[Luzburg]

My fantasy journey:

Narnia > LOTR > Harry Potter > Abhorsen Trilogy > tWoT > His Dark Materials > Pratchett > Eragon > Erikson > Rest of Tolkien's Work> ICE > Night Watch > ASoIaF

If I was forced to rank these...

1. Pratchett
2. Erikson
3. Tolkien
4. Jordan
5. Lukyanenko
6. Garth Nix
7. JK Rowling
8. Pullman
9. ICE
10. GRRM
11. CS Lewis
12. Eragon ripoff merchant xD

They make up almost all of my book collection.
I have nearly every Pratchett book now. I cannot get enough lol.
About #4 I guess I should add Sanderson for the excellent work on the conclusion of the series.

About #10 I enjoyed my first read. Stopped reading after second book on my first reread and started tWoT's fifth reread. It is all about shock value and really just does not have the depth to hook me again.
About #12 I do like the writing but the blatant ripping of concepts does grate unless I force myself to ignore it and enjoy the adventure.

This post has been edited by Luzburg: 14 February 2012 - 12:59 PM

[BlackMoranthofDoom]

I noticed that on this board most people take Malazan over LOTR whereas on westeros.org, a large number of people take LOTR over ASOIAF.

A question. If Tolkien were around, do you think he would enjoy MBOTF and ASOIAF?

[Deck of Dragons]

Middle Earth > All other fantasy for me

With that said, Malazan is one of the few if not the only I would rank up there as a close 2nd.

[Vaddon Ra]

Malazan hands down. LOTR is more a work of linguistic art that seems to encompass every story type into one. However its not exactly a rip roaring, fast paced, read is it. For all its genius I found so many parts of LOTR read like a history, and if your honest it feels very dated. Malazan is...well...grandiose above and beyond pretty much any other fantasy. Perhaps in 50 years it will feel dated too, but as far as things go it feels more real in how the men and women in their harsh lives are portrayed. More down to earth where LOTR is a tour de force of poetic writing, the dialogue is fiercely stereotypical and the players are either good or bad and thus their appearance and voices echo that. Understandable given the time it was written, almost a political read aswell, similar to parts of CS Lewis's narnia (they were mates him and JRR)
Even so, I prefer malaz, the pace, the tragedy of war and the bleak humour. Also the finale in TCG is glorious.

[Vaddon Ra]

A question. If Tolkien were around, do you think he would enjoy MBOTF and ASOIAF?
[/quote]

Possibly neither, I think the moral and themes of LOTR are too different for him to enjoy these. Malaz and Song of Ice are much much darker and more cynical than LOTR.
He'd probably prefer something lighter or less aggressive, maybe that wheel of time thing iv never bothered to read.

[Bantato]

For me i got to say that LOTR is a winner, but only for one sole purpose:EN

I HAvEN'T FINISHED MBOTF!

See, you can't compare a book series that you didn't finish to one that you have.

What I do like though is all the three books I've read have great characterization, awesome world - building, and no cliche races that were clearly taken from LOTR.

My opinion may change but for me it's LOTR right now.

[Nocturnal]

What kind of a sick bastard would ask something like this!? D:<
Honestly, I can't compare the two. Tolkien is my first love, a writer I'll always come back to. While Erikson is a newfound passion. In spite of both series being military fantasies, they're quite different. Imho, it would be like comparing Dostoyevsky with Murakami only because they both write psychological books, even though they're two different worlds.

This post has been edited by Nocturnal: 10 July 2012 - 10:37 AM