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nonabgo 's review for:
Povestea fără sfârșit
by Michael Ende
3.5*(ish)
The purest form of fantasy, and yet it felt a bit underwhelming, maybe because I had built such high expectations about this book. It felt derivative, and while I don't believe in originality and I don't expect originality, I still felt like I was reading a story I had read multiple times before and in better ways. The whole novel gave me Narnia vibes, and Auryn was so very similar to the One Ring. Unfortunately, unlike the Narnia series, this was just one book and to me, that's where it went wrong.
The first part, Atreiu's quest, was marvelous. One of the lovelies magical stories out there. Sure, nothing new, but it transported me back to my childhood, when I was simply devouring BPT's "Povești nemuritoare" (Immortal tales) series. I love all kinds of questing stories, with all their cliches - the unlikely hero, the memorable sidekick, the princess in distress, the "save the world" goal, the obstacles placed in the hero's path, the enemies, the puzzles to solve. All of it. Fantasia is a fun, wonderful realm and Michael Ende put me right in the middle of it, with his compelling, visual storytelling. I even enjoyed the gimmicks - the two-color writing, the 26 chapters, each one starting with one letter of the alphabet, in order, the metafictional element. Had the book ended when Atreiu's quest ended, I would have been happier.
The second part should have been, in my opinion, a separate book. It's a sequel much like "Prince Caspian", where the main character from the first part takes a secondary role and lets someone else take center stage. Only that Bastian didn't particularly work for me as a protagonist, although he had all the makings of being one. One of my dreams as a kid was to be transported into my favorite stories, to be the princess or the dragon slayer, to see with my own eyes all those magical creatures that I was reading about. And here we have Bastian, the chubby, cowardly boy who loves to tell stories, being transported right into Fantasia with the capability to model this world after his own imagination - or so we are being told, except almost nothing like this really happens. Instead, he makes some random wishes that lead him to wherever and this goes on and on and on until I got bored. Truly a never-ending story.
I liked the ending and the little lesson, that no matter who we want to become, it's always who we truly are that makes us happiest. But I did not particularly like the execution of Bastian's story, which felt too long and pointlessly meandering.
I would recommend this book, though, because it is lovely in that classical fairytale way that can truly make one feel like a child again. It is the kind of ageless fantasy story fit for all ages.
The purest form of fantasy, and yet it felt a bit underwhelming, maybe because I had built such high expectations about this book. It felt derivative, and while I don't believe in originality and I don't expect originality, I still felt like I was reading a story I had read multiple times before and in better ways. The whole novel gave me Narnia vibes, and Auryn was so very similar to the One Ring. Unfortunately, unlike the Narnia series, this was just one book and to me, that's where it went wrong.
The first part, Atreiu's quest, was marvelous. One of the lovelies magical stories out there. Sure, nothing new, but it transported me back to my childhood, when I was simply devouring BPT's "Povești nemuritoare" (Immortal tales) series. I love all kinds of questing stories, with all their cliches - the unlikely hero, the memorable sidekick, the princess in distress, the "save the world" goal, the obstacles placed in the hero's path, the enemies, the puzzles to solve. All of it. Fantasia is a fun, wonderful realm and Michael Ende put me right in the middle of it, with his compelling, visual storytelling. I even enjoyed the gimmicks - the two-color writing, the 26 chapters, each one starting with one letter of the alphabet, in order, the metafictional element. Had the book ended when Atreiu's quest ended, I would have been happier.
The second part should have been, in my opinion, a separate book. It's a sequel much like "Prince Caspian", where the main character from the first part takes a secondary role and lets someone else take center stage. Only that Bastian didn't particularly work for me as a protagonist, although he had all the makings of being one. One of my dreams as a kid was to be transported into my favorite stories, to be the princess or the dragon slayer, to see with my own eyes all those magical creatures that I was reading about. And here we have Bastian, the chubby, cowardly boy who loves to tell stories, being transported right into Fantasia with the capability to model this world after his own imagination - or so we are being told, except almost nothing like this really happens. Instead, he makes some random wishes that lead him to wherever and this goes on and on and on until I got bored. Truly a never-ending story.
I liked the ending and the little lesson, that no matter who we want to become, it's always who we truly are that makes us happiest. But I did not particularly like the execution of Bastian's story, which felt too long and pointlessly meandering.
I would recommend this book, though, because it is lovely in that classical fairytale way that can truly make one feel like a child again. It is the kind of ageless fantasy story fit for all ages.