ANYONE can write a story about men, dwarves and elves and battles, but Tolkien takes it to another level - what with the amazing characters and plots. After reading LOTR, does anyone know any other brilliant fantasy novels that match up to Tolkien?

Hello Jaradu! I'm going to move your thread to the Books forum where I'm betting you'll get a lot of discussion on the topic. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'm not as fanatical about Tolkien as most. IMHO I believe his form can sometimes become tedious, spending way too much time on the description of a surrounding area that plays no part whatsoever in the storyline, indeed the characters will neither pause nor stop to rest in this area and move through it in seconds. But all that said, I have read many of his books and the closest to his style I found to be Terry Brooks. For me Brooks is everything I wanted to Tolkien to be, all the good stuff and none of the bad.

<font color=green>I think that the wheel of time books by robert jordan, are by far better then tolkein. alot of people don't agree with me on that point. also terry goodkind's sword of truth novels are also great novels.</font>

Tolkien all the way...

<font color="gold">David Eddings has some brilliant books, and I actually enjoyed two of his series more than Tolkien. [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

Tolkien is in a class by himself, no doubt about that.

Of all the modern writers I'd recommend Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series over all comers.

did u know that tolkien actually invented a whole language for orcs? I dont know about u guys but i find that kinda scary!

I did not know that... good thing no one else ever followed his move and created a new language for another fictional race, either. I mean, think how the Klingons would react [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for fantasy books, Steven Brust's "Year" series are enjoyable, as long as the adventures of a magic-using assassin-for-hire with a dragon familiar are of interest... I also like Dave Duncan's series on... sword brothers, I think. Created a whole fictional world and interspersed it with modern-day knowledge, and did it very well, IMHO. The books did not get better as they went along, though... sadly...

R.A. Salvatore, 'nuff said...