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Title: Ideas from Tolkien
Review: I found and purchased this book because I was interested in writing a fantasy novel and wanted to see how other fantasy novelists wove their storylines. Maybe I'm being picky, but I found far too many parallels with this book to that of the Lord Of The Ring series by JRR Tolkien. In Tolkien, Bilbo and Frodo were the Ring-bearers; in this novel, the pig was the Key-bearer. And in Tolkien, Gandalf rode a fast horse known as Shadowfax; in this novel there was an almost identical character with a very similar name also. There were several other times while reading it that I found parallels too close to Tolkien to be merely coincidental. But enough about that. As a whole, the novel was very shallow and predictable. I didn't find it challenging in the least (as I did when I read the Tolkien fantasy novels...or others like Neverwhere). I gave it two stars for the simple fact that it was easy to follow and I was able to read it quickly. But it left me feeling empty.
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