Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
I'd rather have someone borrow from Tolkien, than having him write bad fantasy. One example is David Eddings.
The Belgariad and Malloreon were very good young adult fantasy. The Elenium and Tamuli were on par with that, but basically, the stories were very much alike, especially both sets centering around sentient, all-powerful blue and red stones, and gods to be destroyed by the protagonist.
When writing The Dreamers, Eddings basically wrote the same book four times. It's the only series I've actually dropped, somewhere around 1/3rd of the third book.
With Brooks, just dragging the same families into it by their hair over and over again is just a pet-peeve of mine. Ohmsford, Leah, Elessedil... it's always the same ones.
The Ohmsford bloodline is even mixed into the Elven royal family (Shea Ohmsford is related to Jerle Shannara, Wren Elessedil is also an Ohmsford), and into the druids (Walker Boh is an Ohmsford using his mother's name, and of course Grianne Ohmsford).
Oh, and I still think that "Elfstones of Shannara" should have been called "Bloodfire Quest" or something. The Elfstones were not the main plot in that book. (Although it's the best Shannara book there is, IMHO.)
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Agreed. I got tired of Eddings fast.
At first I was put off by Brooks and other Tolkien-like authors, but then I realized why complain about books that are like my favorites?
Where Brooks borrowed from Tolkien is his elves and dwarves. There were no elves or dwarves of that exact type anywhere before Tolkien. You find the same types in most modern epic fantasy, Mithgar, Dragonlance, Shannara, and a host of others.
The traditional type of evil, greedy, imp-like dwarfs were pre-Tolkien, and he has one of that kind in the Children of Hurin. But we find them as a mighty race when Tolkien formed them along with the elves in LOTR and its connected historical books.
Everybody had "Tolkien Elves and Dwarves" after LOTR became popular in the 60s and 70s. And some had "Halflings" which are based on Tolkien's Hobbits.