[Manelwen]

Alright, I have a bone to pick. I am gonna pick it until I am satisfied...*takes deep breath as she starts to rant*

First off, I am a huge fan of Robert Jordan. I play the mud game, I read the books, I have most of the merchandise (besides the sword, ring and dagger) that he has his stamp on. I think he is being misrepresented. [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Mr.Jordan's character, Rand al'Thor is based off of Thor, the thunder god. I guess his last name might be a giver. All of his races of people; Ogier, Aiel, Andoran, Seanchan, Illian, Mayener, etc. Are based off of real cultures. As for the final battle, Tarmon Gaidon, that is Ragnarok. As far as I can tell, Robert Jordan based the books events off of Norse Mythology, and it seems that JRR Tolkien did too.

I think it is not fair to Mr.Jordan, who put all of his hard work and effort into creating such a beautiful story, for people to say its a cop-off of another author, no matter how amazing that other author is. (That was a run on sentence, wasn't it? Muah!)

You can take any book and relate it to any subject. Heck, if you had the mind to do it, you could relate A.N. Roquelare's 'Sleeping Beauty' books to the Hobbit!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is a little extreme, but I said it to prove a point.

As for books that are nothing like Tolkien's fantasy realms...ever read Sara Douglass's 'Wayfarer Redemption series'? Or how about Jacqueline Carey's 'Kushiel Trilogy'?

For an aspiring author like myself, I read these inserts from a few people, and it makes me think that I have no new ideas. I will never be able to create something new because Tolkien has done it all.

Tolkien created a beautiful new world that is shiny and great to us all; a utopia for the imagination, but he did not create an entire universe. There are still plenty of realms to explore. Plenty of Characters to agonize over. Plenty of plots to twist.

*Sigh* there I am done. That wasn't so bad, was it?

Manelwen
P.S- For those wondering what A.N. Roquelare (Anne Rice's other pen name) wrote, it was S&M Erotica. You won't believe me, but I have never read it. I just hear friends talk about it.