I did say "relatively" simplistic! I think character development has progressed and story lines more complex, but this is a children's book (that adults love too) so it is complex enough :)
Hopefully we will build a parallel world that survives whatever is coming.
In a parallel universe, we already have :)
Was it written as a children's book? I couldn't really understand it until I was in college. My kids could read and understand Harry Potter, but not Tolkien until they were much older. This is why I say that Rowling, as a story teller, can't hold a candle to Tolkien.
I've been reading a lot of pre-1950 lit. I find that modern lit is far less complex, almost banal, and the characters mostly predictable in thought and deed, compared to characters written earlier. I didn't live then, or think as they did, so perhaps they seem more complex to me because I am unfamiliar with the folks of those times. In some cases many of them are the same as we are now: just as easy to fool, to manipulate, and to turn against their neighbors. I feel there is less of that in LotR. Those characters were stalwart and loyal to their peers, good or bad, if anything.