Neil Gaiman's "Stardust"

Thanks to Neil Gaiman's very own blog we discover photographs from the upcoming film based on his book, Stardust! Starring in the film is My So-Called Claire Danes, Michelle Pfiefer, Sienna Miller, Rupert Everett, etc etc... For those of you new to this - Gaiman is one of my ultra-fave authors who happens to delve in fanstasia. Now, before you throw the D&D/Star Trek card at me - let me give you the hand.

Gaiman is probably more known for creating the Sandman comics, of which I've never picked one up. Ever. His novels, however - are the epitome of hauntingly beautiful in their descriptive and distinct way. When he is writing about a secret underground society unbeknownst to the “normal” world (Neverwhere), or about ancient gods/devils/demons - he describes them as if he's seen them with his own eyes so descriptively and detailed that it's utterly convincing. I cite his being a graphic novelist to the reason why he's so damn good at trapping you inside a book (and not due to the fact that his dad is a prominent scientologist). What more could you want out of a novel? Buffy the Supernatural Slayer & Charmed Angel + other WB CW shows, nothin'!

They made a BBC Mini-series of Neverwhere in 1996 that actually came BEFORE the book, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the book. Wikipedia says it best, "For a book based on a TV series, it is considered to be surprisingly good, perhaps because it was written by Neil Gaiman himself, and might be described as an adaptation of the series as he would have preferred it, without the compromises required by budget restrictions and other factors." And dude, I know that everyone always says that the book is better than the movie– but this didn’t even come close. Though there are worse mini-series out there, if you came across the most poorly-written review of the book that would still be better than watching this. I bring this up because Stardust the movie better be great in their own right. I don't expect it to equal the book, however I'd like it to be acceptable the way Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter are to their fans.

I'm such a big Gaiman fan that I even bought Coraline, his children's novel. Yeah, it was a little too mild for my taste but I gave it to my assistant's daughter and she loved it so much, she wrote a book report about it and got an A. (For that I sent her a bunch of Chococat-Sanrio gifts - all geared towards inspiring her to write like pencils and stationary, et al.)

Anyway, yes yes admiration, inspiration blah blah blah but... did I mention that he's pretty cute for a nerdy author? I mean, if you're into a skinnier version of Chris Noth's Mr. Big character with an English accent. Disclaimer: He's not always ha-cha-cha-cha-cha. He's a freaking sci-fi novelist for crying out loud, and in some unflattering pictures - Yes, he needs a little product and better lighting. But trust: dude is cute.
PS) I can't believe I lived in Minneapolis for three years and NEVER even thought to try to stalk him in one way or another! Dunce indeed!

Okay, I am probably not getting you to jump out of your seats to interrupt your holiday practices to sit down with a dark sci-fantasy novel - but I can at least offer you an mp3 excerpt of one of his works, no?

[mp3] Nicholas was... [/mp3]
(it's a xmas card in exactly 100 words. 102 if you count the title)

Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman wiki