Stardust and Sandman
Jul. 22nd, 2005 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalNot actual reviews, but incredible simulations....
Stardust is Neil Gaiman in Charming Mode, and he does a fair job at it. In summary, the town of Wall in England in the 1860's has a wall. Or accurately, a Wall, that stands between the real world and the land of Faerie. It also has an opening, which is guarded, but once a year allows free travel for a day and night between the two realms for the Faire, where ordinary mortals and the creatures of the Faerie trade mutual wonders. One particular Faire has young Tristan Thorn be concieved between a mortal man and a faerie enslved to a witch. Eighteen years later the young man grows up on the mortal side of Wall, and crosses over to recover a fallen star for his lady love. Naturally the star turns out to be a young girl, brought to earth by a sorceror king who has a succession problem with his seven sons (four of which start the book already dead). Just as naturally Tristan and the star find themselves on the run from the sons, a Lilim witch, and the occasionally man eating forest.
It's all very light and airy as a soap bubble. Like any faerie tale there are wonders to behold, that are most certainly not explained, but just are (the fact that the opening between the Mortal and Faerie realms is suggested to have survived through the 20th Century either makes my head want to explode or get my notebook out for an RPG campaign). There's also quite a bit of horror, but nothing that is dwelled upon too long, just enough to remind us that the Brothers weren't named Grimm by coincidence.
Read it.
As for Sandman...
*head explodes*
I can't frigging believe I wasn't reading this earlier. Gaiman tosses off Wonders in a single page that other authors could spend a whole trilogy exploring. The idea of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream being commissioned and first played as a gift for the real Oberon and Titania alone makes this series worth reading. (head explodes again).
And the main point behind Sandman is that Morpheous, frankly, isn't all that interesting. It's the people around him, from the rest of the Endless, to Cain and Abel (the former still needs help with his anger management issues, though if that's what Abel was like before the First Murder it's no wonder Cain killed him), and the dragons, the Faeries, and Thessaly (don't f*ck wit hthe geek girl, you never know how long she's been around), and the rest are what make the series.
Hopefully my library will have the entire run soon...
Stardust is Neil Gaiman in Charming Mode, and he does a fair job at it. In summary, the town of Wall in England in the 1860's has a wall. Or accurately, a Wall, that stands between the real world and the land of Faerie. It also has an opening, which is guarded, but once a year allows free travel for a day and night between the two realms for the Faire, where ordinary mortals and the creatures of the Faerie trade mutual wonders. One particular Faire has young Tristan Thorn be concieved between a mortal man and a faerie enslved to a witch. Eighteen years later the young man grows up on the mortal side of Wall, and crosses over to recover a fallen star for his lady love. Naturally the star turns out to be a young girl, brought to earth by a sorceror king who has a succession problem with his seven sons (four of which start the book already dead). Just as naturally Tristan and the star find themselves on the run from the sons, a Lilim witch, and the occasionally man eating forest.
It's all very light and airy as a soap bubble. Like any faerie tale there are wonders to behold, that are most certainly not explained, but just are (the fact that the opening between the Mortal and Faerie realms is suggested to have survived through the 20th Century either makes my head want to explode or get my notebook out for an RPG campaign). There's also quite a bit of horror, but nothing that is dwelled upon too long, just enough to remind us that the Brothers weren't named Grimm by coincidence.
Read it.
As for Sandman...
*head explodes*
I can't frigging believe I wasn't reading this earlier. Gaiman tosses off Wonders in a single page that other authors could spend a whole trilogy exploring. The idea of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream being commissioned and first played as a gift for the real Oberon and Titania alone makes this series worth reading. (head explodes again).
And the main point behind Sandman is that Morpheous, frankly, isn't all that interesting. It's the people around him, from the rest of the Endless, to Cain and Abel (the former still needs help with his anger management issues, though if that's what Abel was like before the First Murder it's no wonder Cain killed him), and the dragons, the Faeries, and Thessaly (don't f*ck wit hthe geek girl, you never know how long she's been around), and the rest are what make the series.
Hopefully my library will have the entire run soon...
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