In regards to the movie, which I liked, although I thought the actors and dialogue could have been better, after reading the book version, it became pretty apparent that the movie makers took a lot of creative liberties. The story is similar, but also quite different.  Different enough to like both? Yeah, I think so.  Imagine a Venn diagram. There’s actually quite a bit in the mutually exclusive zones. But I think I prefer the book version. It’s just a bit more unique, a bit less generic than the movie, a bit less pretentious, a bit more charming.

Amazon describes Stardust as within the same tradition as The Princess Bride, and The Neverending Story. I can kinda see that. All of those have their charm, too. And Neil Gaiman’s prose is fun and easy to read. It’s written in a way that is easygoing and storybook-like, never taking itself too seriously like a novel, but not exactly reading like a child’s book either. And it looks Neil Gaiman just won a Hugo for it.