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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8480467" data-attributes="member: 59082">The Wheel of Time series has inspired me to start a re-read of Eye of the World. For background, I read the first seven or eight books as they came out, starting in 1990. For me, as a huge fan of "quest fantasy," it felt like the culmination of the plethora of such fantasies in the 80s. It was almost like Robert Jordan took the best elements of these and then turned it up to 11. I bought and devoured each book as they came out, before getting stalled out at Path of Daggers (book 8) and didn't finish the series (though know the gist of how it ends).I started a first re-read of EotW about five years ago, but though I was enjoying it, for reasons I forget, I only made it about a third of the way through. But the series and various online discussions (including here) have inspired me to revisit Jordan's world, so I picked up a copy of The Wheel of Time Companion and am greatly enjoying EotW so far. Who knows how far I'll get.Anyhow, it got me thinking (again) about quest fantasies. In the various sub-genres of fantasy, epic, high, quest, and secondary world fantasies have all been used to describe what I'm talking about, but I'm talking about something a bit more specific than any of those larger categories.What I mean is this: The main story involves some kind of quest, with a group of companions. It usually starts in some sort of pastoral, or at least homey, setting, and then involves a journey into the "wilderness." There is usually some kind of "dark lord," of course (although in a variety of configurations), magic, magical creatures, lost history, hidden secrets, etc. The emphasis is usually less on politics than it is on some kind of quest or great struggle against the dark lord. And it is generally set in a secondary world.For many, this is fantasy, although anyone with any knowledge of the genre knows that it is just a thin slice of the larger pie, at this point, with many other different sub-genres, as well as various forms of subversions.For lack fo a better term, we could also call this "Tolkienian fantasy" - although some of it has other more primary sources of inspiration, and some of it doesn't go into deep world-building like Tolkien did who, in a way, wrote The Lord of the Rings as a way to share his creation, rather than the other way around. But the best of such fantasy, imo, has a feeling of a hidden "legendarium" (to use term for Tolkien's body of Middle-earth work): a body of work, of myths and legends, world details, etc, that is always much larger than what is portrayed in the story itself and that, in the best such instances, gives a strong sense of a living world.I will also say that while Tolkien codified a certain formula, he isn't the first writer of such fantasy - though he holds a rather titanic place in the sub-genre. In a way, he's the Babe Ruth of such fantasy: Ruth wasn't the first baseball player, or even the first great baseball player, but he not only instituted a new approach to hitting, but he is the archetype of the great baseball player in a way that no other player before or after has been.So my questions for discussion are this:What are some examples of truly good "Tolkienian fantasy?" Particularly those that, while they might clearly have Tolkienian elements (e.g. Two Rivers = the Shire, Myrddraal = Nazgul, etc), feel unique in their own right. Like the Wheel of Time.What are your favorite "Tolkienian fantasies?" This could go hand-in-hand with the above, but broadens a bit to include "guilty pleasures" - stories that you might feel aren't the best written or most original, but are just fun to read and/or hold a special place in your heart, perhaps from your childhood.I will reply in a separate post, so as not to extend this one too long. But I look forward to hearing from everyone else - especially with regards to more recent books, as I think this sub-genre has somewhat lessened, at least in terms of market-share (in other words, I am unsure if less is being written, or if the field has just diversified and broadened more, while this sub-genre has stayed the same).</blockquote>

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