Recently, a reader requested recommendations for other Fantasies of like kind to The Wall of Night. They also indicated an interest in more recent publications, so at that time I skipped the “old favourites” and “formative reads” — you can read that post here.

Nonetheless, the June 22nd post did spark reflection on older works that are also “like” the WALL series. Or more correctly (to put matters the right way round 😉 ), the Wall of Night series is of like kind to them. Many books (both Fantasy/SciFi and in other genres) have been influential, but my current focus is on books that either sit in the same “quadrant” of the Fantasy ‘verse, e.g. epic-heroic fantasy, or have other significant elements in common.

I’m still going to do five works in total, but will post on one at a time then wrap up at the end. Today, I’m starting with — ta-da! (but absolutely no surprises!):

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

“I know, I know”, it’s the obvious comparison — probably for any series in the epic-heroic Fantasy subgenre (and fantasy as a whole) because in many ways, The Lord of the Rings (also LoTR hereafter) defines it. I say “in many ways” because LoTR was preceded by books such as ER Eddison’s The Worm Ouroboros and Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter. So it was not the first, but is certainly the most famous, in itself and in establishing Fantasy as a field.

The Wall of Night series (WALL) definitely follows in LoTR’s footsteps, particularly in terms of being deeply grounded in mythology. Although in WALL’s case, while it draws on the Norse myths that infuse LoTR, the Celtic and Greco-Roman cycles are equally significant.

Other elements that WALL has in common with The Lord of the Rings, include the struggle against existential evil and a world-destroying threat, along with humanity in the face of overwhelming darkness. And the protagonists, while fallible and/or flawed (OK, maybe not Aragorn 🙂 ) strive to surmount near-impossible odds and to choose good over evil.

The Wall of Night series isn’t just a LoTR lookalike, though. There are way more women characters, for starters, and significant women characters, too. The evil is less monolithic as well, and the story draws on characters from both sides of the conflict. But in their essential epic-heroic, quest-journey, myth-infused nature — yep, The Wall of Night series definitely sits in the same Fantasy quadrant as The Lord of the Rings.