Stardust

Stardust
By Neil Gaiman
 
    I finally read one of my favorite movie’s novel!!!!! Yes, I watched the movie first then read the novel after years. Don’t judge. However…it’s quite unexpected to me that the novel has quite a different plot then the movie. Although I love them both…or to be honest, I love the movie a little, tiny bit more than the book.
 It’s still a great book…just that the movie has more…climaxes.
 
In the sleepy English countryside at the dawn of the Victorian era, life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall. Young Tristan Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester, but Victoria is cold and distant as the star she and Tristan see fall from the sky one evening. For the prize of Victoria's hand, Tristan vows to retrieve the star for his beloved. It is an oath that sends the lovelorn swain over the town's ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyong imagining ...
 
I loved fairytales as a boy. I love them as much now.
    The first introduction by Neil Gaiman, and as he said…Stardust was written in no other way then how a fairytale written. The narration and the words reminds me so much of those fairytales, but more. (But secretly…I won’t say Stardust is a fit reading for a child. There are…certain scenes that shouldn’t be read by children.)
Nevertheless, it is definitely a great read for any young adult or adult to remind themselves of fairytales. The world setting seems nothing different from ours, but more. There are fairies and unknown kingdom on earth…which apparently lies in Queen Victoria’s era. (I wonder…can we still find those places?) The book plots don’t really have a lot of climaxes that makes you thrill…but the wording is fascinating. The words are specific, unique, and exquisite. I enjoy reading it as a fairytale for adult. Now, I’d like to compare the movie and the book, so it will contain a lot of spoilers, skip if you do not wish to spoil yourselves.
 
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS

    The book started with Dustan, Tristan’s father, about his encounter with a slave of a witch-woman. The book gives a really great details on this part, and how Dustan’s emotion change…his moony stare and all the other unnatural behavior. Then, Tristan was born. Unlike the movie, Dustan marriage a village woman, so here Tristan in the book, still has a mother and a sister. He didn’t know that until the end of the book…although I believe most of the village of wall knows that. Nevertheless, after his reckless oath to Victoria, Tristian set off his journey to find the star. In the movie, while Tristian was given the Babylon’s candle by his father…which happened to be given by his mother, in the book, like all fairytale protagonist, Tristian got the candle from a strange old man. They accompany each other for a little short journey, and the man gave him the candle in return for Tristian’s kindness.
    And of course, with the Babylon’s candle, Tristian found the fallen star…blablabla…the book goes exactly as how the movie goes. (Which only means the main plot…I’ll take of the sub-plot later.) Tristian and Yvaine’s journey goes as what I’ve already seen, then, after the part they travel to the cloud. Their arrival at the lightening-gather ship doesn’t go as the movie does. In the movie, the captain played a good show on their arrival and a lot of other things, which can be considered one of my favorite parts in the movie. However, in the book, it goes smoothly and nothing special. Just that they treated the couple kindly and send them on the journey safety. Even though in the book, it is written as Tristian’s favorite time…nothing details realy happens there. So…it’s quite a disappointment to me. After that, they encounter the witch-woman, who turned Tristan to a mouse. That part didn’t goes a lot different from the movie. But how Tristan met his true mother and became the Lord of Stormhold and defeat the witch are extremely different. In the book, Lady Una was set free because of the lost of the moon’s daughter, so she was free of the bargain. Very fairytale like. And she found Tristan and Yvaine to demand their return to Stormhold. Not as gentle as we see in the movie…but, I like this Lady Una as much as the one in the movie. You can see she’s the natural leader. Last, how Tristian defeated the witch. Oh come on…he didn’t defeat him at all.
    In the movie, when the witch finally found Yvaine, she can no longer heard her heartbeats. Why? Because Yvaine has already fallen in love it Tristian and her heart no longer belongs to her anymore. So…there is nothing the witch can do besides returning to her sisters. It’s quite a peaceful ending…I like this alternative as well, really. But there is something I’m not satisfied with the ending…how can Yvaine remains a lone as the ruler!!!!! She’ so lonely without her stars family and Tristan. It’s not a fairytale ending I’m looking for. But…on a second thought…a lot of fairytales didn’t end as how we expected. Fine…
    Now, here comes the sub-plot. The future ruler of Stormhold, three brothers finding the stone of Stormhold. This part…to be honest, seem to be a little bit useless in the book. Because, besides the part that Primus and Tristan came across, nothing else thrilling really happened. So…I don’t know how to speak about this part. But how Septimus died was extremely different from the movie. And…quite sad that nothing happened to him beside that, since he appeared to be one of the most brutal sons among all. So…that’s all for the comparison between movie and book! I enjoy the both of them…but…what did you think?
 
Get free worldwide delivery from Book Depository

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Struggle to be an All-American Girl  

The Beauty of Darkness (The Remnant Chronicles Series 3)

October + September Book Haul + Pottermore Patronus + New Announcement