Thirty-four years after his death, J.R.R. Tolkien had a "new" novel published yesterday. He did require an assist from his son:

Now there's a "new" work of Tolkien fiction called The Children of Húrin, cobbled together by Christopher Tolkien, son of J.R.R., out of manuscripts left behind by his dad...

The Children of Húrin is set in the First Age of Middle Earth, six and a half millennia pre-Frodo, back when Treebeard was barely shaving (Tolkien scholars will know that The Lord of the Rings takes place in Middle Earth's Third Age). The First Age has a different feel to it: it's younger and wilder somehow. The elves, distant figures in The Lord of the Rings, spend more time outside their secret spa-resorts mixing it up with mere mortals. When, in the midst of a huge battle, a balrog rears up and whips down a warrior like it's no big thing, right there in the thick of the press, you realize the rules of the First Age are a little different.

UPDATE:

Wikipedia has more.

UPDATE:

J.R.R. Tolkien's grandson Adam Tolkien wrote a fascinating article about this book and the effort his father Christopher made to get it ready to publish. Check it out.