My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was NOT my favorite Neil Gaiman book. In fact, this was the first Neil Gaiman book I read, and almost the last. I liked it that little. I found the setting and the characters to be hollow. The naming convention he used for the villains made them more flat than they might have actually been.
I put this book down with a “harumph!” and moved on to other things, determining never to read anything by Neil Gaiman again. Then… after following him on Twitter, and really coming to know more about Neil’s creative life, I decided to give him another try. I picked up American Gods… and since then have fallen in love with Neil and his worlds of fantasy. I still haven’t tried to read Stardust again, and probably won’t. But I find that I can forgive him for that book, since the larger body of work he has produced captivates me so.