I am not sure if this would count as a book review. But then I am just writing down what I felt after I finished reading the book “Star Dust” by Neil Gaiman.
After I finished Star Dust, I was asking around for book suggestions, books like Star Dust and a witty friend of mine started telling that there is Femina, Metro and more such magazines I could try out.
This is a fantasy novel I read a couple weeks back and it was so good that I finished it within 3 nights. I read only during the nights. More like a bed time habit I have developed recently. Since that is the only free time I get, I started putting my kindle to some good use. But after reading the first part of Game of Thrones I started getting nightmares and I had to stop reading stories before bed.
Then my brother suggested that I could try out Star Dust (the only novel he has ever suggested) So I started reading it and boy it was like a breathe of fresh air after reading the blood shed of GoT. Everything was so subtle and yet so imaginative. I am going to compare GoT a lot here so please bear with me. It was almost like a detox from that book that gave graphic details that I would not have otherwise conjured.
In Wikipedia this book as said to be written in the “Pre-Tolkien” way of english fantasy. Now I wonder if there is “George R.R. Martin” way of writing fantasy. Of course GoT is one awesome book/series. I do like the plot. But it is definitely not a book I would avidly sit and read. My mind has the power of multiplying an image or a scene in such a way that it sticks in my head for a long time in ways that you just want to get rid of it somehow or the other and literally burn that image if possible.
I do remember watching this movie long back (almost 12-13 years back) with my brother and a few fragments were still there in my mind. Like a girl who glows and apparently she is the star, she is accompanied by a guy and they both travel on a ship that sails through the clouds. These are the only things I remember so far.
A man’s journey does not begin after he is born, but it begins even before he is born in this world. That is shown very well in this book by first explaining characters like Dunstan Thorn and his wife and how he was infatuated with some bird-girl. I was wondering what has this got to do with the story of a star (Guessed a little bit from the title)
And then they bring in Tristran Thron who is the actual Hero of the story. And how he goes on a quest to find the fallen star so that he could ask this particular girl’s hand for marriage. It is nice how the author introduces a random character and nicely ties the knot as they give their farewell. Even the smallest character plays their role very well that we do remember them all (at least most of them) by the end of the novel.
I do remember the small hairy guy who cooks awesome mushrooms, the witch who is so stupid to realize that the star was with her all the time, the Lords of Stormhold, the captain of the ship who gives them a ride back to the wall and so on. (No I did not forget Lady Una)
The best part that made me go wow, was when the witch kills this Stormhold guy by slitting his throat and also kills the unicorn (which is actually a bad thing) but it did not make me go all ‘ewwww’ or ‘oh god’. What I am trying to say is that there was nothing gory. Nothing disgusting. Just a plain murder that you can look at and then go on. Even the love was so subtle and yet so beautiful that you could almost feel the way Ywaine and Tristran feels by the end.
On the whole a pretty cute book(small one at that) and ends with a very long author’s note about how he came to love fantasy so much which was very much inspiring. But then I suck at creating a fantasy world even if my life depended on it. So I am just going read it with awe and respect.
Next up is “Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy”