I think I feel another exclamation mark coming on.

Read ‘Stardust’ while away in Holland, it’s a goood story, but overall I really preferred the film – of course if I’d been exposed to the film/book in the opposite order, my opinion might be reversed. The two plotlines diverge markedly towards the end, and while many of the choices made in the film script are purely to deliver a suitably action- and drama- packed final twenty minutes, the book concludes in a positively serene fashion, with an absolute minimum of fuss or drama. In truth both endings work well for their respective mediums, but such a contrast is very explicit, compared to most film adaptions where details may change, but the plot outline is untouched.