STARDUST: A FALLEN STAR DISAPPOINTMENT

The used copy I got at La Gran Manzana for only $ 15,000 pesitos.

It could have been a lot better, but in the end, fell flat on Earth.

When Neil Gaiman is at his best his prose is exhilarating and engaging, but it was not the case with Stardust. There were so many wonderful things that were supposed to happen in this novel that were simply overlooked and ignored. I am sure that Gaiman had a fantastic story he had planned to tell us, but in the end, he produced this flat monotone which I consider a disappointment. I will not dare say it was a bad book, but it was far from being a good one. By the time I finished reading the last line of Stardust I was already forgetting the plot as well as the main characters. There is not much depth in them, and the ending has no climax whatsoever. If there is a piece of work by Gaiman that is highly overrated, it is Stardust.

I am aware there is a film version which actually helped cement the reputation of the novel, but in these lines, I am going to refer solely to the novel. If you have never read it, and you have got the intention to do so, be warned right now: spoilers alert. I love Gaiman as an author and teacher. He has got fantastic ideas to motivate you to start writing, but this novel felt particularly flat as though he had never wanted to pen it down. The hero is unlikeable and the love story never caught me. It seems to be Gaiman had planned to do lots of stuff, but in the end, he just gave us a few insights into what a great fantasy novel could have sounded.

In the edition I got (luckily an old pre-owned copy I bought at "La Gran Manzana" in Bogotá for only $ 15,000 pesos) there was a page count of 250 words that actually felt like being shorter, due to the fact there was actually a bit too much room between lines. Although the word count seems to be more than enough to tell a compelling story. Gaiman included so many elements that were rushed so awfully, that I felt the story could have improved with a few more pages. Everything seemed to be ethereal. Despite the journey feeling magnificent, and the main reason to read the novel, all the events and the characters we encounter in the story are not given enough depth and background to care for them.

I am usually a highly-focused reader who can concentrate easily on long passages of prose, but Stardust was the type of novel where everything jumps from point A to point B without much warning. I found myself going back in the text repeatedly to find out what had just happened. Lots of characters' motivations or importance are jotted down in a few lines, and except for Tristran and Yvaine, we cannot make ourselves a clear picture of who everyone is.

This novel was written as a fantasy story for teenagers and children. I have always thought this type of readers are extremely hard to please and want to be entertained throughout their journey with a book. I wondered if this novel was able to succeed in accomplishing that. I believe it was not able to do so. the copy I got in La Gran Manzana must have surely belonged to a schoolgirl who thought it was better to get a few pesos back from her original investment, instead of keeping a copy in her personal bookshelf. She could not feel much love for this novel, as I could not feel identified with the way Gaiman wasted a gorgeous set of characters and events to tell us a flat forgettable and frankly boring story. Unfortunately, this has been the worst book I have read this year. If I were ranking my reading with a star system, this would have barely been granted two stars for at least trying hard, but failing flatly.