Can anyone write epic fantasy?

This was a post I made on the World of Fantasy group on Yahoo in response to another member's question.  I think it also makes a number of points about why I write, so I thought I'd re-post it so more folks can read it and share their views on the subject.

--- In Worlds_Of_Fantasy@yahoogroups.com, "damodar1982" <damodar1982@...> wrote:
>
> i think almost anyone can write story better and nicer than Lord of the Rings an d or ovverrated Game of thrones ...whatchyu think ????

I think anyone can write epic fantasy, but writing good or great fantasy is quite another matter. The numbers of poor or outright bad epic fantasy grows every year. The numerous LOTR pastiches are so generally awful they could constitute their own genre. The problem I have with most epic fantasy is that it is so cliched, hackneyed, morally unambiguous and just plain dull and obvious. Think about how easy it is to have elves, dwarfs, dragons, wizards, unicorns, etc.

Having just had a fantasy novel published, I think the problem is that most fantasy novelists have a very narrow range of experiences in  reading other fantasy works.  They also  seem to possess a limited repertoire of emotional experiences and cultural knowledge or curiosity with which to work.  I confess I'm personally not a big fan of epic fantasy because of that, which is one reason my own novel (wait for shameless plug) Ukishima uses Japanese mythology and history. Partly I wanted to be different, but I also wanted to write a book that would interest me and frankly Western European tribal folklore, knights in shining armor, hairy chested (usually "Celtic") barbarians, and Christian allegory are just not my cup of tea. They're also just too easy to write and because of that over-familiarity such books are just plain contemptible because essentially you've already read it in multiple versions. But here's the real and fatal problem: those variants lack any imagination or originality.

Again, just to be a contrarian, I've considered writing a fantasy novel using Afghan and Tibetan mythology with a plot inspired by the real-life adventures of my late, first wife.  In both Ukishima and this still gestating story idea, I was/am intrigued by these different cultures and learning about them was/is also rewarding.

So, yes, it is easy for anyone to write epic fantasy, if you lack any imagination whatsoever and have the soul of a plagiarist or slavish imitator.
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I'd mention some specific books, except that some are by people I know personally.  I like them too much as friends to let them know I find their works unreadable at best.  Fortunately, someone else took on the "daunting" task of listing some of the worst series.  It's located here: <http://bestfantasybooks.com/worst-fantasy-books.html>

I also confess I had no idea just how many bad epic fantasy novels and series are out there.
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