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The Neverending Story

Michael Ende

Start date: August 1, 2018

Finish date: August 31, 2018

Discussion: Classics (On Hiatus)

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Classics (On Hiatus)

* July 2021: Re: Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta
By Megan · 1 post · 23 views

last updated Jul 03, 2021 10:36AM

June 2021: The Hero and the Crown
By Megan · 1 post · 31 views

last updated Jun 05, 2021 06:39PM

What Members Thought

Jul 07, 2020 seak rated it liked it

Shelves: audio, 2020

"This is another one of your weird [books], man." Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords)

Okay so that's a bit out of context, but The Neverending Story is definitely an odd one. Which also means that it's pretty well-represented in the movies, which I absolutely loved as a kid.

The first half of the book is really well-told, really interesting, definitely weird, but mostly the movie follows it to a T (I googled it, that's how you write that idiom). All very good things. I loved it, it was fun, ex "This is another one of your weird [books], man." Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords)

Okay so that's a bit out of context, but The Neverending Story is definitely an odd one. Which also means that it's pretty well-represented in the movies, which I absolutely loved as a kid.

The first half of the book is really well-told, really interesting, definitely weird, but mostly the movie follows it to a T (I googled it, that's how you write that idiom). All very good things. I loved it, it was fun, exciting, just enough rememberances of the movie I haven't watched in at least 20 years. Great stuff.

Bastian Balthazar Bux is a pudgy kid who loves reading, making up stories, and not really being around people. Just my kind of kid. He finds a magical book that goes even further than choose your own adventure books, as if you don't know how things go.

The land of Fantastica is dying and the child-like empress chooses a hero in Atreyu (Best name ever and I don't even follow the band). He does heroic things, has adventures, meets Falcor (what!) it's all kind of random and almost episodic. Then we find out why he's doing that and I won't spoil that here. I will say that BBB doesn't enter the book nearly as soon as I remembered...

Then you get to the second half of the book and it gets a bit crazy. BBB goes kind of power-crazy, starts losing memories (remind you of the second movie?), and it's a completely different book.

Here's where the movie and book deviate quite a bit. The movie uses the same "bad guy", Xayide, and BBB loses memories for making wishes (this is getting a little hazy with my memory of the movie), there is an invisibility belt and ultimate betrayal by Atreyu and Falcor, but otherwise BBB meets some even weirder creatures, one of which is a melody, and the whole pacing kind of takes you out of it. (view spoiler)

In the end, I think this would have done better as two different books, similar to the way the movies split things up, because the second half really detracts from the first. It's definitely a classic and a fun read, but it's its own thing too.

3.5 out of 5 stars (Recommended) ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2008 Crystal rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-with-ula, fantasy-worlds

My 8-year-old and I said the same thing - it would get 5 stars if it wasn't so loooooong. It definitely feels like it's neverending. For once, the movie was better. ...more

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