I can see how Wolfe might like Lawhead for his portrayal of a pagan religion being transformed into a simulacra of Christian monotheism in the few books that I've read by him (In the Hall of the Dragon King, Warlords of Nin, Sword and the Flame). In those books, the main character who starts as an apprentice in a pagan temple becomes King and comes to understand that there is One True God and makes everyone recognize their personal relationship to that God (or something). I found his message a little bit too overt and blatantly fundamentalist in nature, but that might be just me. I really liked Terry Brooks in the fourth grade, but I have no idea if I would like him now (it's hard to accurately judge books of which you have fond childhood memories). Much like Tolkien, I consider him primarily a children's writer - and I think I read Brooks before Tolkien, and subsequently liked him a little more ... but once again, I was only nine or ten years old.