Stardust
Neil Gaiman · 1999
A young man crosses a wall into Faerie to retrieve a fallen star for his love, then discovers the star is a woman with her own desires. Gaiman's most purely romantic fantasy and his most elegant prose achievement, an homage to Hope Mirrlees, Lord Dunsany, and E. Nesbit.
The case against
Gaiman's pastiche is faithful to the point of feeling borrowed: Dunsany's furniture, tastefully rearranged. Tristran is a blank who succeeds mostly through luck and a magic candle, Victoria exists to be wrong about, and the episodic quest dissolves each obstacle the moment it gets interesting. Charming for an evening, gone by morning.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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