Amy's bookshelf :: Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess

Continuing with the topic of Stardust, this item from my bookshelf is one of the graphic novels of Stardust, subtitled Being A Romance Within the Realms of Faerie, with story by Neil Gaiman and pictures by Charles Vess. This is book 3 of 4 in the series. It was published in 1998 by DC Comics Vertigo. It contains 48 pages, and although it's comic book sized, it has much more text than a comic book. It's basically a story accompanied by color illustrations.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

The Book of the Week is Stardust by Neil Gaiman. We will finish our recap of the classics of science fiction from 1953 next week, but I saw that the film version of Stardust opens this week, so I couldn't miss the chance to show off my signed hardcover first edition (preceded by the original illustrated version serialized in four comic books), cover design by Russell Gordon.

Stardust is the charming story of Tristran Thorn's quest to recover a fallen star to impress a lady, a task rendered more difficult by the star's reluctance to cooperate. (For more, see the book group's page on Stardust ) Neil Gaiman first became popular writing graphic novels (i.e., comic books), notably the landmark Sandman series. He has since proven himself an excellent prose writer as well, winning Hugo Awards for Best Novel for American Gods and Best Novella for Coraline (an animated film version of which is also in production), and reaching #1 on the New York Times bestseller list with Anansi Boys (see my review of Anansi Boys ). His short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" is a current Hugo finalist.

One should never expect much when Hollywood adapts written science fiction and fantasy, but the strong cast (Charlie Cox as Tristran, Claire Danes as the star, Peter O'Toole as the king, Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch, and Robert DeNiro as the pirate Captain Shakespeare) gives hope that Stardust will add to the recent trend of Hollywood treating SF/F with a bit more respect.