The Neverending Story
Michael Ende · 1979
Bastian reads a book about Atreyu saving Fantastica from the Nothing, then discovers he is part of the story. Ende's meta-fictional fantasy about the relationship between reader and narrative remains one of the great philosophical novels for all ages.
The case against
Once Bastian enters Fantastica, he spends two hundred pages becoming insufferable, and Ende makes you live through every wish. The episodic second half wanders, the refrain about stories to be told another time gets used dozens of times, and the allegory about imagination starts administering its own moral. Children sense the sag; adults feel it.
Science Fiction & Fantasy · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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