God this was never-ending. 
 I don't know if the translation had something to do, but it took me ages to finish this book. And I usually read books in question of days. Good, beautiful, thrilling books by the matter. A warning: maybe this is my adult opinion, which could have be different if I'd read this as a child, but we'll never know. 
 It has some classic fantasy story touches that just pop out of the page like magic. The world building was great, actually, and something that is most interesting and great of this book is that it uses an abstract concept as the nothing as a villain. However, I think this would have been better if it had finished when Bastian names the Empress. Because form that point, is just downright annoying and boring. 
 The first part was great, because it reminded me of the books with adventure and magic I read as a child. But once Bastian is transformed into this dashing, perfect almighty prince, I couldn't stomach it. The only thing I liked about the second part was the lion in the desert of colors (I don't remember the name), and the beautiful concept of life and death constantly sort of transforming into each other. But Bastian... He beats every self-centered, annoying, arrogant, pathetic special snowflake heroine or hero (and sadly, I've found more heroines of this type) I've ever encountered in literature. 
 I was nearly shouting at the pages as I read through his immature rants and episodes of god complex. He thought everyone should kneel and grovel before him because he's so special and awesome... This was a different person to the insecure, lovable protagonist of the first part. Plus, anyone who treats his friends like that should not have friends. How can Atreyu and Falkor stand him, I have no idea. At some point I found myself cheering for the evil witch, just because Bastian was too stupid to see she was manipulating him. He didn't even deserve to succeed. Actually, good he didn't succeed because he was trying to become Fantasia's dictator. Bad boy, Bastian, bad boy. 
 Anyway, since this review turned into a rant I'll just say one more thing. It might have been more magical and entertaining reading it as a child, because as an adult, I couldn't see beyond the unlikable character the protagonist was for the second part of the story. I was nearly relieved when he left Fantasia to their actual heroes. He became a villain in the second part of the book. Actually, he would have been quite a generic I-want-to-rule-the-world villain. 
 So, I recommend reading this only until the Empress is renamed, after that, is just infuriating. For me it was.