Sanderson says fantasy should move beyond The Lord of the Rings

Brandon Sanderson, the prolific author of the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archives who completed The Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan’s death, was the speaker at this year’s Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Fiction at Oxford University. In an hour-long lecture, available on YouTube and on his website, he revisited one of his most controversial essays, “How Tolkien Ruined Fantasy.” Sanderson argued that Tolkien’s skill and the vast shadow his work cast held the genre back from innovating, pushing readers in the ’90s to “fall slowly out of love with fantasy, because it was no longer giving them the sense of wonder it used to.” Tolkien’s efforts to make Middle‑Earth feel believable — inventing a language, poems, songs and texts — produced an immersive achievement, and The Lord of the Rings remains the major Epic Fantasy text despite the fact that the books came out 72 years ago.

He highlighted Tolkien’s idea that fantasy evokes “Recovery, Escape, and Consolation” and urged writers to carry forward the spirit of innovation.

United Kingdom, Oxford

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