Personally prefer The Worm Ouroboros, Belgariad, or possibly the Earthsea trilogy but I guess we could go Silmaril-hunting, steal Melkor's crown, kick Ungoliant's ass and find a way to burn down Angband if that's what you really want to do guy.

Though honestly if you want Tolkien you should set it during the First Age (Silmarillion times), since that's the early days of Middle Earth where badass elves clashed armies of balrogs and Fingolfin was waging war against Melkor while Ungoliant threatened to devour the world and all sorts of crazy shit. Lord of the Rings is pretty much the tail-end of Middle Earth's heroic age.