Wheel of Time and other quest fantasies

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'd add The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. Like Tolkien, it's also a work heavily informed by the author's religious beliefs.

And it's not a book, and it's certainly done for laughs, but there's also the Hello from the Magic Tavern podcast. After all, it does have a Dark Lord...

 

[Mad_Jack]

I only read a few books, but Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen is a tremendous work of fantasy, although may be fudging it a bit in terms of being "Tolkienian." But it has the depth of world-building, if the emphasis and style is rather different.

Eh, the whole "Fellowship/quest" vibe of the first book doesn't last much past that - Erikson's saga is more like shoving all of Tolkien's works into a single book, bouncing back and forth from LotR to The Hobbit to the Silmarillion in each chapter... The scope of Erikson's world balloons massively with each successive book. There are actually a fair number of characters (or groups thereof) whose "quests"/character arcs take them through a good portion of the various storylines in the series, but there are so many subplots and events going on at any one time that not many of those characters/groups stick out as a main protagonist for very long.
But Erikson definitely has the same depth of world-building. By the end of the series, his world(s) actually make Middle Earth look small.
On a side note, Erikson is an anthropologist, and his world started out as the backdrop for his and his co-author's GURPS campaign, so it's not surprising that he put some serious depth into all the different aspects of his world.

 

[GreyLord]

No one's mentioned the Shannara books yet?

One of the funny things about the Sword of Shannara vs. Thomas Covenant (the first trilogy) is that the First Trilogy of Thomas Covenant is more of a rip off of the Lord of the Rings than the Sword of Shannara. The First book in the Shannara series get's obvious cues from Lord of the Rings, but the first trilogy of Thomas Covenant is a blatant rip off.

The first book has it where you have the all powerful ring that the Dark lord wants and the group has to go on a quest through catacombs to find a solution to things...or so they hope, entirely with their Gandolf figure and the fellowship as well as the council.

In the second book you have the Ring bearer now on their separate journey in the mountains as well as the Battle of Helm's Deep.

The third book you have the siege of Gondor (well, it's not called that, but it's that in all but name), and the ring bearer taking the fight to the Dark Lord with his faithful companion.

The parallels are far more than that for one who looks at it, but I won't go and make a ten page comparison. Sword of Shannara is obviously based off Lord of the Rings and gets slack for it, but ironically the Thomas Covenant trilogy which also is very blatant on it never get's called out on it.

I like both series, I just find it ironic.

Elfstones of Shannara on the otherhand is awesome (still has a Helm's Deep moment though) and perhaps my favorite of all of them.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dn have read Shannara since the 90's.

 

[Mercurius]

No one's mentioned the Shannara books yet?

One of the funny things about the Sword of Shannara vs. Thomas Covenant (the first trilogy) is that the First Trilogy of Thomas Covenant is more of a rip off of the Lord of the Rings than the Sword of Shannara. The First book in the Shannara series get's obvious cues from Lord of the Rings, but the first trilogy of Thomas Covenant is a blatant rip off.

The first book has it where you have the all powerful ring that the Dark lord wants and the group has to go on a quest through catacombs to find a solution to things...or so they hope, entirely with their Gandolf figure and the fellowship as well as the council.

In the second book you have the Ring bearer now on their separate journey in the mountains as well as the Battle of Helm's Deep.

The third book you have the siege of Gondor (well, it's not called that, but it's that in all but name), and the ring bearer taking the fight to the Dark Lord with his faithful companion.

The parallels are far more than that for one who looks at it, but I won't go and make a ten page comparison. Sword of Shannara is obviously based off Lord of the Rings and gets slack for it, but ironically the Thomas Covenant trilogy which also is very blatant on it never get's called out on it.

I like both series, I just find it ironic.

Elfstones of Shannara on the otherhand is awesome (still has a Helm's Deep moment though) and perhaps my favorite of all of them.

I think you're missing a huge difference: the Thomas Covenant books were meant as a deliberate subversion of Tolkien tropes, whereas the first Shannara book was clearly an attempt (and a successful one) to ride on Tolkien's coat-tails.

But I agree that Elfstones and Wishsong were more original and much better books than Shannara, although it has been 35ish years since I read them.

 

[Mordhau]

There was the Winter of the World trilogy by Michael Scott Rohan.

I remember it was a refreshing take on a lot of the Tolkien cliches while still playing them largely straight. It was actually mostly set in a lost civilisation in Ice Age North America and the enemy/dark lord force was actually the malevolent will behind the encroaching glaciers. There were a lot of elements of Norse and Finnish mythology.

With the exception of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, it's much better than anything else mentioned in the thread so far. (I haven't read R. Scott Bakker and the Malazan books are something vastly different as already mentioned).

 

[Hex08]

As a huge fantasy fan, I am almost embarrassed to say this, but I have never read Lord of the Rings. I've tried several times, but I just didn't enjoy it. That said, I do love that style of fantasy. If I were to pick my favorites they would be:

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are my all-time favorites books and get re-read every few years. Unfortunately, I doubt they would appeal as much to a younger, more modern audience since Covenant engages in some reprehensible behavior. Regardless, I love The Land and its inhabitants.

I loved the Shanarra series and of all of these books The Sword of Shannara is probably the most Tolkien-like. I never read beyond Bearer of the Black Staff though

Both the Belgariad and the Mallorian were also huge favorites.

The Wheel of Time of course, although I do think it is way longer than it ever should have been. Someone should have reigned Jordan in.

The Chronicles of the Black Company are a great read, but they might not be exactly the same style of quest driven books as the others.

I really need to get around to reading those copies of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn I bought years ago.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Second The Winter of the World. It's one of my favourite fantasy series.

And for all I enjoyed Memory, Sorrow and Thorn I think it comes a distant second to his Shadowmarch series.

 

[Dioltach]

Several of the Squire's Tales books by William Morris are quest fantasies. (They're YA retellings of Arthurian stories, from the perspective of the knights' sidekicks: squires, minstrels, a young girl, and so on. Excellent books.)

 

[S'mon]

What are some good Quest Fantasy RPG campaigns? They seem rather thin on the ground. There's Dragonlance of course, and I'm GMing Odyssey of the Dragon Lords which is a Greek-themed Quest Fantasy.