>You probably don't know that the Russian author Nik Perumov published in 1993
>a sequel "The Ring of Darkness" about MiddleEarth 300 years later, which is
>twice the size of "Lord of the Rings" and (IMHO) does not yield to the
>original.

Huh. I seem to recall Christopher Tolkein mentioning in one of his books that JRRT had planned a book after LOTR -- I wonder if the Russian book was inspired by that.