"just a book" or "a descriptive treatise on an imaginary ecosphere " ?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

And if perchance Middle-Earth does not quite make it past 'a story' for you...

I should say it did for galpsi as well. Why else would he come here? That's why I come here, at any rate. He is quite right -- LotR is a narrative, a story of fiction -- but the seamless invention of the world described in other texts, and upon which LotR is based, are what makes it more than just a story. And as for

...are there other fictives that do?

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] no, of course not. Tolkien is truly incomparable, as you'd agree, lindil? I'm sure galpsi would have too.