One of the odd consequences of loving things like The Lord of the Rings or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so much is how it prevents me from reading other science fiction and fantasy novels. Sure, a younger me dabbled in Piers Anthony and Harry Harrington, but names like Frodo and Zaphod Beeblebrox are about as much as I can take. But Robin Sloan (of Mr. Penumbra fame) said that Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihiliation was a great sci-fi read, of a kind different from most other sci-fi novels. And he was right. The story of four explorers in the mysterious “Area X” is wonderfully vague and psychological. It twists and turns on itself like some ancient but newly-discovered staircase. And it’s the first of three books to be released over the next few months. You can read the entire first chapter of the book for free here. You can check out a nice little “map” of “Area X” here. And you can check out a random “recruitment” video for the Southern Reach (the group behind the organization) below.
Authority, the second of three Southern Reach books, drops in early May.
Space Enough, and Time 
I can imagine you getting into Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures series. Not the graphic novels that were their source, but the novelations that came after. Asprin was apparently not the nicest of men, but that series is clever, fun, and funny. Also, which Piers Anthony did you give a try? He’s a multi-faceted writer and has written some of the best stuff in either genre.
Ah, looks like I have that backwards. The graphic novels were produced after the novel-novels.
I actually read most of the MythAdventures series sometime before getting to Tolkien . . . probably late high school. I really enjoyed the humor. I even tried Phule’s Company. I forget which Xanth books I read. I liked the wordplay. I think Tolkien engineered me to enjoy long fiction with a cathartic end. And yet I have no desire to read Game of Thrones or the Wheel of Time series. The only fantasy series that I enjoyed post LOTR was the Prydain Chronicles, which I read during my seminary days.
Then there’s Harry Potter, but I kind of put that in a place of it’s own.
Wait. When did you read Ender’s Game?