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Do the man the courtesy of spelling his name correctly, please: it's "Tolkien", not "Tolkein" .
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I thought there was something wrong. I feel unworthy of calling myself a fantasy fan now.
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Your dad has some serious prejudices, and on this account you should pay no attention to his opinion.
Only fantasy that kinda started with Tolkien is epic fantasy.
Heroic and sword and sorcery fantasy started with Robert E. Howard (Conan) and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars).
Weird fantasy started with Lovecraft.
Children's modern fantasy started with Lewis Carol and C. S. Lewis (Narnia)
You should give your father The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombie who is maybe the best writer in gritty fantasy genre which is a continuation of heroic line in our days, and when he finishes ask him how much of Tolkien did he find in there. If he answers with anything other than a zilch, he's a lost cause.
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Thankyou. Couldn't have said it better myself. Abercrombie is a prime example of an author that is NOT a Tolkien clone.
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Where to begin? Where to stop!
Anything from Patricia McKilip or Neil Gaiman.
Piers Anthony; Xanth, Adept, or Incarnation Series.
Fletcher Pratt's Blue Star
Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories
L. Sprague DeCamp's Harold Shea stories
Poul Anderson's Witch and Werewolf
Gordon Dickson's Dragon Knight
Heinlein. (Yes. Glory Road)
Katherine Kurtz' much neglected Derynii Saga
The Pinis' Elfquest
Larry Niven's The Magic Goes away and Svetz Series
Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius
Lewis Carroll
L. Frank Baum's Oz series
Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth Adventures
Roger Zelazny's Jack of Shadows, Madwand, etc
Brian Daley's Coramond
Robert Don Hughes' Pelmen saga, sadly incomplete
The entire urban fantasy sub-genre, too big to even list the biggies.
Harry frakking Potter.
Rick Riordan.
On and on and on.
Plus all the ones listed above and many, many, many more.
I'm sorry, but if all you know of fantasy is Tolkien you don't know fantasy.
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Also excellent points. Just writing off fantasy as a batch of derivative Tolkien clones is in my opinion very close, not even narrow, minded. I may give my father Promise of Blood by Brian Mclellan to read, as it is definitely not a Tolkien clone. Thanks for all the suggestions.