Quote:
Originally Posted by Haramu
I know the professor inspired a lot of authors like J. K. Rowling but it seems fantasy writers nowadays haven’t anything else to add. They can’t make anything new and fresh. Its like people have lost their ways to create new things. Of course, I know the professor had cleverly borrowed ork from the Norse mythologies as well as other tales. But he did it in such a way that it became interesting to read and to know more about these so called repulsive creatures. He was a very intelligent man with an enormous imagination unlike most authors nowadays who seem to copy and paste from Tolkien or other clever authors like C. S. Lewis, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson or Lloyd C. Douglas. If you're going to make a fantasy book then do it in such a clever way to make it more interesting and readable. Every time I pick up a fantasy book I can't help but sense some form of Tolkienism  . Deep down and dark at the bottom of my heart I really wished that the professor had finished 'The New Shadow'. It would've made a brillant thriller and a good sequel to 'Lord of the Rings'. Sorry if I am rabbling on a bit |
## Michael Moorcock - despite his criticisms of Tolkien's story - does seem to be indebted to him. "Elric of Melnibone" is about the last ruler of a great kingdom, that is 10,000 years old; Elric relies on dragons, which need to sleep for 100(?) years to restore their strength; he has a sword, with a name (Storm-bringer) that is exceptionally dangerous; the name "Melnibone" vaguely recalls "Numenore"; & Elric is a sorcerer. He is almost an anti-Aragorn, or an Aragorn-as-Dark-Lord. Elric is a combo of Aragorn, Turin, Ar-Pharazon, & Sauron - a pretty unpleasant character.
A lot of this does not need to be traced to Tolkien, but had there been no Tolkien, I think Moorcock's work would have been poorer. STM that the pessimism (& worse) in "E of M" is a serious weakness: Tolkien's story is shot through with hope, & IMO that makes it more humane: he does not "darken the heart" in his treatment of evil; unlike Moorcock.
I don't think "The New Shadow" was "finishable" - Tolkien's achievement was too complete. I could have done with more info about Eldarion, though. And Aragorn's daughters.