Stardust

Neil Gaiman is a man whose works, shorts or longs, written or in motion were somethings i saw with grudgingly envious manners. Imagine it this way, you were top of your class for several years in a row, when suddenly this new kid, younger, more handsome, toppled you from the top that easily. And since, in any given game, there'd be only two positions, Winner or Loser, after comfortably in a Winning position, being a sudden Loser is not something that would reined in happily. That's what i felt when i read Neil Gaiman's. His works demonstrates a skillful story-telling (grudge number one), dealt with fantasy and magnificent imagination (grudge number two), and finally crosses many boundaries that his works is sometime frightening (grudge number three), and sometime humorous (grudge number four). Granted, making people laugh or scared by means of written words were not an easy feats. But yet, on more than one occassions, Neil Gaiman's works inspired fear and ignited chuckles in me.

"Stardust" (now a motion picture) is a lighthearted fantasy written works in the form of graphic novel, accompanied here and there by beautiful illustrations by Charles Vess, and suggested for mature readers. Sets in rural English village and a fantasy Faerie land, chiefly dealt with Love and a man's quest to attain such Love. It was peacefully started, and also peacefully ended. The story itself was no stranger, almost akin to many bedtime stories that always seems to begin with "Once upon a time..." and always seems to end with "Happily ever after." True enough that "Stardust" begins with sort of "once upon a time..." and ends with a sort that quite passable as "happily ever after". But, the various reference (and rather graphic visualization) of sex and murder made "Stardust" none too wise a choice as a story to read to your kids. You might would have guessed how the story would end halfway through the story. But nonetheless, the execution of how the story was ended at the Epilogue suggested a remorse and a pang of sadness, that actually, in a way, rather marred the "happily ever after" part. But, well, you see, it was still a "happily ever after" - if you hadn't read the Epilogue part, that is - only the kind of "happy" that has been reached its "ever after" part, and thus had exhausted itself.

I haven't seen the film, as it had generated significantly less buzz even though there were prominent names in the film (Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Claire Danes). I haven't seen it in local theaters, and no words of when the film would actually arrived, though it has been released for quite a while.

My rating: *** / **** - Simple and plain read.