It was a landmark year, but that wasn't an accident. Notice that all four of the books you listed here were from Ballantine/Del Rey. It might have been steam engine time, but someone has to actually build that first engine. Ballantine had been trying for years to capitalize on the success of The Lord of the Rings, but their first attempt--Lin Carter's "Adult Fantasy Line"--was much more varied and much less commerically successful. The Del Reys deliberately set out with Shanara and Thomas Covenant to make a line of commerical fantasy built on books specifically targeted to appeal to Tolkien fans, and it worked.
Anthony, Donaldson, and Brooks are all very unlike Tolkien in various ways, but Del Rey marketed them all to the same audience and achieved tremendous commerical success with them.
I don't disagree with you that the primary aesthetic message of Brooks is "you can publish any crap you want, and if it's shamelessly enough like The Lord of the Rings, it will sell"--a message which has somewhat, but not completely, burned out.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-11-14 12:30 pm (UTC)Anthony, Donaldson, and Brooks are all very unlike Tolkien in various ways, but Del Rey marketed them all to the same audience and achieved tremendous commerical success with them.
I don't disagree with you that the primary aesthetic message of Brooks is "you can publish any crap you want, and if it's shamelessly enough like The Lord of the Rings, it will sell"--a message which has somewhat, but not completely, burned out.