Your First?

Post by **Mr. Broken** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:18 am

I know this has probably already been done, but what was the first story to turn you on to Sci/Fi , or Fantasy. For me it was The Hobbit.

Post by **drew** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:21 am

Lord Foul's Bane

Post by **thefirst** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:47 am

drew wrote:Lord Foul's Bane

Ditto!

Post by **danlo** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:52 am

Probably Heinlien's Space Cadet which was serialized in Boys Life: a magazine that many Cub Scouts subscribed to, so I was 12? in '68...

Post by **I'm Murrin** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:16 am

Couldn't say for certain. Been reading in the genre all my life, though not deliberately at first. That said, I tend to label the Chronicles of Narnia and/or C.S. Lewis' childrens books (the Magic Faraway Tree, for example) as the earliest stuff I can name. I just kept reading the same type of thing from then on.

Post by **Wyldewode** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:26 am

I think it was Narnia, as far as reading goes. However, I quite literally grew up watching Star Wars--watching the holiday special is one of my earliest memories (that shows my age, doesn't it?).

Post by **variol son** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:45 am

It would have been The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, closely followed by The Fellowship of the Ring and then Lord Foul's Bane.

Was a huge Star Trek fan as a child though.

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:13 am

My Daddy was a charter subscriber to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I grew up anticipating him telling me he was finished with the current month's issue and letting me read it. So it is hard to say what story first snagged me.

However, Isaac Asimov's monthly column in said periodical was my first exposure to him and I know he was my favorite s/f author for many, many years.

Post by **aTOMiC** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 12:05 pm

Yeah. I was a wee lad when I began watching Star Trek re runs but from a reading standpoint all it took was H.G. Wells War of the Worlds to really get me going with books.

Post by **[Syl]** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:04 pm

The very first was The Hobbit for me, too. I think I was six the first time I read it. I know I'd read it three times by the time I was eight, though I never read LotR until high school. After that, I read a lot of normal stuff... Bobsy Twins, Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldin, Hardy Boys (we lived in BFE, so there wasn't much else to do... I lived for the weekly trips to the library or big stacks of books at yard sales). Twain, Poe, Louis L'Amour, the occasional adult murder mystery or even romance novel pilfered from my mom's shelves when I was out. My favorites were probably Tom Sawyer and Call it Courage.

Anyway, at about 11 or 12 I picked out some of the Dragonrider books and then a slew of Piers Anthony. That kind of got me primed for the fantasy genre. But it didn't burst into full flame until I got my hands on Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I've been a fantasy junkie ever since, with the occasional SF fix.

But as far as getting into 'serious' fantasy, it was LFB.

Post by **stonemaybe** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 2:28 pm

I remember my sister reading to me , either Prince Caspian or Voyage of the Dawn Treader, in instalments and I couldn't wait to hear what happened next evening so I started reading it myself.

After that it was the Pern books I think: Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums.

Then anything with type.

Post by **Farm Ur-Ted** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:08 pm

I'm not sure. I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was 10-11 and liked it. Then I read Prince Caspian, and let's just say, it turned me back off. Not sure that I ever finished it that time (I did read the whole series a few years later). I read The Hobbit in my 7th (maybe 6th?) grade English class, but I think that I was reading fantasy on my own before that, I'm just not sure. The way I remember it, the first book that I bought myself (well, I made my Mom pay for it) was Deryni Rising, and that book (as well as the rest by Katherine Kurtz) sent me over the edge for good.

I'd also read other stuff like 1000 Leagues (boring!), The House with a Clock in its Walls, The War of the Worlds and The Day of the Ness (Andre Norton), but I'm pretty sure it was KK that got me going. Well, and maybe Piers Anthony.

Post by **matrixman** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:05 pm

Movies like Star Wars, 2001, and The Black Hole, in addition to watching Star Trek, turned me onto science fiction before I had read any sf literature.

The first sf novel I read may have been Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, when I was around 9 years old. The book opened my mind to the idea that the Star Wars story could continue in print, beyond the movie.

The first non-ST, non-SW story that blew me away was likely Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time. It seems that it can fall under science fiction or fantasy, depending on whom you ask.

Post by **Cameraman Jenn** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:20 pm

Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz books and Edward Eager's series about magic.

Post by **danlo** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:16 pm

For Fantasy my first exposure was The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe that my Mom read to me when I was eight, and sick. Space Cadet's the first story I ever read on my own...I wanted to read the Oz books and started to read my Grandad's book with the Tick Tock Man at 10 but the Jack-O-Lantern head guy scared the pee o/o me!

Post by **jelerak** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:00 pm

The Wounded Land

Post by **DukkhaWaynhim** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:17 pm

Sci-Fi/Fantasy ibooks influential to DW - Earliest first

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Black Cauldron
The Orion books by Ben Bova
The Elfstones of Shannara (Terry Brooks)
Lord Foul's Bane - hard to read as a middle-schooler, & pretty much soured me against a lot of the fluffy fantasy stuff, though I continued to read it.

Post by **aliantha** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:50 pm

Dear gods! Ancient history!

I remember watching the original Star Trek. The first Star Wars movie came out when I was in high school. But I think I'd read some genre classics before that. Maybe "Farenheit 451" was the first one -- that would've been in junior high, so 1972-ish.

Is "Animal Farm" kinda sci-fi, kinda? I read it when I was in 4th grade. My brother handed it to me: "Here, kid, it's a story about animals, you'll like it." I even did a book report on it. Goodness knows what my teacher thought.

I think I read Tolkien in college. Didn't read SRD 'til after that, maybe 1980.

YouTube · Post by **Menolly** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:15 pm

aliantha wrote: I remember watching the original Star Trek. The first Star Wars movie came out when I was in high school. But I think I'd read some genre classics before that. Maybe "Farenheit 451" was the first one -- that would've been in junior high, so 1972-ish.

*glad I'm not the only one; A New Hope came out the summer between junior and senior year, and I saw it 17 times in the theatre that summer alone*

I had said earlier that Isaac Asimov was my favorite author for a long time, and he was. But, I did some searching online, and found the first story that I can recall remember causing me to love the genre. I think I read it when I was seven. It's by Ray Bradbury.

All summer in a Day

Post by **balon!** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:18 pm

Sci-fi: Radix by AA Attanasio. Man, that book changed my life.

And right after that I read Lord Fouls Bane and it did the same thing to me for fantasy.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

Your First?

Your First?