Jayson’s Reviews > Stardust > Status Update

Notes:
(1) Well, I finished the book proper. This last bit's just an interview with Neil Gaiman, sort of bonus material for the audiobook.
(2) You know, through all these audiobook rereads, I always expect that my opinion would change over time, and that I'd give a different rating. But, each time, I've agreed entirely with my prior assessment.
(3) Next up, Coraline.

Notes:
(1) Yvaine: "I just wanted to point out that we can probably never have children. That’s all."
- Sheesh! I forgot how much of downer the ending of this book is.
- Of course, in the film, the happy ending involves them having many children.
(2) In my first review, I wrote that this book didn't have a climax. Over the years I've questioned that. But I was 100% correct.

Notes:
(1) '"I wish my mother were out," said the star. "I would say good-bye to her, first." And, awkwardly, she got to her feet.'
[Later]
'"Then ... you are not marrying Tristran Thorn?"
"No," said Victoria.
"Oh," said the star. "Good." And she sat down again.'
- And, thus, the most nonchalant suicide attempt and recovery in literature.
- As exciting as the "climax" gets.

Notes:
(1) Ah, yes, this was during that phase when Robert De Niro decided he wanted to be a comic actor. So he did this, Meet the Parents and Rocky and Bullwinkle.
(2) "By temperament, Septimus was one of nature’s poisoners ... that was Septimus’s metier.
- A little on the nose with the irony, him being poisoned to death. Though, in the film he drowns.

Notes:
(1) One of the major disappointments of the book, provided you've seen the movie first, is the nature of the love affair. At least superficially, this is a bit of a romance novel. Indeed, the film is a rom-com. However, the part of the book where the two stop hating each other and grow closer is very brief, written in almost point-form, and with deliberate ambiguity.

Notes:
(1) In the book, the captain's name is Johannes Alberic, which is a fine enough pirate name. I have no idea why they changed it to Shakespeare for the film. Seems unnecessary.
(2) By this time in the film, Yvaine and Tristan are pretty much in love, whereas at this point in the book, Yvaine still hates Tristran. Merely one of the reasons why I find the film superior.

Hey, it's David Brent, or alternatively... Ricky Gervais.

Notes:
(1) '"You saved my life," she said, eventually. "Didn’t you?"
"I suppose I must have done, yes."
"I hate you," she said. "I hated you for everything already, but now I hate you most of all."'
- Gee, there really is no pleasing some people.
- Awful deep hole for this enemies-to-loves trope to dig out of.

Notes:
(1) Witch: "It’s been many a long year since I was maiden enough to touch a unicorn, and many a long year since such a one was seen in these parts."
- I never knew unicorns require proximity to maidenhood. I had a joke, but thought better.
(2) Witch: "I’ll bring you some mulled wine, and some sweet-roasted turnips."
- "Sweet roasted" anything sounds delicious.

Notes:
(1) The CGI holds up pretty well... in a video game sort of way.
(2) "Tristran Thorn was dreaming. He was in an apple tree, staring through a window at Victoria Forester, who was getting undressed. As she removed her dress, revealing a healthy expanse of petticoat, Tristran felt the branch begin to give way."
- Not her petticoat! Scrub my eyes clean for reading that!

Notes:
(1) "There are no whores in Scaithe’s Ebb ... although there have always been many women who, if pressed, would describe themselves as much-married."
- The wedding industry there must be booming.
(2) "[Tristran] felt numbed and foolish ... He should not have loosed her chain, he should have tied it to a tree."
- Not so foolish in the film, that's exactly what he did.