I expected to like this book more than I actually did. I heard many good things by Neil Gaiman, enjoyed his cameo on The Simpsons, and was told this was a great book. That just proves to me never to listen to anything people say on the Internet. It wasn’t a great book. I’m not sure if it was a good book. It was average, at best and worst.
Gaiman’s world of Faerie was full of imaginative creatures and locales, but most of them are skimmed across in a paragraph. Too much of the book is a summary of Tristran’s journey through Faerie, and it’s not just the non-essential bits of Tristran’s travels, but even his budding love affair is summarized. The only reason we get for the two falling in love is that they spend a lot of time together. (I don’t consider that a spoiler because it should be obvious that the two will end up together from the beginning, which is the only reason I even bought it as plausible.)
The ending was dull. I didn’t expect explosions, but everything is resolved way too conveniently to satisfy. A lot of the story feels too convenient, such as how Tristran is able to get to the star so quickly. It doesn’t feel natural, and I can’t help but wonder why powerful witches would lack such magic.
Two hundred pages is not enough for the story. It feels rushed and compressed, and the summaries of what happens makes it difficult to give a damn about the characters. The more I think about the book, the less I like it.
There are much better fantasy books out there. I hear the movie is better though.
My Final Score: Under 9,000
