Quote Originally Posted by Hsu View Post
The estate of Tolkien could probably sue every fantasy writer to produce any novel after the release of the Lord of the Rings novels.
Absolutely. There isn't a single fantasy-genre author I've read who doesn't steal some aspect of LoTR; the Mountain of Doom in Robert Jordan's much-loved Wheel of Time series, from Terry Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule", in the Shannara series by Terry Brooks.

JK Rowling is hugely guilty of this too giant spiders in "Chamber of Secrets"; Shelob, anyone? The idea of a "Dark Lord"?