Hig, JRRT blows away any modern writer for Epic feel and style. No one since him has actually created a world of such depth. Sure its a bit dry in places because alot of the characters motivations come from a different place than we do, and theres so much of it. But he wasn't going for just a story. He was making an entire mythos, from the start of the world to the end of its magic.

Modern writers of Fantasy just write fiction and include things like dragons and spells. But the dialog and the characters are all modern and comparitively shallow.

And I think the reason Gandalf wasn't throwing Strike's of Solsek around is because he wasn't based on a modern Fantasy idea of a wizard. He was a composite of alot of old mythy characters, none of which were the hero. Guys like Merlin, Odin, and other advisor types. They have power thru wisdom and ability to move events, but themselves don't overthrow the big bad evil guy. Guys that are almost outside of the story, allowing it to happen. Regardless, its little touches like that that made LOTR Epic books and not just bestsellers to be forgotten in 3-10 years. Most of those touches I think were sadly lost in the second and third movies so that we could have another 30 or 40 minutes of watching crying hobbits.