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JohnBem
Posted 2017-01-31 9:01 PM (#15201 - in reply to #15189)
Subject: Re: High Fantasy Reading Challenge 2016		Quote Reply



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Location: Southeastern Pennsylvania		So far, I'm liking book two, Shadows of Doom, a bit more than book one. Since beginning the trilogy, I've learned that McKiernan's original idea was to write a sequel to Lord of the Rings (an audacious notion!) but the Tolkien estate said 'no'. Even before I knew this, it is painfully obvious that McKiernan's inspiration is Tolkien; there are great chunks of these books that are perilously close to the border between pastiche and rip-off. This casts a bit of a shadow across my enjoyment of the trilogy.

That being said, in other ways McKiernan's trilogy, as far as I've read it, does innovate away from Tolkien in many places, and the pacing is more vigorous, less stately, than Tolkien. As straightforward as the trilogy has been so far in recounting a pretty standard all-the-good-peoples-of-the-world-are-in-peril-from-an-ancient-evil-entity story, I am surprised to learn that the ending is "a bit of a twister" and am now very curious to learn what it is.

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