Completely agree. There's a case to be made for that being true in every genre. I certainly didn't mean to imply it was easy--part of the reason we love Tolkein is that he took (quite literally) ancient themes and did it very well.

Still, that's a separate issue from the _writing_ quality, by which I mean word choice, sentence construction, paragraph style, and so on. IMHO, that is what's not so great about most fantasy writing (and, probably, most writing). Again, I fully admit to being a snob. And, again, more to the point, it doesn't matter so much for games. I just don't read it again after the first time.

Eh, that may have been true when there weren't many widely published fantasy writers. I like her, but Robin Hobbs (whose characters are superb) and the new Patrick Rothfuss (who has such a way with words!) impress me far more. LeGuin's style feels a little dated. Then again, I'm also the guy who'll say that Martin's later books are mind-numbingly boring and highly overrated, a statement which usually gets me figuratively stoned.