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The contemporary fantasy scene is not particularly inspiring. More than anything else, this is because of a fundamental irony in the fantasy marketplace: fantasy exists as a genre because of a human need to experience imaginative alternate realities, but the average consumer of fantasy literature has a fixed idea of the parameters of a fantasy world, and prefers to tread familiar territory.

All writers have their influences; none of us writes in a vacuum. Moreover, one could do a lot worse than looking to a great writer like J.R.R. Tolkien for inspiration. The problem is that far too many writers derive only the simplest lessons from Middle Earth. They see a world with a quasi-medieval level of technology, some magic, a lot of funny names, and non-human races like elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls. Too many people simply imitate these elements, without many of the things that really made Middle Earth magical, such as a cohesive vision of the grand scheme of things; a profound knowledge of language and folklore, which meant that Tolkien knew the images that would speak to us and could express them in compelling ways; and most elusive of all, a profound confidence in his world born of thorough knowledge. It is worth observing that Tolkien had been hammering out the history, geography, languages and traditions of Middle Earth for about 20 years before The Hobbit was published. This is not to argue that all fantasy novels must be massive tomes compiled after decades of work, but only to suggest that writers should not think that a string of traditional elements (say, dragons + elves + men with swords + the occasional wizard) is sufficient to create a meaningful world.

The Star Wars universe poses a striking parallel. Technically, Star Wars is not science fiction, despite the use of sci-fi imagery; at its heart Star Wars is epic fantasy. The semi-official Expanded Universe of Star Wars novelists suffers from the same lack of inspiration that plagues the would-be disciples of Tolkien. Despite the lack of Tolkien's grasp of language, George Lucas made a comparable accomplishment with his Star Wars films. His story had a decisive arc, however, that was officially resolved at the end of Return of the Jedi. The Emperor was dead, Darth Vader was dead, the Empire had been toppled, and a new beginning resulted. The novelists, however, have struggled to find new justifications for recreating the same crises they had enjoyed in the classic films, and in the process they have

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