I have one word for Neil Gaiman – spellbinding.
Plain and simple. He masterfully creates such a complete, layered fantasy world for his reader that they are completely lost in it from the first page to the last. What perhaps makes it so entirely convincing is the delicate, seamless weaving of this existence with our own. Reading the novel becomes a shared experience of the reader with Gaiman; they are “in on the joke” so to speak, watching from above as the novel’s stars do while their own reality remains close enough to add plausibility, without mundanity.
References, for instance, to common phrases – “There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of un-hatched chicks” – or Yvaine, who, upon hitting the ground at the beginning of the novel, utters not an archaic exclamation in keeping with the assumed medieval setting of many fairy tales but rather ‘Ow’ and then ‘Fuck’. Little details like this ensure humour also remains ever-present.
In case you can’t tell, I enjoyed ‘Stardust’ very much.
In Porto, however, the weather was against us. Heavy rain and thick fog made it difficult to see much at all from the many viewpoints and the vibrant colours I’d been told so much about were dampened. I still very much enjoyed what we did see – the train station’s beautiful tiles, the park, little jumble sale antique shops, churches, higgledy-piggledy streets with flower-box windows and, of course, the river. Definitely resolved to go back when the weather looks more like the postcards I bought!
Bookishly Abroad 