Continuing a discussion from another thread:
re Zelazny: The Chronicles of Amber is one of my all time favorites, and one I frequently recommend to people who have never heard of it . ( It also happens to have playing cards in it, which should be of interest to us here.)
re "Overrated": I have often had the same thought, that this amounts to criticizing something on the basis of it being too popular. As such, it is frequently just an expression of elitist snobbery. Which brings us to..
re Literature Professors and Popular Literature: I would be more interested in the literature professor's opinion of Tolkien if I weren't so sure it was mostly snobbery. Notice he lumps Tolkien in with a handful of other popular authors enjoyed by the hoi polloi. Another thing, you can't bash Tolkien for shallow characters and then turn around and bash King. An objective reader recognizes King as a fairly good developer of character. Sometimes brilliant. Stu Redman in The Stand is one of my favorite characters ever.