Hmmm, being compared to Tolkien specifically for being it's own like Tolkien's was. I think you may be on to something there.

I tend to just get so sick of the whole "Our quest is to destroy/get rid of this (usually small and seemingly insignificant) magical item, and everyone (often dressed in black or otherwise associated with that colour) will hunt us for it, but we must go to [one specific location of bad news] and thus break the [evil one]'s power." It is so painfully common, and even if it isn't nicked in full for other books even just parts of it show up so clearly in other works. (Eddings and Salvatore, I'm looking at you)

Oh and wizards changing colours? Happens in SO many settings you wouldn't believe it. Tolkien invented this shit, and it has pretty much become a trope of wizardry. *sigh*

Give me Audley, give me Miéville, give me Tchaikovsky. Any day.

In fact he very rarely places us inside the heads of any of the elves either. Seems to me he made a conscious decision to not place us in the minds and memories of those who have the longest memories. If he'd done that, think of the constant info-dumping there'd have been! How long would the two major info-dump chapters in Fellowship have been, had they not only included all that was spoken of but also all that Gandalf and Elrond respectively would think of but decide not to say? :-p

Yeah, sounds like he's going through the same thing Tom Felton did after the first HP films. As much as I know I would LOVE to just give it my all playing a nefarious villain, this aspect of having an audience with less wisdom than a drunk hobbit's left foot is really something that makes me not even dream of being an actress. Ever. At all.

That's a fairly accurate assessment, yes :D

Yaaaaaay! Oh, I have been waiting with baited breath to see your reaction to this chapter, Mark. I knew you were gonna love it, but not how much.

And this? This entire chapter review had me in a painful fit of giggles. Which is awesome and part of the reason I'm reading this :D

Since you're into world-building I have to suggest:

Shadows of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The series is ongoing, so far at 7 books. Personally I've only read the first 6. I will say, though, that while the first 4 have a long continuous set of multiple plotlines, these plotlines are tied up there (for the most part), so in case you're sick of it at this point, you can stop it here :-p Books 5 and 6 have each their independent set of plotlines.

The books are:
Empire in Black and Gold
Dragonfly Falling
Blood of the Mantis
Salute the Dark
The Scarab Path
The Sea Watch
Heirs of the Blade

Though some of the volumes are kinda thick (they range between 430 to 700 pages) I found them to have a good flow, making them a semi-quick read.

It's a fantasy/steam-punk setting, which frankly made me squee in pleasure as I thought it was a kind of standard fantasy setting I was getting into, but ohhhh. I am quite in love with the series so far. Lovable characters, morally ambiguous characters, politics, spying, war, death, love, grief, and a take on fantasy races I have never seen before and which I shall not spoil for you here. Suffice to say that our heroes keep meeting new races - not new monsters (well on some occasions, that too), but new people-races. And besides the world-building stuff here I think you'd also enjoy how Tchaikovsky implements different government/political systems and class structures in his societies.

So anyway, I have many thoughts on them, and I would love to see what you might think of them.

LOL this thread is made of win!
Epona <> Shadowfax
Awesome!

I know which one you mean, and I was SO conflicted about it, because on one hand it is, indeed, incredibly beautiful in Boyd's rendition. But in the book I recall it being presented and used as a walking song, and well... walking songs, which there are several of in the book anyway, are sung to be walked to, yeah? And Boyd's version moves very far away from that. But it is beautiful and made me cry. And that's why I'm so darned conflicted about those two renditions. Don't make me choose. I'll split in two. :-p

The Tolkien Ensemble did another of the walking songs and made it uhmmm unwalkable? So ehm, in the case of that one I liked Ian Holm's muttery hum better.

And I am SO with you on the Hobbit trailer. That song, as more and more of them join in gives me so many chills down my spine that december 14th 2012 cannot be here soon enough. I'm such a sucker for proper singing :-D

Oh gosh yes. That one is such a haunting tune. I, of course, had to learn to play it :-p Nothing short of that would do.

There's another, also very haunting, also accompanied by a penny whistle, though this one is a very brief retelling of a legend of old. I love that one, too.

I don't agree with all of their interpretations, especially some of the later things. But they are by and large incredibly close to the sense I got from the songs when reading them.

... we might want to switch to rot13 for the spoilery stuff. Even if this does read kind of funny to avoid spoilers in this way :-p

I will generally recommend the Tolkien Ensemble's versions. Mainly because they make the songs a mite easier to get through :-) I find it easier to read rhyming poetry when I can "sing" it in my head :D

Definitely the hugely long song Frodo sings in the Prancing Pony. It's a bore to read on its own, but with Tom Mc Ewan singing and doing percussion on kitchen- and silverware everything is right and good in the world :-p