Tolkienesque fantasy

• "Beginning with Terry Brooks's mid-seventies The Sword of Shannara -- which is almost a straight retelling, with the objects altered -- fantasy fiction, of the sword-and-sorcery kind, has been an annex of Tolkien's imagination. A vaguely medieval world populated by dwarfs, elves, trolls; an evil lord out to enslave the good creatures; and, almost always, a weird magic thing that will let him do it, if the hero doesn't find or destroy it first -- that is the Tolkien formula. Each element certainly has an earlier template and a source, but they enter the bookstore, and the best-seller list, through Tolkien's peculiar treatment of them."

Notable works

• Jacqueline Carey subverted the Tolkienesque fantasy with her "Sundering" duology, Banewreaker and Godslayer.