Writing a fantasy novel is basically begging to be compared to Tolkien - you're painting a big old target on your back. Now, I'm not the biggest Tolkien fan, despite falling squarely in the old coot's key demographic (males with sedentary lifestyles and, shall we say, a certain number of RPGs under my belt). That's not to say I don't appreciate Tolkien, I do, just in the same way that I appreciate Star Trek: The Next Generation. In fact, I have the same problem with both: