[Suzerain of Sheol]

It's weird, but a lot early fantasy was less derivative and cliche than what came after. Once Lord of the Rings got huge, everyone was trying copy Tolkien, and the genre is only now starting to climb out of his shadow.

Either that, or cliche stuff sells better and is more popular, while more imaginative material collects dust on the shelf, making publishers turn there noses up at it, which is a much more depressing thought. I don't think that's true, though.