One of my other favorite fantasy authors besides Tolkien is Marion Zimmer Bradley, particularly The Mists of Avalon which is an amazing work, though it is extremely long. I've also found Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series to be extremely well done. Like others have mentioned, T.H White's The Once and Future King is brilliant, even though it isn't exactly like Tolkien.

Not exactly fantasy as such - and alas that I can read the only in translation, but for erudition and intellectual stimulation combined with imagination, I would recommend both Jostein Gaarder - who in additon to the very famous "Sophie's World" has written some wonderful books which are perhaps more approachable if like me you don't have the best grasp of philosophy. It is a good time of year to read "The Christmas Mystery" but "The Solitaire Mystery is great as well, and there is another one with an angel but I forget the name-"Through a glass darkly" maybe- and Umberto Eco. Eco with the caveat that his work is less suitable for younger readers however bright...

It's rather like Aule's imitation of Illuvatar that resulted in the Dwarves. :) I'd say that imitation as a form of compliment and respect is canon.

Hi! Newbie here, thought I'd wade into this with my two cents worth. I read The Hobbit and LOTR back in high school, and that was so long ago that Professor Tolkien was still among the living. I can recommend The Children of Lyr series by Evangeline Walton, her re-telling of the Mabinogion (Welsh legends). This was what I read right after Tolkien, and it's still with me. I also recommend author Caseal Mor's The Watchers series, which includes The Raven Game. This is a series of Celtic legends, and the stories told from the POV of one of the characters who is a raven. I read all sorts of books; history, historical mysteries, greek and roman history, and biographies and other stuff. I even read some Tolkien fanfiction! I could also recommend Terry Pratchett, although I consider him a "satirist" rather than a fantasy author. I personally like a good tale that you can step into and get lost in for awhile. :)

Are you serious? He really said that? That's the funniest thing I've heard all week!:D

Mansun, you said you wanted something with elves in it? Well, Elric's an elf, sort of.

Like other posters before me, I'm somewhat at a loss as to what would please you.

You seem to be talking about fantasy specifically (though you didn't say so to begin with). Are you looking for good original fantasy, or do you just want to be directed to one of the better-quality Tolkien rip-offs?

Sorry... make that tributes. ;)

He did! And yet he wrote an essay 'Epic Pooh' http://www.revolutionsf.com/article.html?id=953 in which he attacks Tolkien fairly mercilously. From other statements on his forum its clear that he knows little of Tolkien's other writings, so his 'criticism' is based on a partial reading of LotR. That said, he does seem to have read more of it than the other 'big' critic of Tolkien, Germaine Greer, who admitted on a BBC book programme that she had read 'about 20 pages' of LotR. Pullman at least seems to have actually read LotR - though I suspect he hasn't read anything else by JRRT.

Well, if you want to have some fun John Connolly's "The Book of Lost Things" is wicked fun...

Speaking of that, how about Gregory Maguire's "Wicked"? He's got a sequel, the brilliantly-titled "Son of a Witch." And a thid book is in the wings, I believe.

After Tolkien, a lot of the writers I read were very playful. There is still that sense of wonder, but it's also undercut with Age of Irony mirthfulness. And if you dig deeper than the mirth, you find more sadness underneath.

What is wrong with taking a liking to Elves? What would please me is a fantasy novel which has the same intellectual depth as the LOTR. The LOTR has been done, but does that mean a novel including Elves, Dwarves, Wizards cannot be done?

You might like Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, which was written around the time of LotR, & draws on the same sources (Icelandic Saga, Norse & Celtic myth, etc), or Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy.

Hope Mirlees' Lud in the Mist should be required reading btw....

Another book I would recommend to anyone interested in fantasy but looking to shake things up would be The Hero and the Crown. There are dragons and there is a very weird family. And the protagonist is priceless: stubborn, driven, and prone to major mishaps and great triumphs - her mother has been slandered in death, and a lot of the politics swirling around her are depressingly familiar, but no less intriguing for that.

I read it before I read Tolkien, actually, but I think it really made me appreciate Tolkien more, and I'm sure this could work both ways.

It's usually marketed as YA (young adult) - but I re-read it last year and realized that it just didn't get old for me. So whatever your age is, dive right in.

Another good sprawling gothic fantasy I read recently...The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
Not as good, imo, as Susannah Clarke, but definitely a really racey read with Eco/Borges/Marquez touches. What's not to like?

Of course not. But I should expect a really good one to still be very different from LotR. It might have Elves, but they wouldn't be like Tolkien's Elves. The best writers are never content with just imitating.