Stardust [Paperback]

The versatile Neil Gaiman is best known for scripting upmarket graphic novels, most famously the lengthy Sandman cycle. Stardust was a joint project with artist Charles Vess, a short novel of fairyland enriched by at least one sumptuous painting on every page. This edition contains only the (slightly rewritten) text, alas. Gaiman's story looks back to days before commercial genre fantasy, to Lord Dunsany's and Hope Mirrlees's visions of Faerie as a misty country which is at the same time temptingly close and "over the hills and far away". The simple tale is new but has a twice-told familiarity, crafted like a mosaic from many traditional elements. Hopelessly crossed in love, a boy of half-fairy parentage leaves his mundane Victorian-English village on a quest for a fallen star in the magical realm. The star proves to be an attractive woman with a hot temper, who plunges with our hero into adventures featuring witches, the lion and the unicorn, plotting elf-lords, ships that sail the sky, magical transformations, curses whose effects rebound, binding conditions with hidden loopholes and all the rest. Stardust is by turns knowing, poetic, comic and grisly and exudes considerable charm. If only we had those full-colour Vess paintings too. --David Langford --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'In prose that dances and dazzles, Gaiman describes the indescribable: the eerie colours, ravishing scents and dangerous laughter of Faerie' (Susanna Clarke )

'A new fairy tale about a young man's hunt for his heart's desire, told in clear, rolling prose' (Guardian )

‘STARDUST is charming, in every sense of the word, and deeply satisfying’

‘A very fine and imaginative writer’

‘Like traditional fairytales, the prose is beautifully simple while the sheer density of the mythology is breathtaking’

‘This is a gorgeous, imagination-igniting work, a skyscraping rush of pure storytelling’

A breathtaking and magical novel from master storyteller Neil Gaiman.

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall - named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining...

Includes extra material exclusive to this Headline Review edition.

Includes exclusive extra material:

A Prologue to WALL, an unwritten novel set in the world of Stardust
A new Interview with Neil Gaiman about STARDUST
Reading-group Discussion Questions

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 Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester, but Victoria is cold and distant as the star she and Tristran see fall from the sky one evening. For the prize of Victoria’s hand, Tristran 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 beyond imagining...

From his groundbreaking graphic novel series THE SANDMAN to his bestselling novels NEVERWHERE and AMERICAN GODS, Neil Gaiman’s startling imagination has manifested itself in strange and sublimely inventive fiction. STARDUST is his most enchanting tale yet.

Neil Gaiman has spent his adult life making things up and writing them down. He lives more in America than he does anywhere else. He has written books and films and children's books and television. He has a blog over at www.neilgaiman.com. He's won more than his fair share of literary awards, was voted twenty-first equal on a recent poll of Great British Authors, and has no idea where he put his keys.