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It’s crazy how all these decades later, Lord of the Rings still has the greatest worldbuilding in any fantasy story
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I agree that LOTR laid a lot of ground work for modern epic fantasy. But the greatest world building of any fantasy? Strongly disagree. It’s up there, and surpasses Cosmere and MAYBE, ASOFAI (haven’t read second apocalypse) but IMO it still doesn’t come close to Malazan. I don’t see how anything can or ever will. Erikson’s understanding of culture, war, and the beauty of humanity in the darkest of times is mesmerizing. And there are so many multi layered characters. There is not just a handful of heroes with one main goal. It’s so real because of the vastly different characters, and the sheer amount of them. No war is won by a small band of heroes. It is the culmination of countless individuals, often guided by those in power with unspoken ulterior motives. The world and characters, though still high fantasy, is so much more real than anything I’ve read in the genre.
To each their own, but that’s my long two cents.
For me it's Malazan and Wheel of Time. Malazan for deeply understanding of people/beings and Wheel of Time for understanding of culture and politics.
I haven’t been able to make it through the first WOT (couldn’t care about the characters). But I do feel Erikson has an immense understanding of culture and politics. I do plan on giving WOT another shot at some point.
The Malazan duo absolutely do understand politics and culture. But WOT just does it better IMO. Like how things are done in Illian cannot be done in Cairhein, or the nuances behind plots in Caemlyn etc. There isn't much of that in Malazan. It's more of factions/people than politics and culture.
Not sure how far you are or got into WOT. But once you make it to litter book 3-ish, you'll see what differences I mean.