The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have loved the film The Neverending Story since I first saw it in fourth grade (I believe that's when) back in the mid 1980's. Shockingly, as a lover of the film and a kid buried in books who constantly browsed library and bookstores, I didn't realize there was an actual book until a month ago when I encountered a copy laying the choir room at church; this copy belonged to the music director's teen daughter. "May I borrow this?"

Okay, I was glad to have some more details and enjoyed some of the material in the early part of the book which was lacking in the film (for example the way Atreyu and Falkor meet is much better in the book and inexplicable deus ex machina in the film), but there were some of the film choices that I did prefer. And I most definitely preferred ending the film where they did, as the rest of the book, about two thirds of the story, I really didn't care for at all.

The main difference is that Bastian is a rather unpleasant character in the book, from beginning to almost the very end. Which makes the story less engaging, I think.

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