[annyokie]

I have long been a fan of CS Lewis. You are correct about having to buy "The Screwtape Letters" from Amazon. "Mere Christianity is a masterpiece, as well. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Understand, I don't mean to bash Tolkien, his style just doesn't appeal to me. I tried hard to like Isaac Asimov ("I, Robot", et al) and had the same problem. I think you either love fantasy, science fiction and others or you plod through it thinking, "hey, I could be reading Viktor Frankl."

[discostu]

Now with Asimov you have to go by era. The older he got the more long winded and obtuse he got. I finally gave up with Prelude to Foundation, 100 pages in I had yet to find sign of a plot and just couldn't take it anymore. I think by that point the primary purpose of his writing was that he enjoyed seeing the words magically appear on the page. His early shorts were great, once he broke past 300 pages though forget it, all rubbish.

[Alkhin]

ROFL!!! I hear yah! That is so true, too! As it so happened, when I set out to write fantasy way back when, I decided I did NOT want to be like Tolkien ie using the same formula. There has been a lot of deplorable fantasy that has come out since Tolkien...and where its not Tolkien, its a retelling of the Legends of King Arthur.

I have yet to finish Mere Christianity, as there is also Thomas Merton and Aquinas and St. Benedict that I have on my list to read. After these guys, Tolkien is escapism!!