by Karen Haber, Ursula K. Le Guin, Diane Duane, Douglas A. Anderson, Orson Scott Card, Charles de Lint, Lisa Goldstein, Glenn Herdling, Terri Windling, George R. R. Martin, Raymond E. Feist, Poul Anderson, Michael Swanwick, Esther M. Friesner
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When J. R. R. Tolkien created the extraordinary world of Middle-earth and populated it with fantastic, archetypal denizens, reinventing the heroic quest, the world hardly noticed. Sales of The Lord of the Rings languished for the better part of two decades, until the Ballantine editions were published in America. By the late 1950s, however, the books were selling well and beginning to change the face of fantasy . . . . forever. A generation of students and aspiring writers had their hearts and imaginations captured by the rich tapestry of the Middle-earth mythos, the larger-than-life heroic characters, the extraordinary and exquisite nature of Tolkien's prose, and the unending quest to balance evil with good. In Meditations on Middle-earth, writers share details of their personal relationships with Tolkien's mythos, for it inspired them all. Had there been no Lord of the Rings, there would also have been no Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin; no Song of Ice and Fire saga from George R. R. Martin; no Tales of Discworld from Terry Pratchett; no Legends of Alvin Maker from Orson Scott Card. Each of them was influenced by the master mythmaker, and now each reveals the nature of that influence and their personal relationships with the greatest fantasy novels ever written in the English language.
