. As Gaiman says in the introduction:

p. xii "...And now, fifteen years after it was first published, it is out in a beautiful hardcover edition once again. I asked my editor, Jennifer Brehl, if we could make it look like a much loved book from 1922, and she has, and I am grateful."

I do wish I could have seen the version with more of Charles Vess' artwork ("a painting on every p I ordered the hardback of this book after reading about it - and what the publisher wanted to do in a hardcover version. As Gaiman says in the introduction:

p. xii "...And now, fifteen years after it was first published, it is out in a beautiful hardcover edition once again. I asked my editor, Jennifer Brehl, if we could make it look like a much loved book from 1922, and she has, and I am grateful."

I do wish I could have seen the version with more of Charles Vess' artwork ("a painting on every page") but I'm a sucker for hardcover books trying to look as nice as they all did, once upon a time.

I also am probably one of the few Gaiman fans that didn't see the movie. I'm not good at consuming everything in the Gaiman media sphere, even though odds are always high that I'm going to like everything he has a hand in. But for the purposes of this book that's probably a good thing, because I can let my imagination run wild and have my own mental images of everything. Stardust the film has long been on my Need To See list, and I'll probably get around to it after finishing this.

...It's hard to come up with quotes to pass along, frankly because I'm consuming this at such a fast rate. I am stopping for this one, when a witch is trying to turn a rock into something else:

p. 157-158 "..."I am getting old," she said to her two servants. They said nothing in reply, gave no indication that they eve understood her. "Things inanimate have always been more difficult to change than things animate. Their souls are older and stupider and harder to persuade. If I but had my true youth again...why, in the dawn of the world I could transform mountains into seas and clouds into palaces. I could populate cities with the pebbles on the shingle. If I were young again..." "

This is one of the things I like about Gaiman - he doesn't just spend all his wit on his heroes and likable characters. Even the characters that are villains (or just villainous) get their moments of wit and depth. He also doesn't waste his words - he doesn't need vast page numbers of description or conversations to do what he does - a small amount of well chosen words, and we have a lot of background. And some humor.

...So finished now, and it was a quick read, like most of the Gaiman I've absorbed. Because you don't really just read it, you intake the idea, play with it in your brain, add your own embellishments, and it becomes part of your own inner mythology. Or at least the Gaiman I've read so far. I'm actually pleased to have more of his books that I haven't read because there's nothing more depressing than having finished everything and having to wait for more to be doled out. ...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Gemma rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, i-own-it

I only operate one way when it comes to book-to-film adaptations: Read/see one, then read/see the counterpart. Loved the movie, but there's more quirky charm to the book. I must say, I love the idea of a faerie universe existing just on the other side of a wall in rural England, but I love the characters even more. The changes in plot for the movie were for the best when trying to make it more marketable, I think, but this book is just the thing for fantasy weirdos like me. ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Michele rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, fantasy, fantasy-100-list

I've just started this on audio....the audio is EXCELLENT! And....my version has this wonderful little interview with Gaiman at the end. Really a nice little piece, and at the end he discusses how he has just begun writing a children's story called The Graveyard Book.
...more

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