[Kalimac]

Whoa, whoa, Gurthang, hang on. Very few of us, if any, are saying that all fantasy authors rip off Tolkien (I can think of quite a few authors - a lot have been named - whom no sane person would dream of accusing of such a thing). The struggle against an underlying evil etc. has been a literary theme since the beginning of literature, and I doubt anyone disputes that. What we were discussing was whether Wheel of Time and/or Sword of Shannara rips off Tolkien in much more specific things. Personally I don't think WoT really does *that* much (the obviously-Tolkien elements, like Mat & Perrin and the Underhill are not, let's face it, terribly important to the plot, when I think about it they seem more thrown in as a wink to the reader).

On the other hand, I defy anyone to show how Sword of Shannara is *not* a Tolkien ripoff. It's OK for stories to share basic elements, but not the same plot with renamed characters, for God's sake. People have been sued for plagiarism for much less.