Saruman appears as a minor villain in "Lego Dimensions", in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech. Asteroid 418532 Saruman was named after the wizard and in honor of actor Christopher Lee. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 25 September 2018 (). [a] The volume published as "The Silmarillion" in 1977 contains four books in addition to the "Quenta Silmarillion". The last of these—"Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"—covers Saruman's earlier history, but was written after "The Lord of the Rings". Note: For ease of reference, citations of "Letters" include
The Lord of the Rings May 2007. The enormous popularity of Tolkien's work expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to "The Lord of the Rings," the genre flowered throughout the 1960s, and enjoys popularity to the present day. The opus has spawned many imitators, such as "The Sword of Shannara", which Lin Carter called "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read". "Dungeons & Dragons", which popularized the role-playing game (RPG) genre in the 1970s, features many races found in "The Lord of the Rings," most notably halflings (another term for hobbits), elves (who are distinct from