The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
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Book Reviews of The Neverending Story
Book Review: Pure Magic
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is pure magic, and it is a feast for the imagination. In The Neverending Story, Michael Ende has created a magical world in the Neverending Story that is a joyful journey to depart upon. Wonderful fantasy and characters, and also meaning and life lessons.
Bastien is a small picked-on boy with a lifesize imagination, who picks up a book called the NEVERENDING STORY, that takes him on a magical adventure. Written in a book within a book format, Bastien soon becomes part of the Neverending Story. Fantastical characters abound (this is Fantastica after all), Falkor, the luckdragon, Atreyu, the hero Greenskin. They are all special. There are even some scary beings in Fantastica, because Fantastica is the land of the imagination, and all beings are special within the imagination, all are equal because they exist.
Bastien is chosen for a mission to provide the Childlike Empress with a new name. With her the fate of Fantastica rests. Bastien is a human, and humans and Fantasticans have always had a precarious relationship. They need each other, but humans tend to take Fantastica for granted, and deny its existence, making room for lies and delusions in the human world. Fantastica needs and relies upon the human world, and is taken over by the NOTHING if humans stop believing.
Come along with Bastien on his adventures. You will get sucked in, trust me. And maybe you will come away a little bit braver, and a little more loving, and more apt to discover the adventures of everyday life, as a human, and also find the way to FANTASTICA!
Book Review: It's Fantastic(a)!
Summary: 5 Stars
"(Bastian) had never been willing to believe that life had to be as gray and dull as people claimed. He heard them saying: `Life is like that,' but he couldn't agree. He never stopped believing in mysteries and miracles." -page 153
The Neverending Story, originally written in German by Michael Ende, speaks to that hope in us. It concerns a sad, chubby little boy named Bastian whose life is perfectly miserable. In an attempt to escape some bullies he finds himself in a musty old rare bookstore. He is irresistibly drawn to a mysterious old storybook, which he steals, and flees to the attic of his school to read The Neverending Story in peace. He reads about a world called Fantastica with incredible characters and a Childlike Empress who is terribly sick. At the same time a terrible thing called the Nothing is destroying Fantastica and a little boy (actually a Greenskin) named Atreyu is sent on a mission by the Childlike Empress to find out the cause of this terrible plight and to save Fantastica before it's too late. Bastian finds himself becoming entwined in the story as the lines between the two worlds become blurred.
This is one of the best books I've read in a while--it's not only a page-turner but seems to have multiple layers of meaning and in many ways feels like an allegory. Ende's imagination is almost godlike in scope (in the same way Tolkien and Lewis were able to create the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia). I am usually not a fan of fantasy, but I would (and do) recommend this book to anyone (and everyone).
Book Review: This book is the stuff dreams are made of
Summary: 5 Stars
Or dreams are the stuff this book is made of, both ways work.
I have loved the movie based on this book since I was a kid, but had never had the chance to read the original story. Now that I have, I have to say the book is so much better (even though it would seem impossible).
I actually got to care about the characters, even those that only appear in one chapter. I felt as if I knew them in person, and they all are presented as characters with their own lives and stories that go on even after their appearance here.
The relationship between Atreyu and Bastian is very special (and very real). In the second half of the book (which I did not know if I'd like before I read it) is where we see most of this relationship. It made me get concerns about Bastian, to the point where I'd want to scold him.
I smiled a lot of times as Bastian defeated some of the obstacles in the final chapters (and laughed out loud at some points during the book, as well).
The book's presentation is very good. The cover features a beautiful illustration and is very durable.
The text inside the book is printed with two inks, one for the "real" world and one for the world of Fantastica. These same inks are used in the illustrations for each chapter.
I highly recommend anyone to buy this book. Kids and adults alike. They will all love it.
And after reading it, they will most likely want to keep reading other books, too.
Book Review: Probably the most amazing book I know
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read this book now numerous times ever since I was a kid and it still amazes me!
As a child I just loved the story but as a grown-up I found so much depth and wisdom in it, each time I read it a different part of the story seems to unveil a deeper meaning to me.
In fact I think this book was written at least as much for adults as it was for children if not more so.
It talks about life, how we create our destinies searching for what we really want, how we grow in the process or get lost.
Bastian is not a hero, he is simply a little boy, heroic and cowardly alike; human in other words. His story is our collective story about growing up and going through life until the end.
Michael Ende is an amazing author, the details he describes and the ocean of wonderful pictures in this book make it truly a journey to a different world.
I also loved the little details of the book, that every chapter starts with a another letter of the alphabet from A to Z, that it is printed in red and green and the beautiful illustrations by Roswitha Quadflieg.
I wish they had an english edition that looks exactly like the original german one which was made to look exactly as mentioned in the book itself.
This is also a perfect book for reading out loud, it was read to me when I was a kid and I have read it to others since.
If you buy this book make sure to buy an edition printed in red and green. You'll see why...
Book Review: I'm speechless.
Summary: 5 Stars
This work is in a league of its own. I've never seen anything as imaginative as this. It even beats the works of Lewis Carroll in that department. You have to pay attention to every word or else you may miss something fantastic.
So many insane sights are described in this book that it's impossible to remember them all. There's a rabbit covered in colorful feathers, there's a striped hippopotamus whose front and back ends walk independently, there's a man shaving a mirror, there's a tree that's its own grandmother, the list goes on and on. I think since there are so many wacky things that are so briefly mentioned, many of these things don't get the popularity they deserve.
The second half of the book really shines and sets up some very interesting scenarios totally absent from any of the Neverending Story movies, particularly the existance of the lion in the Desert of Many Colors. That poor lion has it rough since Bastian creates an environment for him where he is doomed to eternal loneliness.
I noticed no real problems with the translation; there may be a few differences like calling goose bumps goose flesh, but that might just be a new creative way of describing an old term and has nothing to do with translation.
Regardless of whether you get a nice colorful hardcover version, or a cheaper paperback version like I did, don't pass this story up.