I can't count how many times I've read something along the lines "books are usually better than their movie adaptations, but in case of Stardust, the movie surpassed the original". It's one of the reasons why I picked this book and I was very curious how it would fare. And as for me, the book won. I was surprised how close the two adaptations were in terms of story/plot, but how different the feeling, atmosphere and my impression of the Stardust world and its characters were. I love poetic qualities of Gaiman's prose and his own narration (I was listening to audiobook) helped a lot (even though I struggled with understanding sometimes, my vocabulary is not that large). The book and the movie endings differ a lot and I definitely prefer the book one (especially that part about Victoria and the one with the witch). I have to admit though that adding captain Shakespeare to the movie was a genius move and I missed him in the book :D