This is one of the most important books on dreaming I've ever read. It's the reason why I love fantasy and dreaming, and it motivates me to this day to keep imagining and exploring and contemplating possibilities. I believe we are in a sea of infinite parallel universes, with infinite possibilities and combinations, which makes me think that really if you imagine it, it IS real, at least somewhere in another universe. Humans nowadays more than ever need to dream, as dreaming enables us to see out into the stars, to find our place in the universe and remember that we aren't the center of everything. This book from a young age enabled me to see many things missed that are in plain sight. To speculate and to always, always ask myself "what if?" or "could it be?", The snakes biting each other's tail on the AURYN truly are symbolic of the SEEN and the UNSEEN worlds that we live with and around an inside on a daily basis.

I don't expect everyone or even a few people to have the same experience that I did, but I know there are a few out there, true dreamers that want to see beyond our world. For me this book felt like a real door to Fantasia, the realm of dreams and infinite possibilities. ( )

Gert Heidenreich hat als Sprecher dieses Hörbuches richtig Spaß gemacht. Seine Stimme war warm und berührend. Auch, wie er sie verstellt hat, wenn er das eine oder andere Fantasiewesen gesprochen hat. Toll!

Doch am Ende wurde mir die gesamte Geschichte immer langatmiger und Bastian immer unsympathischer.

Eine ausführliche Rezension wird noch folgen, sobald ich die Printausgabe gelesen habe. ( )

One of the most creative books I ever read, a true classic. ( )

Read this as a kid, when the second half of it made me feel uncomfortable: as a kid I never liked heroes turning into nasty selfish people even if they then got redeemed. Recently I rewatched the movie which of course cuts off halfway through the story because a) it's a really long story! and b) halfway through, Bastian wishes to look completely different, which is a lot easier to deal with in prose than on a movie screen.

Anyway so the movie ends with him riding Falkor back to the real world and becoming a bully chasing his former bullies and that's the happy ending. The book instead has him slowly turning into a bully in Fantasia _and it recognises this is kind of a big problem_ so yeah ultimately the book is waaaay superior to the film in every way - though I'll always envision the Childlike Empress as she was portrayed in the film.

(I do dream of getting a proper hardcover version with full-on illuminated chapter letters and two colours of text and an ouroboros on the cover and all!) ( )

I never did see the movie (except pictures of a white fluffy dog flying through air that must be the luck dragon), but this book wasn't anything like what I expected. It was much deeper and more profound a journey than would be expected in a children's book. In fact, I don't know if I would say it is a young adult or children's book. It seems much more of a subject matter for adults to enjoy.

If you like this book, try out 13 1/2 lives of Bluebear. ( )