Stardust

A young man from the village of Wall, on the border of Faerie, crosses over to fetch a fallen star for the girl he thinks he loves, and finds the star is a person with opinions of her own. Gaiman wrote it deliberately in the pre-Tolkien English tradition of Dunsany and Hope Mirrlees, and it is usually published with Charles Vess’s illustrations.

Context: second of the four titles under the a16z list’s Gaiman author entry. The shortest and least characteristic of the four — a straight fairy tale rather than the urban mythology of the other three.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from; Fantasy section, Gaiman author entry.
• Neil Gaiman — the author.
• Good Omens — first of the four selected works.
• American Gods — third of the four.
• Anansi Boys — fourth of the four.
• a16z — the firm whose infrastructure team curates the list.