Review - Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Harper Perennial 2006
Paperback 250 pages



Romantic, sweet and highly imaginative, Stardust is that perfect blend of high fantasy, humor and charm with characters that draw you in and make you fall in love. After months of reading history and science books this was the ideal book to break my fast from fantasy fiction.

Tristan Thorn, a boy living in a rural English village that borders the land of Faerie, has lived an ordinary life, in an ordinary village until the day he decides to cross the boundary that separates his village from the magical land beyond to find a fallen star. He sets off upon this quest driven by the desire to win the hand of a beautiful girl from home, only to find a truer love in the adventure and life he finds outside his small town.

At only 250 pages, this story can be read in one very long sitting and is gripping enough that you won't want to put it down until it's last gripping chapter where all of the many side stories... the murderous brothers searching for their crown, the witch seeking to cut the heart from a star and the boy who only wants to go home to his love, are finally brought together into a sweetly satisfying ending.

Review - The Book of Flying by Keith Miller

The Book of Flying by Keith Miller
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Hardback 262 pages



I'll say it. I'm a sucker for books about librarians. Most of the time the books are either cheap romance novels, or contain such a horrible misrepresentation of the stereotypical "mouse-like" library type that I'm immediately turned off. But I was pleasantly surprised by Pico. Born to winged people in a city by the sea, Pico is left to the librarians of the city to care for when he is born wingless. As Pico grows he chances to meet and fall in love with one of the winged people who live with, but apart from the rest of the city. After the girl draws away from him because he can not fly, Pico decides to go on a quest to find a book that he believes will give him wings. This tale is a classic epic quest, with the trials and tribulations one would find in any Greek odyssey. The entire tale was a satisfying journey, with an ending that is bittersweet, but beautiful and unexpected.