I'm afraid I can't agree about Tolkien. I consider him to be the absolute master of the genre. The whole Lord of the Rings trilogy is very well written and self-consistent, depicting a sort of "pre-history," before certain humanoid species (hobbits, elves, and dwarves as a distinct and separate race) passed into oblivion, leaving only man to populate the world that came later.

Tolkien kind of spoiled me for other fantasy, which, for the most part, seems like a pale imitation, nowhere near as well thought out, well-constructed, and well written.

I've been an avid reader of science fiction ever since I discovered the "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon" comic strips as a rug-rat, and a few years later was given a large stack of pulp science fiction magazines like "Astounding," "Amazing," "Planet Stories," and other great stuff by an uncle who was in the merchant marine at the time and read a lot on the off-watch—much to the horror of my mother! That was late at night, under the blankets with flashlight stuff!

I was very much into the hard-science fiction stuff. I knew Jerry Pournelle when he lived in Seattle (we drank at the same pub and spent many hours cussing and discussing all kinds of stuff), but this was a few years before I knew he was even interested in writing. When he came back to Seattle on a book tour (Footfall), I saw him again and my wife and I wound up having dinner with him, Larry Niven, Mildred Downey Broxon, and Frank Herbert.

I've given a whack at writing a couple of science fiction novels, but so far, bogged around chapter four. Maybe someday. . . .

Anyway, I resisted the whole idea of fantasy until a highly respected friend insisted that I read at least The Hobbit. That was kind of fun, so I went on to the trilogy and was completely enthralled. I've tried other fantasy stuff (e.g. the Thomas Covenant series and a couple of others) and none of it measures up to Tolkien's.

I had fear and trepidation when I heard that the trilogy was coming out as a series of movies, but Peter Jackson did an absolutely brilliant job. I have the "Platinum Edition" set of all three movies on DVD, complete with extra features.

FRODO LIVES!!

Don Firth