2 posts tagged “neil gaiman”

After watching the movie adaptation, I obviously went back to the source and listened to the audio version of Stardust written by Neil Gaiman. At the same time I also looked at the illustrated book.
 
This is a really good fantasy/fairy tale for adults. There are many scary scenes in this book, but it also contained many light hearted scenes. The style in which this is written is very poetic. I usually don't care much about that style, I am not a literary guy, but in this book it really works.
 
I think listening to it read by Neil Gaiman made it even better, it jus

t sounds really nice. There are so many characters in this story, all of them memorable. However many of them have a very small role, sometimes they are introduced and never seen again. I do wish that they would either have a bigger role, or just not introduced at all. Their presence wasn't really needed for the plot.
 
Another little problem at the end, I though it was weird the way Tristran dealt with his real mother, Gaiman didn't go into that at all, not even a brief mention.
 
Other than that, I thought this was a very good story, and the illustrations by Charles Vess were also excellent. His style is the quintessential fantasy art in my mind.

 

This recent mini by Neil Gaiman revives the Eternals concept created by Kirby and tries to once and for all fit them into the Marvel Universe.
 
Gaiman pretty much keeps the mythology intact (with some exceptions) and creates a story where the Eternals all lost their memory, but little by little they realize their true identity and what they lose by not being humans.
 
This is a pretty tipical story, and it feels very familiar (it even felt like House of M). There is plenty of action, and also a lot of exposition about the past.
 
All this is very well drawn by John Romita Jr. His style is perfect for this epic story, especially when it comes to drawing the Celestials. Every page drawn by JRJR already feels bigger than usual, and when he drawn a giant God it really shines.
 
The ending was surprising to me, a bit underwhelming. Minor Spoiler ahead. The story seems to bring to a huge fight with a Celestial, instead it just stops there, simply presenting us with the new status quo, one where the Eternals are part of the Marvel Universe, in fact Iron Man knows about them.
 
This ending felt like the setup for an ongoing series, except there is none. I felt disappointed by this. The story is fine, not very exciting or particularly original. The art is very good and perfect. I just wish Neil Gaiman would write his own stories, instead of writing what Marvel wants.