I thought I read that the bad guy was his father...
Well, I guess perhaps it isn't 100% plagiarism as I thought it was.
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.