He also borrowed quite a bit from Tolkien and some other authors.
The 4th book of the trilogy (don't start) is out in stores now, I saw it yesterday.
FYI, he wrote the first book when he was 14. So give him a little credit. But the series is just a religous-political commentary, where the atheistic elves are the enlightened scientists who meditate and are all New Age-y, while the religious dwarves are foolish barbarians with superstitions. I read fantasy to escape reality, not read a commentary on reality.
Good for haven been written 14 year old doesn't mean good. I read for the worth of the book, not the author.
School lecture lists were littered with these things, though. Hardly any of the books I read in school were actually good, and these only came at the end anyways. It's like they take us for morons... -.-
