Audiobook Review: Stardust

Stardust

Author: Neil Gaiman
Narrator: Neil Gaiman
Duration: 6 hrs, 38 mins
Publisher: Harper Audio
Source: Digital Copy for review from Publisher

Description from Goodreads:
Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria Forester - even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that stone barrier, Tristran learns, lies Faerie . . . and the most exhilarating adventure of the young man's life.

From number-one New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman comes a tale of the dark and miraculous - a quest for true love and the utterly impossible.

Review:

This is my third format for Neil Gaiman's Stardust, having first seen the film and then read the physical book. Thus far, Stardust has been my favorite Neil Gaiman work, perhaps in great part because of my love for the movie. The book has a few key differences from the film, but I do like it quite well. I find, however, that Stardust as a book works so much better, for me at least, as an audiobook.

Fairy tales were passed down through generations as part of an oral tradition, captured on paper eventually by enterprising souls like the Brothers Grimm. As such, Gaiman's fairly tale comes alive on audio. The format just seems so utterly appropriate for the story. I've also listened to the audiobook of The Graveyard Book, narrated by Neil Gaiman, and this one feels much more intimate, more like he's telling you personally a story. There's just something about this book read aloud.

The strength of Gaiman's writing lies in his world building and his writing, both of which I think are phenomenal. Neil Gaiman, much as I admire him, is not among my very favorite authors because I do not think he does quite so well with characterization, which is my favorite aspect of books. This is most definitely the case in Stardust, but, in audiobook format, this did not bother me or particularly diminish my enjoyment of the story the way it did when I read it myself. This format also really allowed me to appreciate the beauty of Gaiman's prose.

I'm not precisely certain how the Gift edition differs from the other Stardust audio, but it may be the inclusion of a few extras, like an interview with Neil Gaiman. In this interview, Gaiman made some clever observations on audiobooks and how different a reading experience they are. He observed that they can really make a person listen to every single word of the text, rather than skimming through description-heavy passages in favor of action scenes and dialog. This is so true, and precisely why I could develop a slightly stronger appreciation for his writing talent.

So far as the story of Stardust goes, I really enjoy parts of it, like the concept and the wall separating faerie from the human world. Other things are less well done, and, to be entirely truthful, I largely prefer the changes the film made to the plot. The characters come alive on film in a way they don't, and the romance is believable where it really isn't here. I also feel the ending is rather anticlimactic and rushed in the book.

What it really comes down to, though, is that having Neil Gaiman read you a story is a beautiful thing. He has a lovely voice, and he does a great job narrating his stories. If you've struggled with Gaiman in the past or been hesitant to try his books, I would highly recommend the audio versions as perhaps a bit more accessible.

Rating: 4.5/5

Within You, Without You - The Beatles

A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Time Quintet, Book 3

Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Pages: 278
Publisher: Dell

This series seriously just gets stranger and stranger. In the third book in the series, L'Engle abandons her more scientific approach and goes instead for outright religious references and time travel, but not in a scientific way.

Let me go back. In between A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, many years have passed. Meg and Calvin have married; Calvin is eminent in his studies, and Meg, having abandoned her excellent mathematical intelligence is pregnant with her first child.

The crisis of the book is brought forward at the opening when Mr. Murry receives a call from the President, asking for his help because a dictator, Mad Dog Branzillo, is threatening nuclear war. Mom O'Keefe, who came for Thanksgiving dinner, remembers a rune (essentially a prayer or phrase imbued with magic powers), which saves them from nasty weather (an over the top metaphor for impending doom). She gives this rune to Charles Wallace, and tells him he needs to stop Mad Dog.

He goes out to the star-watching rock to think about this, kything with Meg the whole time. There he meets a unicorn, whose mission it is to travel with him through time, which unicorns born from eggs can do by the way. They hop around randomly in time, and, at almost every time, Charles Wallace has to go 'within' a person there, which means that he can see things through there eyes and have a small impact on what they're doing. Basically, he just says the rune in all of the important places, so that he can make everything happy again.

Way to make a unicorn lame, Madeleine L'Engle. Also, what is with this rune business? Deus ex rune. Ugh. It is evident that L'Engle believes not in Christianity precisely, or, at least, not in Christianity as it is commonly worshiped. However, it is all bound up in her writing. This whole book is built around a family, who through generations have been reliving Cain and Abel. Lovely, I know.

Actually, that's not quite right. More like, two families who kept doing this, and the end result of their line was this Mad Dog Branzillo character. Of course, maybe that's because these two families kept intermarrying. I think the message I was supposed to get from this book was something about peace and goodness, but all I really got was that incest makes for badness, which I already fully believed.

When I was younger, I remember having loved the first book. I thought Meg and Calvin had this completely epic romance. They were one of the best couples in fiction, I think I thought at one point. Now, I have no idea why. There was only the slightest hint of romance in the first books. Then in book three they're married and pregnant. What the heck is that? Why would you skip the best freaking parts, L'Engle? And why can't Meg use her smarts that you spent the first two books proving she had?

Suffice it to say that I will not be reading Many Waters. It's been kind of fun revisiting these, but they're definitely not what I thought they were, which is another kind of entertaining. So sad when books are not nearly so good when read through the eyes of an adult. I really need to do a top ten list for that. :-P

Rating: 1.5/5

"We were talking
About the love that's gone so cold
And the people who gain the world
And lose their soul
They don't know, they can't see
Are you one of them?

When you've seen beyond yourself
Then you may find
Peace of mind is waiting there
And the time will come
When you see we're all one
And life flows on within you and without you"

That's All I've Got to Say - Jeff Bridges & Mia Farrow

The Last Unicorn

Adapted By: Peter B. Gillis
Illustrator: Renae De Liz
Pages: 167
ARC Acquired From: IDW Publishing via NetGalley

As a child, I greatly adored horses and, even more, their mythological counterparts, pegasi and unicorns. It should come as no surprise then that one of my favorite movies as a child was The Last Unicorn. It is very much one of those kid's movies that you either watched as a child and will thus adore forever, but, if watched for the first time in adulthood, definitely comes off as incredibly creepy. I can totally see why others don't like it, but it will forever hold a dear place in my heart.

For the most part, this graphic novel version of the story covers the same ground as the film. The look of the characters very clearly was inspired by the film version as well. The small additions to the plot in some places, and the subtractions (like the tree that freaked people out the most in the movie), made me even more curious to read the original novel. That is definitely a thing I need to do someday.

The graphic novel is definitely pretty and oh so colorful. However, its brevity means that a few things have to be cut. Much of the trimming took place in the latter half of the tale, making it rather confusing and, did I not know the story, I likely would have been confused by much of the time spent in King Haggard's castle.

"Once when I was searching
Somewhere out of reach
Far away
In a place I could not find
Or heart obey
Now that I'm a woman
Now I know the way"

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny - Lemon Demon

Zombies vs. Unicorns

Editors: Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier
Genre: fantasy, young adult, short stories
Pages: 415

Today, I'm going to do something a bit different. Having finished this short story collection, I am going to give the stories awards to convey the best and the worst.

Funniest Story: "The Highest Justice" by Garth Nix- I have not been a Garth Nix fan, much to my own disappointment, but I though he did a great job with this story. It's absurd, but in a way that I found entirely comical. Nix does not take the whole thing too seriously and keeps up the comedy throughout. Win. Also the only story to feature both zombies and unicorns, although it is ranked with Team Unicorn. Honorable mentions: "Princess Prettypants" by Meg Cabot, which started off a bit lamely, but got to be laugh-out-load funny at parts; "The Purity Test" by Naomi Novik- a unicorn who gives up on finding a virgin in NYC enlists a hungover girl on a park bench, which is funny all on its own.

Most Terrifying: Tie between "A Thousand Flowers" by Margo Lanagan and "The Children of the Revolution" by Maureen Johnson- Which is worse: bestiality or zombie children? Lanagan's unicorn story is absolutely disgusting; she tries to sell some sort of warped interspecies romance, but I'm not buying. Blech. After reading that one, you will want to cleanse your brain with soap. Through some folly or evil prank on the part of the editors, "The Children of the Revolution" is the next story in the collection. This one is more out and out horrifying, mostly because I am a bit terrified of kids to begin with. Also, I am now haunted by Sponge Bob.

Most Romantic: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Alaya Dawn Johnson- Philip's a zombie, but, brain-eating aside, he's a pretty good one. None of the rotting and he has great taste in music (like the Arctic Monkeys). Just as he is arranging his next meal of mac n' cheese (i.e. human), his prey starts getting more and more appetizing, only not in an entirely food-like manor. Can Philip hold back his zombie urges enough to make it work with Jack? Also, I have to mention, major props to this collection for representing gays and lesbians, who feature in Scott Westerfeld's story; I love seeing young adult fiction become more open-minded. Honorable mention: "Cold Hands" by Cassandra Clare- another zombie story, but I suppose the category above proved why the unicorn tales don't feature much romance.

Why Come Up with a New Idea When You Can Recycle?: "Bougainvillea" by Carrie Ryan- Really, Carrie Ryan? You can't right anything not set in your world that bears an uncanny resemblance to The Village? Not to mention that many of the themes of the stories are in every single one. God forbid a heroine find any amount of happiness or ever seem like a real person. Although not part of this category per se, I also must comment on the fact that her choice to alternate between past and present did not tell the story very effectively. Honorable mention: "The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn" by Diana Peterfreund- a good story and definitely not the same as the Astrid books. Still, it might have been nice to see Peterfreund do something different with the unicorns.

Weirdest: "Love Will Tear Us Apart"- Although, as I mentioned above, this story has some good points, it's also one of the most oddly constructed pieces of fiction I have ever read. It jumps around in time and is told largely in second person. Honorable mention: "Prom Night" by Libba Bray- the story didn't feel complete to me at all, so it just left me confused and unsatisfied.

Most Depressing: "The Third Virgin" by Kathleen Duey- A unicorn bothered by its past wanders around trying to commit suicide makes friends with a suicidal virgin. A regular barrel of laughs.

The Story I Most Wish Were a Book: "Inoculata" by Scott Westerfeld- Although rather reminiscent of the recent film Zombieland and with a common theme to The Dead-Tossed Waves, Westerfeld has done some interesting things here. The story felt a bit like a teaser; when it was over, there was a lot more I wanted to know.

Team Unicorn or Team Zombie? While I like both, on the basis of the stories here, I declare myself a member of Team Unicorn. Partly because the unicorn stories were better overall, since a couple of the zombie stories really failed to impress me, but also because I got sick of Justine Larabalestier's (leader of Team Zombie) snide comments at the beginning of every story.

Everything Put Together Falls Apart - Paul Simon

Ascendant
Killer Unicorns, Book 1

Author: Diana Peterfreund
Genre: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 392
ARC Acquired From: HarperCollins Author Signing at ALA 2010

In deference to the fact that describing a sequel is really hard to do without dropping some omg spoilers for the earlier books, I am not going to summarize the plot for this book. If you're curious, check out my previous post on the first book in the Killer Unicorns series, Rampant.

Once again, I enjoyed the book about vicious, man-eating unicorns, although perhaps slightly less than I liked the first one. This is not because this one is any less good, but because it is a lot less happy than the prior book. The first book had its share of injuries, violence and tough issues, but this one has very little happy occurrences to balance the badness. Nonetheless, all the pain felt necessary and true.

The issues that Astrid struggled with are back, but she cannot continue to waver. She deals with her relationship with Giovanni, which becomes even more questionable with the long distance element and the reappearance of Brandt. She also becomes increasingly unsure about whether unicorn hunting is a good thing and whether killing unicorns is truly justified by the human lives that will be saved. Family issues must be dealt with as well, from her absent father to her megalomaniac mother.

Ascendant is a good sequel and hopefully not the end of the series. I think there is room for more, although the ending of this book could conceivably end the series. Hopefully not for Astrid's sake. Ascendant came out yesterday so check it out (after reading Rampant, of course)!

"Paraphernalia
Never hides your broken bones
And I don't know why
You want to try"

The Last Unicorn - America

Rampant
Killer Unicorns, Book 1

Author: Diana Peterfreund
Genre: fantasy, young adult
Pages: 402

Brief Summary:
Astrid Llewelyn can trace her lineage back to Alexander the Great, who rode Buchephalus, the largest unicorn ever. She doesn't actually care too much about that; really, she wishes she could hear a lot less about it from her mother, who she suspects may be crazy, what with her insistence on the existence of unicorns. Astrid, her mother informs her, ought to be a unicorn hunter, as only virgin females descended from good old Alexander can be. This mostly just annoys her until the day that her attempting-to-get-to-third-base boyfriend gets attacked by a unicorn in front of her, after which her mother ships her off to unicorn hunter boot camp. She does not know what to make of her burgeoning powers, her heritage, the unicorns or her destiny.

Review:
I must confess, first of all, to having been one of the children that Astrid could never understand; I loved unicorns and owned several My Little Ponies with magic horns. Honestly, I still like the idea of them, although in my world, they certainly are not man-eating monsters. Despite my childish love of pretty, shiny, friendly unicorns, I am not opposed to the idea of these blood-thirsty, fanged, venomous creatures either. Peterfreund does something new with unicorn lore, but she sells it.

The book did not really take off for the first couple hundred pages in my mind, mostly because Astrid spent them trying to escape her destiny. She whined and wished for things to be different. While entirely understandable and necessary even, this does not make for the most exciting reading. Once she starts coming into herself more and accepting her unicorn hunter-ness, the book starts moving at a very quick pace.

The action scenes are well done and do not go on long enough to be boring. The book is definitely violent; be prepared for bloodshed and bad things to happen. Peterfreund tackles really important issues, such as what exactly constitutes virginity and rape. She does so very well, presenting ideas without beating the audience over the head with her opinions. These parts really make the reader think. I even think that (sections, at least) of this book could be used in a study on virginity for a sexual ethics course (yes, they do exist, as I took one).

Shameful though it may be thought to admit it, I worried a bit about a book where the main character has to remain virginal or lose what makes her the main character. I suspected there would be a lack of romance and male characters, since romance in paranormal books often equals sex these days. Let me just say that there is romance in this book, although there are no overdramatic declarations of love on first eye contact.

I highly recommend this book for fantasy lovers. It has action, romance and well-drawn, multi-faceted characters that grow and change through the series. This might be a good book for Hunger Games fans searching for something else exciting and fantastical, although not quite as heartbreaking.

"And it seems like all is dying and would leave the world to mourn
In the distance hear the laughter of the last unicorn

I'm alive, I'm alive "