There are many great fantasy writers. You have to like older guys like Sir Walter Scott and Michael Moorcock (which caracterizes how diverse the books really are). then there are the modern guys like Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.
The best of these guys write in a fantasy world, but tell stunning real-life human tales. Moorcock's Elric struggled with inner demons and presented the question of how much of your own humanity is already written in and how much we can control, while Goodkind is an almost Ayn Randian struggle between persoanl individual freedom vs. tyranny and totaliarianism. Jordan created a messianic character in Rand, in which the world and it's various faction turn themselves upside dowm, throwing the world into chaos and dis-order
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Tolkien is about the struggle of good aginast a seemingly insurmountable evil. It's the story of how four hobbitts and their allies take on a huge evil. both within themselves in the guise of the ring, and also around them, with Sauron's orcs and sorcerers. Much of it was written in the dark days of WW2 Britain, so the reader, can guess where much of the imagery can come from.
Frodo inherits Bilbo's ring, and it slowly changes everything about him. He is joined by his three friends Sam, Pippin, and Merry, along with the powerful wizard Gandalf and a few other allies, most notably Strider, a great warrior. They travel through wars, are chased by monsters,and are split up. There is treachery and differeing motives among their allies, and they run into obstacle after obstacle in a mission to destroy the ring.
One of the beauties of LOTR is the characters. You notice the transformation of Frodo from a simple hobbitt to a dark , obsessed and moody character the ring turns him into. There is the powerful wizard Gandalf, locked into his own struggle against evil,and there is also the reluctant hero Aragorn, who while avoiding his destiny, draws closer and clser to it.
Even better is the prose. Tolkien did not write the catchy prose that would instantly draw readers in. LOTR was only a part of a larger milleu of Tolkien, Middle Earth. Life existed long before the hobbitts, and their struggle is merely the culmination of many, many years of struggle over the ring and between good and evil. There are many references toi things that happened in other biiks and stories, and the prose is dense. You need to be committed and dedicated to reading this, much like Frodo is to getting rid of the ring. But once you are in Tolkien's grasp, you are his. It is an unforgettable reading experience.
He never gets overly heavy-handed about his writing philosphy, avoiding the sometimes heavy-handedness of Goodkind, and he never loses control of the various threads, as Jordan seemingly does. It reads like an old history book not a mere story.
It is the standard for all fantasy writing. as fantastic as the battles and sorcery are, he never forgets the muman angele of it. The huge struggle against seemingly invincible odds, the battle between good and evil, and the tough lessons of self-realization, among others. it is all here, and is in a grand scale.
