The Gift (Pellinor Series #1) Book

I really enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading the next book. It is a fairly standard fantasy story - orphan is rescued from a horrible life and is found to be the holder of great power and the possible savior of the nation/world. There are bad guys and treachery and so on. It is a bit uneven in places and there is a bit more repetition that I would like, but otherwise quite good.

My biggest quibble is not with the book but with the many reviewers, here and elsewhere, who compare it to The Lord of the Rings series. Apart from the dark big bad, the plot has very little in common with LOTR. The main character is a GIRL for one thing, a creature that is very rare in Tolkien. Yes, the author has made up a language and a history, with appendices, for her book and country, but this is not exclusive to Tolkien. There are no Hobbit like creatures, no ring of power, etc, etc. Heck, there are not many modern fantasy writers who DON'T have elements of Tolkien in them, and many who create whole worlds. I think it does the author a disservice really, and doesn't let the book's own merits shine. And I see far more traces of other authors, like Garth Nix and Kate Constable to name a couple, than I do of Tolkien.