I'll probably get slammed for saying this, but Tolkien is overrated as a writer. I've read more enjoyable, better written fantasy by RA Salvatore, Piers Anthony, Melanie Rawn, Peter F Hamilton, and JK Rowling, to name just a few.

Tolkien is renowned as the inventor of the genre (and even this is arguable), but when it comes to enjoying a good book, this should be of no consequence. So, if you take the LOTR as just another fantasy trilogy and forget all the usual baggage that goes around who wrote it, then I bet you'll be able to compare it to other fantasies, and find it lacking. Having said that, there's far worse out there too (the latest drivel from David and Leigh Eddings springs to mind, should be subtitled 'an excercise in tedium and one dimensional characters: how not to write a fantasy story', very sad given that they wrote a book on how to write fantasies), so Tolkien is far from the worst, but by no means the best either.

As far as translation to the screen is concerned, I agree wholeheartedly with Predominant. Having watched the first one with a friend in the local cinema my overall impression was - New Zealand is beautiful, but what a boring film. My friend was slightly less enthusiastic than me, commenting "I've been waiting 15 years for them to make this big pile of horrible shite".

Admittedly, I haven't seen the 2nd or 3rd films, so for all I know they could be brilliant, but I doubt it. I'm not willing to sacrifice the required 7 or 8 hours of my life to find out.

AsylumUtopia said:

you won't get slammed from me for saying it... I respectfully disagree though

each to our own

I would have liked to see the Hobbit get the screen treatment.

Nomad said:

Hey!! You threw a brick at me when I disagreed?

I am curios though Asylum, who is arguably also credited with inventing the genre?

I am curios though Asylum, who is arguably also credited with inventing the genre?

Nomad said:

Fair enough!

If you like reading fantasy then I recommend the Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore - and not because I think it's better than LOTR.

I recommend it unreservedly to anybody who enjoys reading fantasy, because it's fucking brilliant.

Predominant said:

Well, it's not really a question of who, but what. As in, what exactly is 'fantasy' ? http://www.wakefieldlibra...zrafdc.htm

It's generally taken to be the invention of a self contained world which is not this world. If this is the case then it could be argued that Dante Alighieri wrote a fantasy book 700 years before Tolkien.

Nomad said:

Fair enough!

If you like reading fantasy then I recommend the Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore - and not because I think it's better than LOTR.

I recommend it unreservedly to anybody who enjoys reading fantasy, because it's fucking brilliant.

Predominant said:

Well, it's not really a question of who, but what. As in, what exactly is 'fantasy' ? http://www.wakefieldlibra...zrafdc.htm

It's generally taken to be the invention of a self contained world which is not this world. If this is the case then it could be argued that Dante Alighieri wrote a fantasy book 700 years before Tolkien.
[Edited 9/27/05 4:50am]

Oh, I was expecting to learn a great fact All I get is bloody divine comedy.

PREDOMINANT said:

Perhaps diabolical comedy would be more apt.

Still, given the accepted definition of fantasy, the argument is sound.

we're gonna have a marathon session in a couple of weeks,
watching all the extended versions back 2 back

Never seen it or read it..

REDBABY said:

well what you waiting on? HOP TO IT!

Never seen it or read it..

AsylumUtopia said:

I was looking for a good factoid for my Brother, I will still hit him with this to see how he defends it. He is a budding Fantasy writer himself, still working on the first but he has a quadrology mapped out in his head, apparently I might get him that RA Salvatorre trilogy for Xmas

I would have liked to see the Hobbit get the screen treatment.