What other fantasy books do YOU read?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Neil Gaiman

My great daydream when I was ten was to travel to a parallel universe exactly like ours - except that in that other universe, nobody had ever written Lord of the Rings. I would bring along my copy, get somebody to type it out for me in manuscript, send the pages off to a publisher, and then be celebrated as author of The Lord of the Rings without doing any of the work.

I love that quote. It's not only funny, and expresses what a lot of us have probably thought at some time or another (I know I have ), but it shows how a writer as skilled as Gaiman realises how what Tolkien wrote was unique and could not be repeated, how it was Tolkien' lifetime of work which produced Lord of the Rings.

I think we are always looking for the next Tolkien and always will be, but I don't think there ever will be another Tolkien. However, Gaiman could well garner such support as Tolkien did if he keeps on producing such good work, as he does share that understanding and appreciation of mythology. His work is most definitely of its time (as was Tolkien's - no sex, no swearing etc), reflecting a darker kind of world, and is already having an influence - how many girls go around dressed like Death, and boys as Dream?

The main difference that I see is that Gaiman, possibly due to being from a different era, is not afraid to confront the darker side of human nature, and he ties in figures such as John Dee and serial killers to his tales. Where Tolkien found it more difficult, certainly as he aged, to deal with chaotic ideas (such as Tricksters), Gaiman seems to have more freedom to play with these ideas.

And I also think that while Tolkien's work leads us on to mythology, Gaiman's work actually seems richer if we know something about mythology (and history and literature) before we read it.