A witch, a unicorn, and a fallen star walk into a bar… Actually, that scene doesn’t take place until two-thirds of the way through Stardust, but by that point it makes perfect sense. Neil Gaiman’s coming-of-age fantasy adventure is brimming with other-worldly characters, several of whom have a keen interest in the story’s twists and turns.

The city of Wall, England, sits (as you might guess) next to a rather unique wall, one that separates the land of Faerie from our world. Visitors from our world are allowed to pass through the guarded gate in the wall only once every nine years, on the occasion of a Faerie Market held just on the other side.

During one such Market, early in the nineteenth century, Tristan Thorn is conceived. His mother is from Faerie, but Tristan is raised by his father in Wall. As a young man, he (along with most of the other male residents of Wall) is smitten with the beautiful Victoria Forester. One night, in an effort to win her love, he promises to fetch for her a fallen star in return for a kiss and her hand. She agrees, and with a seriousness she never envisioned, Tristan sets off.

Gaiman’s Faerie world, through which Tristan ventures on his quest, is magical through and through. There is good and ill, but in Gaiman’s hand it is all wonderful. The reader is almost effortlessly entranced by the landscape and its characters, and Tristan’s growth from rash adolescence into early manhood is made all the more real by his fantastic surroundings.