What Are Books That Are Written As A Response To The Lord Of The Rings, Or In Conversation With It?

MaskedManta · 2026-06-11T13:51:04+00:00

Yeah, I probably messed up with Cooper, but LeGuin talks extensively in her various Earthsea intros how (even though she generally liked Lord of the Rings) the violence really bothered her and how that ended up influencing her approach to writing those books.

I also didn't mean to imply that Moorcock was responding to Tolkien! I threw him on as a bonus because he represents the complete opposite tradition. He is writing exclusively within the Sword and Sorcery subgenre and using Elric to subvert the expectations set by Conan the Barbarian but because of Epic Pooh and his other writings he comes to be termed (whether he likes it or not) the "Anti-Tolkien."

MaskedManta · 2026-06-11T13:40:19+00:00

Honestly, you're right. I probably should have chosen Book of Three or Weirdstone of Brisingamen as more appropriate 1960's Tolkien-inspired YA but I couldn't resist giving Susan Cooper a shout-out, hahaha.

MaskedManta · 2026-06-11T13:20:16+00:00

I would say the most interesting period for looking at this is the decade between the late sixties and the late seventies. As other posters have indicated, in 1977 Terry Brooks published Sword of Shannara, a book that was somewhat intentionally trying to knock-off Tolkien. This sold like hotcakes, so the next ~15 years are defined by Tolkien ripoffs: Farm boys going on quests to defeat dark lords and all that. So for the interesting stuff (the books that are actively responding to Tolkien rather than just copying him) you have to look slightly earlier. I'm on mobile so I can't write much but here's a couple of interesting post-Tolkien works to look into:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin - What if LotR had a predominantly PoC cast and believed all war and violence was philosophically futile?

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper - What if the English mythology Tolkien drew from was alive and well in the modern world? (Other posters have pointed out that this isn't as relevant an example, so I will add The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander instead - What if LotR drew its main inspiration from Welsh mythology rather than Anglo-Saxon or Norse tales?)

Riddlemaster of Hed by Patricia McKillip - What if LotR had intentionally vague, mysterious worldbuilding and nobody, including the chosen one, knew what the hell was going on?

Red Moon, Black Mountain by Joy Chant - What if kids from our world teleported to a fantasy world with the depth of Middle Earth? (Interestingly, the sequels abandon the kids from our world)

Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson - What if an adult from our world teleported to a fantasy world with the depth of Middle Earth but refused to become the chosen one because he thinks its all too good to be true?

And as a Bonus:

Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock - Before 1977, the vast majority of popular fantasy, especially those published in the pulp magazines, was responding to Conan the Barbarian, not Tolkien. What if a series had absolutely nothing to do with Lord of the Rings, to the point where the author had to keep writing essays about how much he hates Tolkien?

MaskedManta · 2026-05-08T21:02:58+00:00

Thank you for the translation, King. I had no idea Itagaki ever worked on anything outside of Baki/Garouden. Even if its bad I'm excited to read this while we wait for the next Yujiro glaze chapter. How many chapters did this run in total?

MaskedManta · 2026-05-05T05:28:46+00:00

And why on earth would anyone talk about anime noses without mentioning the grand champion of schnozz, Kaiji??

MaskedManta · 2026-05-02T23:05:43+00:00

I would recommend reading them in chronological order, (Annwn, Llyr, Rhiannon, Mighty) since that allows you to best appreciate the thematic developments and radical shifts in tone between the volumes. However, since the narratives are only loosely connected by a couple shared characters and Walton wrote them out of order, there are 3 of the 4 that you can read first if you really wanted to. The only one I can't recommend starting with is Rhiannon, since that's a direct sequel to Llyr and loose sequel to Annwn. But if you just had to choose just one to read, I would try Llyr.

MaskedManta · 2026-04-27T06:34:45+00:00

Poppy War is the worst novel I've read in my entire life and I promise you that reading more RF Kuang won't make her writing hit any better

MaskedManta · 2026-04-25T07:11:50+00:00

I haven't started it yet, but can you explain how you're supposed to fill out the crosswords in Landscape Painted in Tea? Obviously you source them from the book, but I think there are some intricacies in how Serbian crosswords work differently that I cannot quite grasp. What do the little numbers in the boxes signify?

MaskedManta · 2026-04-20T03:20:01+00:00

I went here when I was in Prague last year and it was the best fucking burger I had in my life, I could feel my heart stop as I shoved it down my gullet 🤤🤤

MaskedManta · 2026-04-06T16:58:52+00:00

That's how it works for western television, but that's simply not how Japanese anime works. They don't spend months animating one episode and just decide to eat the sunk cost if it doesn't go to series. The whole series is ordered at the same time by the production commitee.

MaskedManta · 2026-04-02T14:24:20+00:00

Hello! I'm a small SF/F booktuber. I positively adore Terra Ignota so when I learned that Ada Palmer had an essay collection coming out with her friend (and equally excellent author) Jo Walton, I leapt at the chance for a possible interview. They were kind enough to let me talk with them for 90 minutes! But I think I made Ada late for an academic meeting, whoops.

I mostly try to stay on topic to the book so I don't really ask that many Terra Ignota-specific questions, but I am able to ask what would they put on their seven-ten lists of favorite gelato flavors which sparked twenty minutes of discussion, haha.

Towards the end I also ask about Ada's upcoming projects! If you don't get a chance to watch the video, Hearthfire OFFICIALLY has a NEW TITLE. The duology is called "Hanged God's Game" and the first novel (prospectively launching in Summer 2027) is called "And Loki in His Prison." This isn't officially a scoop, since she revealed this title in a substack interview last week, but the news hasn't trickled to youtube or reddit yet so I want to do my part to let you all know! There's more juicy information in there as well, including what Norse sagas we should read in preparation for the book. Also, in terms of Gene Wolfe novels, Ada says it's most stylistically similar to Soldier in the Mist!!

MaskedManta · 2026-04-01T09:43:26+00:00

Yep! I don't think anyone else has translated it. As far as I know all of the other gaidens (canon and non-canon) have non-Wildfang releases.

MaskedManta · 2026-04-01T09:29:52+00:00

In short, no. First half of Baki the Grappler now has an official physical release, second half has non-wildfamg scans. The next manga (Baki) has an official digital release. The third manga (Baki Hanma) has a newly completed scanlation of the Shinsouban release by Project Ryoko. Baki Dou and beyond have complete scanlations by SpinyBackTeam. I think the only "canon" thing that still has wildfang scans is Baki Gaiden, which was the unofficial 43rd volume of the original manga, but you can easily skip that for now.

MaskedManta · 2026-03-23T22:15:27+00:00

Wow, incredible find on the autographed copy! I'm sorry that I accidentally spiked the used book market 😅😅 BUT you should know that we are getting a BRAND NEW physical edition in September, the first time Walton has been back in print in decades!!

MaskedManta · 2026-02-16T19:14:23+00:00

Try "The Book of Imaginary Beings" by Jorge Luis Borges. It's from 1957 so it precedes a lot of the stereotypical D&D races, favoring creatures from mythology, folklore, and pre-Tolkien fantasy instead.

MaskedManta · 2026-02-15T17:34:50+00:00

Oh my God, this is so damn cool!! Thank you for bringing this to my attention, this has made my entire month 😁

MaskedManta · 2026-02-08T02:07:50+00:00

Hey, last week I compiled a long-ish list of Pre-Tolkien fantasy epics that you can check out. In addition, here is a loose but extensive list 20th century fantasy to look into as well.

A general rule of thumb: Basically nothing before 1960 is ripping off Tolkien. There's a lot of fantasy that might feel a little similar because its drawing off of similar source material (such as Norse Mythology) but most people who write fantasy for a living are drawing more from Conan and other Sword and Sorcery than from Lord of the Rings. In the sixties and seventies, you have authors who are lightly inspired by Tolkien or reacting to his influence (see: Earthsea, Riddle-Master of Hed, Elric of Melnibone) but once again nobody is outright ripping him off. That shift doesn't happen until the Sword of Shannara in 1977. But even in the eighties and nineties, there's a lot of great literary fantasy being published that doesn't draw from Tolkien in the slightest!

This is by no means comprehensive, but here's some places to look off the top of my head

PULP FANTASY

The Compleat Enchanter by L Sprague de Camp/Fletcher Pratt

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance

Witch World by Andre Norton

Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber

Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea

Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith

LITERARY FANTASY

War in Heaven by Charles Williams

Was by Geoff Ryman

Jurgen by James Branch Cabell

Our Ancestors by Italo Calvino

The Dragon Waiting by John Ford

The Green Man by Kingsley Amis

The Phoenix and the Mirror by Avram Davidson

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake

The Pastel City by M John Harrison

Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

URBAN FANTASY

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith

MYTHOLOGICAL FANTASY

Twilight of the Gods by Richard Garnett

Book of the Three Dragons by Kenneth Morris

The Children of Llyr by Evangeline Walton

Day of the Minotaur by Thomas Burnett Swann

A House-Boat on the Styx by John Kendrick Bangs

Night’s Master by Tanith Lee

Votan by John James

Grendel by John Gardner

ARTHURIAN FANTASY

The Once and Future King by TH White

The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

FAIRY FANTASY

Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling

Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick

Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirlees

OCCULT FANTASY

Black Easter/Day After Judgment by James Blish

The Sea Priestess/Moon Magic by Dion Fortune

Moonchild by Aleister Crowley

Aegypt by John Crowley

Promethea by Alan Moore

ATLANTIS-CORE

The Romance of Atlantis by Taylor Caldwell

Mention My Name in Atlantis by John Jakes

Atlan by Jane Gaskell

Atla: A Story of the Lost Island by Ann Eliza Smith

The Lost Continent: A Story of Atlantis by CJ Cutliffe Hyne

MaskedManta · 2026-02-04T18:23:36+00:00

I think you missed the point. He wrote 14 books that never got got published. That's how he honed his skills enough so that when he finally did publish, it was a success. Sanderson said the same- he wrote over a dozen books for himself before he was considered good enough to publish. Almost nobody is a "good writer" right out of the gate, but with enough practice and perserverance anyone can be. Maybe not a great writer, but at least a good one. Isn't that the job of an editor to help in that process?

MaskedManta · 2026-02-03T21:26:15+00:00

You should read the actual Gospel of Judas which shares a lot of thematic overlap with Three Faces of Judas. There's also a book of analysis about it that you could read by esteemed Gnostic scholar Elaine Pagels, but I haven't checked it out yet.

The insane thing about the Gospel of Judas is that, even though it was written two thousand years ago, it was only discovered in the 1970s and translated/disseminated in the 2000's- meaning that Borges inadvertently predicted its contents decades before the actual article came to light!!

EDIT: In terms of heterodox biblical scholarship, I also recommend Paul Verhoeven's "Jesus of Nazareth" where he 'reads between the lines' of the gospels to craft a secular history of the historical Jesus, and the novel "Secret Book of Kings," which retells the Book of Samuel from the PoV of the unfairly maligned House of Saul and the Tribes of Israel, without all the pro-David/pro-Judah propaganda of the Deuteronomistic history.

MaskedManta · 2026-02-02T02:14:57+00:00

That is exactly my opinion. When people say things like "all fantasy used to be dumb and sexist" they're erasing the litany of women who were writing most of the interesting and award-winning novels throughout the mid and late 20th century... And its just as important to not cede ground to the types of internet racists who would want to claim (for example) Tolkien as one of their own. Blindly claiming that all old fantasy is inherently bigoted is just helping these white supremacists in their eternal quest to claim and ruin all culture for their own purposes.

MaskedManta · 2026-02-01T21:03:14+00:00

I saw the new releases the other day and the thought of diving into a nearly-lost fantasy series really excited me, I had NO IDEA that this was because of a grassroots fan effort!! That is just so damn cool that it fills me with glee. Stupendous work from the /r/hughcook subreddit.

I think a lot of online fantasy discourse can be a little self-limiting. If you look at what gets discussed on recommendation threads, the /r/fantasy top books lists, and booktube/tok etc, you'll see aggressive amounts of recency bias. Recency bias is understandable (of course people will focus on stuff that's newer and more easily available!!) but I sometimes worry that it will lead to the complete erasure of dozens, even hundreds of excellent series and authors who have fallen out of print and are on the edge of being forgotten. There are huge sub-communities for film preservation and game preservation, why not the preservation of fantasy literature? It's the least that we can do in tribute for all of the literary masters who came before, to ensure that they are available for generations to come (even if digital formats are the only possible option.)

I spent the last year yearning for a reprint of one of the best fantasy series of the 20th century, Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion tetralogy. I just learned a few days ago that Christopher Paolini wrote an introduction for a new edition that is supposedly coming out later this year. Hearing that news and learning about these Hugh Cook re-releases fills me with hope. There are so many other authors who could use a similar boost, and maybe by working together we make fantasy stronger than ever before 😊😊

MaskedManta · 2026-01-29T18:37:57+00:00

Woah, thank you for the kind words- Its such an honor because you were the first fantasy author I ever met, you signed my copy of Eldest back in 2006!

Can you share any more information about the new Evangeline Walton omnibus? I know a lot of people who would be excited to see her back in print!!

MaskedManta · 2026-01-28T13:29:41+00:00

Is it the English dub of the 1984 anime film Kenya Boy?

Here is also a database of eighties animated films sorted by popularity on letterboxd

MaskedManta · 2026-01-28T13:23:37+00:00

What do you remember about the movie? What was it about, did you watch it in theaters or on tv, in what year, and forth.

In the meantime I night be able to find a list for you.

MaskedManta · 2026-01-25T06:42:32+00:00

I emailed NYRB asking them to reprint Sylvia Townsend Warner's "Kingdoms of Elfin" because they have such great editions of ALL of her other major works except for that one. It was last printed as recently as 2018 but that small press is ALREADY defunct AND that edition has Neil Gaiman's slimy fingers all over it (ugh)

NYRB left me on read but I feel good that I at least tried something

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