This Collider piece argues that while J.R.R. Tolkien's work is often treated as fantasy's benchmark, several other series match or exceed its scope and ambition, offering deeper world-building, higher emotional stakes and more rigorous magic systems. It highlights six works, several of which directly influenced major fantasy authors, including George R.R. Martin, and pushes back on the idea that Tolkien represents the genre's finishing point.

The featured titles include Tad Williams's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, praised for its grounded, fearful protagonist and political intrigue; Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, noted for later books that critically re-examine the gender politics of its earlier instalments; Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, an intricate, demanding narrative styled as a translated ancient document; and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost and built around daemons, the alethiometer, and a challenge to organised religion, ending without a conventional happy resolution for its central characters.

– Article lists fantasy series said to rival or surpass Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
– Includes Tad Williams, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe and Philip Pullman's works
– Cites deeper world-building, harder emotional stakes and rule-based magic systems