Is it just me or do they seem like they are all lord of the ring knock off now a days?

What happened to fantasy novels


Don’t get me wrong. I love fantasy. I loved Lord of the Rings. Adored the His Dark Materials Trilogy They true masterpieces regardless of what certain people’s certain point of views are. I even like the Harry Potter series thou I felt it was a bit over rated. But I also feel books like the Golden Compass and Harry Potter are really only winners because ninety percent of the rest of the fantasy out there seems to be Lord of the Rings knock offs and I’ve read so many of those when I was younger that I could pretty much throw up if I read another one.
Where has originality went ? Why is it always in medieval times. Why do they only have swords? And why is the man character always a elf, dwarf, hobbit, witch, or some beautiful helpless princess or heroic prince/ soldier?
I really don’t mean to insult any fans, but Eragon is the greatest example of mediocre genre fantasy to be on the face of the earth. I could predict every thing that they were going to say or do before it even happened. (And that the story seemed to be awfully similar to Star Wars didn’t help either0

What I do love are stories that are different than what we’re used to. I love stories that make you have the characters and become sock when they get hurt or cry when they die. (I believe every body remembers the moment when Fred Weasely died) The only books that really did this for me were.

Harry potter series
The his Dark Materials Trilogy
East
The Looking Glass Wars
Septemus Heap

So what append to Fantasy. I’m not sure, but if some knows, please tell me?