Oh God no why are you two being so cruel to this kid? Those guys are AWFUL!
I used to read a lot of fantasy when I was a kid but since reading LOTR I've found very little to enjoy in the genre. Compared to Tolkien they all seem puerile, simplistic and sensationalist pulp. Plus they all rehash Tolkien's plot of "ancient evil returns, prophesied saviour arises, ancient evil gets fought off". The day someone writes a fantasy novel that doesn't involve a prophesy and an ancient evil returning I'll regain interest in the area!
That's not fair really, I've read some decent stuff recently. Check Abercombie's 'The Blade Itself' (and the sequel that just came out), and Bakker's 'Prince of Nothing' trilogy (starting with 'The Darkness that Comes Before'). They're both still very much influenced by Tolkien, but at least they don't consciously try to imitate him: they're more "modern" both in writing style and in outlook, they have fun, engaging plots, and they feature realistic characters that you can actually identify with (rather than two-dimensional Forgotten Realms stereotypes or sub-Tolkienesque mythic archetypes).
Also, while not exactly new, Sapkowski's "The Witcher" stories have just started appearing in English translation for the first time. This guy has apparently been considered a fantasy classic throughout the rest of Europe for decades now, but in this country the sci-fi&fantasy sections of bookstores have been inundated with American hacks like Eddings who write 3 books a year to milk "sensitive" adolescents for all their pocket money. I've read the first one that came out which was a collection of short stories called The Last Wish, and I liked it. It was pretty refreshing in that it wasn't trying to be an epic, so it edged sidewise out of Tolkien's shadow. Draws its inspiration more from fairy tales (rather than from myths like Tolkien does), but doesn't in any way deal with them condescendingly: it's mature, well-written, fun and unpretentious.
Another possibility is for you to read R. E. Howard's Conan stories. They're VERY dated by now, cheap sensationalist pulp, but so fresh and innocent that you can't help but enjoy yourself!
The absolute best living writer in the genre though is Neil Gaiman, but I'm not sure he's what you're looking for cause most of his books are set in the present day, even though they deal with fantasy themes. I think his stuff is the most interesting and creative use of fantasy material ever.
