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Hmmm, doesn't look like I mentioned my most recently discovered book series and author here: Jasper Fforde's 'Thursday Next' books (and his 'Nursery Crime' books as well) are the best stories I've read in a long time (present company excepted, of course)! It's been interesting to look for them in bookstores, as they are sometimes multiply displayed; I would definitely count them as fantasy literature, as they take place in a parallel world - a basic premise similar to that of Pullman's 'Dark Materials' books.
The interaction between real and fictional worlds is what makes the books most fascinating, and the humour is wonderful, with many plays on literature and words. A review I heard called them "hypermetafiction"! Though each book is complete in itself, it's wise to read them in order, so that the ideas that continue from book to book can be understood. "The Eyre Affair" is the first book which presents the heroine Thursday Next, a literary detective who investigates crimes like abductions of original manuscripts which are held for ransom.
When the boundaries between 'real' and fictional worlds become porous, the stories are at their very best. Tolkien references are included very occasionally (don't know if copyright issues prevent more).
Highly recommended!!
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth.. .'
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