Stardust

STARDUST: Neil Gaiman: Harper Perennial: 2000: 250 pages

The village of Wall which is aptly named for the long wall dividing the town from the Faerie lands guards the break in the wall day and night. For no one is allowed through the gap except when the market fair comes to the large meadow beyond the wall every 9 years.

Seventeen year-old Tristan Thorne, who is unknowingly the result of a night of passion between an enslaved faerie and villager, proclaims to his true love that he will travel beyond the wall to retrieve the star they just watched fall, if she will agree to marry him.

Tristan knows nothing about the faerie world. So when he finally finds the star, he is shocked to discover the star is a young woman and that others are searching for her as well. Most notably there is a group of feuding princes and an evil witch.

Neil Gaiman is an excellent storyteller with a great imagination. The story and characters really come alive. This book felt like a traditional fairy tale.

AJ