Set in the beginning of the Victorian era, Stardust is part love story, part fairy tale. A young man falls in love with the local beauty, a woman far beyond his reach. By chance they see a falling star and, emboldened by the romance of the night, he asks her for a kiss. She tells him that if he brings her the fallen star they had just seen she will give him his heart’s desire. So begins a quest that takes him deep into the realm of the fairies before bringing him home again with a very different heart’s desire.
Told in a style reminiscent of the Brother’s Grimm this is a lovely adult version of a child’s fairytale. Though a satisfying story full of magic and murder, desire and deception, the hero’s quest is told in summary, almost superficially, and the technique works well. It is taken for granted that all things miraculous and wonderful will be unquestioningly accepted as part of the fabric of the world and are never explained. It is a testament to this author’s ability that the world comes across as vibrant and real with minimal attention paid to the usual details of world building. Rather than coming across as a failing it helps the reader to skip lightly through the story instead of getting bogged down in heavy details.
The morals of the story, while obvious, are delivered with a light hand. A delightful read.-Lynn
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