# What initially inspired you to get into Fantasy or Science fiction??



## Memnoch (Sep 6, 2007)

I know of a similar thread floating about, asking what books got you into these genres . . . BUT . . .

. . .There I was having a little ponder and realised it wasn't the literary element that hooked me to start with as a youth. I loved the visual aspects, they really inspired me the art work on books and games. Also films such as Legend (can't sit through it now) and Krull etc. . . they really got me hooked and desperate for more.


*So what initially drew you into these immense and ever varied genres? *


My first memory of fantasy was a film I watched over and over as a kid called "Flight of Dragons."


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## Aniri (Sep 6, 2007)

Piers Anthony. Having an older brother (6 years my senior), I emulated him as much as I could. When he was not around, I would sneak peeks at his book shelves, and then eventually started reading the books he had myself. I remember the cover of _On A Pale Horse_ striking my fancy. 
David Eddings as well, turned me onto fantasy. Sparkhawk is forever burned into my memory. 

I exchanged letters with Piers Anthony a long, long, long time ago. Still have them some where in storage...as yellow as they are now

ETA:  Anne Rice was another that I started sneaking from big bro's book shelf.


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## Overread (Sep 6, 2007)

Well with me I think it started many years ago when my father would read to me and my siblings stories. Some he made up - when we were very young and then he moved on. I distinctly remember that he read us all of Narnia; the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. From there I spent several years not really reading much, but eventuall picked up a book which sparked my interest anew - Orcs omnibis by Stan Nicholls and from there I reread LOTR and then further on...

Anther factor was that I started univeristy and could then allocate several hours free to really read a book - my home it seems that every time I open a book something happens to take me away.


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## Memnoch (Sep 6, 2007)

Overread said:


> Another factor was that I started univeristy and could then allocate several hours free to really read a book - my home it seems that every time I open a book something happens to take me away.


 
What like aliens? Those doctors from the asylum maybe?

I enjoyed the Orcs novels to . . . .


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## Foxbat (Sep 6, 2007)

> *So what initially drew you into these immense and ever varied genres*


 
As a child in 1969, me and my father sat and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. That was it for me - all I wanted was more spaceships, more technology, more of anything that hinted of our future


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## Overread (Sep 6, 2007)

Aliens - asyulme people I wish it was that interesting - could cope with that!

I think it is just that I can;t enjoy reading a book unless I can get fully into it - can't really read at airports or train staitions either -too many distractions


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## Aniri (Sep 6, 2007)

Overread said:


> I think it is just that I can;t enjoy reading a book unless I can get fully into it - can't really read at airports or train staitions either -too many distractions


 
I seem to be the opposite.  My commute to work is approximately an hour and 15 minutes by subway, so that is where I get most of my reading time in (excluding weekends).  If I couldn't escape by way of reading, I don't know what I would do.


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## Memnoch (Sep 6, 2007)

Ditto I can lose myself anywhere in a good book I just zone everything out!! Although I find I have several books on the go at once sometimes. Plus a dvd on in the backgorund lol.


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## Connavar (Sep 6, 2007)

What made me start liking Fantasy was both literally and visual.  It was a manga called Berserk by Kentaro Miura.

I have never been into fantasy movies or cartoon or whatever. Not even LOTR was that impressive to me except the huge awesome visual battles.

SF it was a a 80's tv show called *V*, you might remember it. I saw it 10-12 years ago as a kid and liked it alot despite the dated 80's look.

After that i have been into alot SF shows and movies.

I saw Star Wars earlier as even younger kid but it has never been a fav except i saw what made Harrison Ford the greatest movie hero and why his movies has made most money.  His Han Solo was the only thing i really liked and the great music of course.


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## HappyHippo (Sep 6, 2007)

I lived two doors down from a bibliophile of immense proportions. When I was fifteen and going through my first breakdown, she let me have free run of her bookshelves. I read The Belgariad, The Servants of Ark, a lot of Piers Anthony over the six week holiday and was hooked.

I had read the Hobbit and The Lion etc, but they didn't 'get' me until later.


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## tangaloomababe (Sep 6, 2007)

You know I really don't know. I have always loved reading, I would pick up just about anything.  But I enjoyed books about space and the future. Then I also discovered the talented John Wyndham and love the appocolyptic books like Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids, moved onto Issac Asimov (true scie fi genius) 

 I didn't really get into fantasy until my early twenties when I read Lord of the Rings, started with a goodie. 

Movie's I have always loved sci fi movies, Star Wars was one of the first but I also remember seeing Metropolis (B&W silent movie) at some little movie house and thinking how wild is this.  Blake's 7 sealed it for me, I loved this show, still do even 25 years later.


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## HardScienceFan (Sep 7, 2007)

a sense that everything was possible
that the universe was waiting for us
and a feeling of roaming space and time

used to read eg.in a crowded bus,often missed a stop or two


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## Hilarious Joke (Sep 7, 2007)

Escapism, the freedom a fantasy genre offers, Narnia, Feist.


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## Ragnar (Sep 7, 2007)

When I was a kid, growing up in the early 70s, there used to be a TV show on early Saturday evening about a guy who travelled in time in a telephone box... can't remember what it was called though


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## Overread (Sep 7, 2007)

Ragnar - Doctor Who - great sci-fi legend of the BBC - they tried to do a remake recently which is still going in the UK - don't watch it - it lose all that the origianl had.



edit - - - wins prize for the fool - just noticed the blue balloon -  - though my stance on the remake still stands


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## Ragnar (Sep 7, 2007)

Overread said:


> edit - - - wins prize for the fool - just noticed the blue balloon - - though my stance on the remake still stands


 
LOL

I can't agree on your assessment of the new Who though - I think its marvellous.


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## Moonbat (Sep 7, 2007)

Growing up with Starwars is enough to influence anyone. I also liked Star Trek, but by that time I was alreayd hooked.

I think my Osbourne Junior encylopedia got me hooked on Science; films and books were just the way to learn and let me imagination fly on warp engines.

I love the new Dr who, but I was too young for the old one, it always looked so cr*p by the time I saw it. Same goes for Star Trek, I'm not old enough to like the orginal but TNG was my bread and butter through teenage years.


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## Talysia (Sep 7, 2007)

I think I got into fantasy from an early age - I grew up with the cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons and the like, and from there I went on to read as much fantasy as I could. My Mum's always been a big sci-fi fan, too, and she loves the old films, so I saw a lot of black and white sci-fi movies when I was small.


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## Memnoch (Sep 7, 2007)

Talysia said:


> I think I got into fantasy from an early age - I grew up with the cartoon series Dungeons and Dragons .


 

OH MY GOD I LIVED FOR *D and D* . . . it was awsome, my girlfriend bought me DVD complete series box last year, still fantastic, yet was dropped prematurley part way through a series, due to funding or licencing difficulties, sob . . . I hope one day someone will see the potential that series had and bring and up to date version out. lol PIPE DREAMS


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## Connavar (Sep 7, 2007)

No one saw *He-Man* as a kid ? Maybe you dont wanna admit that you did


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## Memnoch (Sep 7, 2007)

See another classic the original not the film or re made cartoon though (had a crush on She Ra lol)

A new films in the pipe line I hear.


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## dustinzgirl (Sep 7, 2007)

I think it probably started when I was little, during the winter my dad was a drive in security guard so we saw all the cool movies.

I also read a lot, and I read everything from VC Andrews to Margaret Weiss, but the reason I love SFF above all else is that it answers two basic questions:

What if

and

What's the point?

Good SFF reflects and bends reality, with similar characteristics and lines that most people can see in their own reality, more so than a fictional historic romance or some other thing. For example, I could never empathize with the twins in Flowers in the Attic, although I could sympathize with them. But I could empathize with Goldmoon.


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## Hilarious Joke (Sep 8, 2007)

Margaret Weis AND Tracy Hickman. I liked the Dragonlance elves, especially how there were like three branches. Very very cool.


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## chrispenycate (Sep 8, 2007)

I was always the scientific member of the family- chemistry sets and meccano, keeping caterpillars and developing my own photographs, and we were a reading family, so it was just natural that sort of stuff would gravitate my way. I don't think there was a particular point when I said "Hey, I'm not just a fast reader, I'm a science fiction reader", it just became apparent when my local public lbrary had no more of that genre I hadn't read.


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## Interference (Sep 12, 2007)

Torchie the Battery Boy, then Supercar (etc) and finally Doctor Who and Star Trek.  Then first "science fiction" book I read was _Thunderbirds Are Go_, a whole bunch of comics (Marvel particularly, including the formative/formulaic Midnight Monster) and You Only Live Twice when I wondered how they got the camera into space.


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## Ursa major (Sep 12, 2007)

Yes, Gerry Anderson has a lot to answer for.


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## Interference (Sep 12, 2007)

The man was God.

(Exit left whistling theme from Space:1999)


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## Curt Chiarelli (Sep 13, 2007)

Several influences acting separately or in conjunction with each other over the course of my developmental years: 

- The Brothers Hildebrandt (their illustrations for the _1976 - 1978 Tolkien Calendars_ and _Urshurak_, etc.)

- Ray Harryhausen (his design and special effects animation for _The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad_,_ Mysterious Island_ and _The Valley of Gwangi_, etc.)

- Willis O'Brien (his animation for _King Kong_) 

- J.R.R. Tolkien (_The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings Trilogy_, etc.) 

- Ray Bradbury (_The Martian Chronicles_ and _The October Country_, etc.)

- H.P. Lovecraft (_The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness_, etc.)

- Arthur C. Clarke (_Childhood's End_)

- The works of composers Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith.


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## quidscribis (Sep 14, 2007)

Growing up, we had thousands of books in the house, and a LOT of them were science fiction or fantasy, so that's what I ended up reading.  They were more interesting than a lot of other genres to me.  And when we had a working television, which wasn't often, we watched ST:TOS.  Over and over again.  And when we saw movies at the theatre - which wasn't very often as there weren't any in a lot of the places we lived - inevitably the parents took us to see science fiction/fantasy.  As my sibs (I'm the youngest) contributed to the book collection, inevitably, they added more science fiction/fantasy than other genres.  So, you know, it was inevitable.


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## Daenerys (Sep 15, 2007)

I think there has never been a time I wasnt drawn to science fiction (and fantasy would be a dead give away since I always loved fairy tales: any fairy tales. Not just the girly-princessy ones. I loved Red Riding Hood being eaten up. I loved the 7 brothers being turned into swans. I loved what the stories told me without telling me in words. I understood subtext as.. a... toddler...?)

But my first memory of understanding I liked scifi was when I was 6 and I was reading a comic (in Dutch) called Storm. Storm was set in a not-determined futuristic apocalyptic post/pre-technology setting. I loved the questions it brought up in my mind. 

My parents don't get science fiction. They don't get fantasy. I do think my grandfather would have understood Star Trek TOS, but he was more into westerns and history than the future. So it wasn't a family thing. I never thought I'd find a lot of people that understood scifi. Now I know better. But I still think 'we' as scifi/fantasy aficionados are the exception. But I like it that way.


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## flygin (Sep 16, 2007)

> No one saw He-Man as a kid ? Maybe you dont wanna admit that you did


I did!  I still have Skeletor's castle and a few action figures around here somewhere.  I also have Voltron.

My family is pretty awful about the SF&F.  For them, it's something to mock.  I stopped reading the genres entirely when I was in high school, and it was partly because of that.  I didn't get back into it until recently.


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## DeepThought (Sep 17, 2007)

The first movies that I actually felt passionate about: Conan the Barbarian, Dune (not the series but the original David Lynch movie) willow etc. Yeah, yeah I know they are no great films , but hey, I was just a eight year old kid then and the otherworldly and imaginative bits of the films (something I hadn't really discovered then) somehow struck a cord and the rest is history...


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## Redtail (Sep 17, 2007)

When I was about 12 one of my great aunts gave me The Lion witch and wardrobe, and my sister Dragongsong, I read both, and havn't looked back since.   I guess its partly her fault Im hooked, and not only of sf & f, generally if its a book, and Im hooked by the first page, I have to read it............ which is very hard when you have other things to do in life, and Ive just rediscovered the local library,hmmmm


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## Interference (Sep 17, 2007)

Redtail said:


> generally if its a book, and Im hooked by the first page, I have to read it............ which is very hard when you have other things to do in life, and Ive just rediscovered the local library,hmmmm




Please be in my audience demographic.  Pretty please??


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## Redtail (Sep 17, 2007)

wot would that be then?????(no Im not blone my sister is)


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## iratebeaver (Sep 17, 2007)

flygin said:


> I did!  I still have Skeletor's castle and a few action figures around here somewhere.  I also have Voltron.
> 
> My family is pretty awful about the SF&F.  For them, it's something to mock.  I stopped reading the genres entirely when I was in high school, and it was partly because of that.  I didn't get back into it until recently.


I loved voltron, well to be honest i got the action figures before i found out  what the show was. but i loved the action figures!!


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## thaddeus6th (Sep 17, 2007)

Thundercats was (and is) vastly superior to He-man. Plus Mumm-ra was cooler than Skeletor (although Skeletor was pretty good).

I first got into fantasy probably when I read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time. I didn't realise the rather obvious Christian allegory at the time, but even now as a great big atheist it doesn't bother me.


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## Talysia (Sep 17, 2007)

Ohh, I loved Thundercats!  I think it was one of my favourite shows when I was young.


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## thaddeus6th (Sep 17, 2007)

They just released the first season on two DVDs in the PAL regions, though I think they're only available from HMV. Not that I've bought either of them. Obviously, that would be ridiculous for a grown man to do.

*whistles innocently*


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## Talysia (Sep 17, 2007)

I'm tempted to buy them myself.  Actually, I think that's why they release these things on dvd now - for nostalgia value to the people who saw it the first time it came out.  I can think of loads of cartoons from 'the good old days' that I'd love to see again.


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## thaddeus6th (Sep 17, 2007)

Also, cartoons were probably better then than they are now. Quite often I watch a few cartoons on ITV on weekend mornings and generally they're watchable, but rubbish compared to Thundercats. 

By the way, I probably missed it, but what's the forum policy on going OT? I don't want to end up being beaten by the admin for wandering off-topic all the time (which I have a tendency to do).

Back on-topic: I think both fantastical books and cartoons are more effective at childhood, because then the imagiantion is unfettered, whereas teenagers and adults are all too aware of things that are unrealistic (in a fantasy-based context). We suspend disbelief, whereas children have little if any disbelief to suspend, so they may be able to enjoy fantasy more. 

Plus, childhood memories get a rosey tint when you look back on them. Well, except for memories about having your head shoved down toilets, obviously.


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## Talysia (Sep 17, 2007)

I don't think you've gone off topic at all.  Some of my earliest sci-fi or fantasy memories come from the cartoons I watched when I was a child.  We're remembering the things that we enjoyed when we were younger, and since they were fantasy/sci-fi related we remembered them and continued following the genre.

As an aside, I've got that warm, nostalgic feeling from this thread now.


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## ironvelvet (Sep 17, 2007)

Surely lots of us got into Fantasy before TV viewing became a staple? I was brought up on Hans Christian Anderson and The Brothers Grimm. Witches, dwarfs, magic apples, talking bears, enchanted needles, 100 year sleeps etc. need I say more...

And Masters of the Universe was by far the best SF cartoon!


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## Cipher (Sep 17, 2007)

Knightmare, Thundercats and Power Metal got me into Sci Fi/Fantasy. Oh and Farscape!


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## Steve Jordan (Sep 20, 2007)

My influences list sounds a lot like Curt's, if you replace Tolkien with adventure cartoons like Johnny Qwest, Space Ghost, Speed Racer, Astroboy, etc, etc.


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## Curt Chiarelli (Sep 20, 2007)

Steve Jordan said:


> My influences list sounds a lot like Curt's, if you replace Tolkien with adventure cartoons like Johnny Qwest, Space Ghost, Speed Racer, Astroboy, etc, etc.



Oh! Now you're talking! I'd forgotten all about_ Johnny Quest_ and_ Speed Racer!_ Great choices! Add those to the stack!


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## Connavar (Sep 20, 2007)

Oh i remember Johhny Quest i cant believe how much i liked that stuff as a kid....


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## j d worthington (Sep 21, 2007)

Connavar of Rigante said:


> Oh i remember Johhny Quest i cant believe how much i liked that stuff as a kid....


 
What's not to like? Sheer pulp adventure coupled with enough of the spooky to give you that tingle, and reasonably intelligent (at least) characters, with enough adult humor and wit to allow it to grow with you a bit... Okay, the animation is, by today's standards, not that good; but for its time, it was quite standard (or slightly above), and the stories were often top-notch....


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## Anne Lyle (Sep 22, 2007)

When I was about 7 or 8, the teacher used to read to us at the end of each school day. Highlights included "The Hobbit" and "The Magician's Nephew" - probably the thin end of the wedge...


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## Rosemary (Sep 22, 2007)

The Secret Garden and then Narnia.  Actually I didn't finish reading the Narnia Chronicles until my son was in Primary School...


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## BakaTensai (Sep 22, 2007)

I think that for me it was the 1954 version of 20,000 leagues under the sea with Kirk Douglas.  After the watching the movie many times as a kid I eventually read the book... and I've been hooked ever since.


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## Overread (Sep 23, 2007)

Random link here - but that comment about 20,000 leagues reminds me of the film "The Black Hole" - geat peace of sci-fi


of those wondering how on earth these two things connect I remember that I once had a choice to get one of two films in a store - these two = why my mind remembers this is quite beyond me though,


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## BakaTensai (Sep 23, 2007)

It's true: "The Black Hole" is another great classic.  It is hard for me to come by movies nowadays that that are as great as these and many other classics.  I wonder if that's because I first watched them during childhood.....


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## Diana Levin (Sep 24, 2007)

Lord of the Rings Movie when it first came out. Than I read the books and fell in love them. Since than I have been scavanging the sci-fi/fantasy book section, looking for more epic fantasy stories I could sink my teeth into.


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## Hawke (Sep 24, 2007)

I read Lord of the Rings early (about 6 years ago now I suppose, when I was 13) but I wasn't really hooked, but I then saw the Tamuli in a bookshop and loved it, so I went and read the Elenium, and after that I moved onto the Belgariad and the Mallorean, which were far superior to the Sparhawk books.

But after that I discovered Feist who pretty much put me off of Eddings.


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## Aerandir (Sep 24, 2007)

Aniri said:


> Piers Anthony. Having an older brother (6 years my senior), I emulated him as much as I could. When he was not around, I would sneak peeks at his book shelves, and then eventually started reading the books he had myself. I remember the cover of _On A Pale Horse_ striking my fancy.


 
This is the first time I've seen anyone refer to him. He was one of my favorite authors when I was growing up. I've been meaning to revisit his work. The only book I managed to keep track of is A Spell for Chamelon. 

I also played D&D with my brother who is four years my senior, and read the LOTR trilogy. I can't say any one thing got me into fantasy I've just always liked it, and don't see that changing any time soon.


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## steve12553 (Sep 30, 2007)

I can mention movies and books that date back half a century but I rarely read anything new or timely. (I frequently don't now). I was just facinated by science and all things beyond. I had an early facination with dinosaurs. I remember staying up past midnight on Saturday nights when the local NBC affiliate ran many of the classics from the 30s and 40s. *Frankenstein*, *The* *Wolfman*, *Dracula* and after all the sequels all the many low budget Science Fiction/Horror movies. Fantasy was easy to pick up. A dragon is very similar to a dinosaur that breathes fire. I was a poor kid, maybe all poor kids need sort of escape and some of them lean this way.


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## urchin (Oct 1, 2007)

I started to read fantasy because I simply couldn't relate the people and places in standard fiction.


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## urchin (Oct 1, 2007)

steve12553 said:


> . I was a poor kid, maybe all poor kids need sort of escape and some of them lean this way.


 

That's a very good point, Steve, I grew up (and still am) working-class and fantasy gives me a chance to escape that I simply cannot find elsewhere.


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## matt-browne-sfw (Oct 10, 2007)

I always admired people with a visionary mindset. In 1865 Jules Verne thought about going to the Moon. Even Einstein's _E_ = _mc_² from a 1905 point of view was sort of science fiction. Converting mass to energy? Ludicrous. It became real science and technology later...


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## HardScienceFan (Oct 10, 2007)

Hi Matt
long time no see
Ditto here
I read biographies of great scientists 


I liked science


reading about astronomy and geology first
with some other stuff thrown in(archeology,zoology)

didn't consciously start looking for SF/Fantasy
just picked up some Simak,Vance,Anderson,EF Russell,Leinster,Clement and Heinlein juves,Leigh Brackett was brilliant,Kuttner,C.L Moore,Pohl & Kornbluth,
Pohl & Williamson

Heinlein was great with his verisimilitude and attention to detail



Clement was riveting with Close to Critical and MOG


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## vervain_ashe (Oct 14, 2007)

I was about four when I remember being taught to read The Lord of the Rings, but the impact had not hit yet.  Over the years, the books were fascinating but what really did it was reading Ender's Game.  Then I discovered George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.  Enough said.


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## Thorn Nightstalker (Oct 20, 2007)

I grew up around it. My cousin's were all into it, and it was just everywhere I turned.


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## Cayal (Oct 22, 2007)

I accidentally got into it.

I was at the school library, everything I had ever read was by R.L. Stine (hehe), and I saw the name 'Rage of a Demon King' by Raymond E Feist. 
I didn't realise it was the 3rd book of a series but what really got me was the cover art (judging a book by its cover, how sinful) so I borrowed it and started reading it and I really liked the character Calis.

But it started from there and gotten into it ever since.


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## Overread (Oct 22, 2007)

Don't feel bad, cover art is how I discovered Robin Hobb - honestly, when I end up prowleing the bookstores cover art is one thing I do look at - if nothing but to allow me to make a choice (does this mean I go to hell then?)


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## Nesacat (Oct 22, 2007)

It was all my mother's fault. She used to read tales from Hindu mythology to my brother and me every evening. Tales filled with elephant-headed gods and great serpents and semi human monkeys and giant birds. I don't think there was really any choice after that. So many wondrous doors had been flung wide open.

She then went on to the myths of China with it's dragons and Greece with gorgons and pegasus and minotaurs and so much more. There were Nordic myths and Egyptian ones as well.

And it would seem that Flight Of Dragons does get around. It played a part here too. And again ... it was my mother who brought it home. I'd been asking her where all the dragons are gone and she found one way to explain.

I still remind her that it's really all her fault when I come home with another bag of books needing shelf space.


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## Morpheus42 (Oct 22, 2007)

It was me dad.   Grew up with it.  Just comics and movies and later the books.
Most of the books I've read are his


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## Cayal (Oct 22, 2007)

Overread said:


> Don't feel bad, cover art is how I discovered Robin Hobb - honestly, when I end up prowleing the bookstores cover art is one thing I do look at - if nothing but to allow me to make a choice (does this mean I go to hell then?)



I do it all the time as well. It's eye candy.

If it means we go to hell, I'll see you there.


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## Omphalos (Oct 24, 2007)

I never even knew what SF was until I was 10 or so and I picked up Night Shift.  There was a story in there called I Am the Doorway that blew me away.  I got really heavy int King after that, then Larry Niven, then some classics.  From there I got into fantasy and even deeper into Horror.  Now all I really read is SF.


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## C Of K (Oct 26, 2007)

I hated reading until I discovered a slew of Star Wars novels back in the mid 1990s. After that I read instead of doing homework (Ouch!)

I've probably amassed over 100 star wars books by now, but I stopped buying them almost a decade ago.

Robert Jordan's WoT saga sort of expanded my horizons. A friend, who also likes Star Wars, introduced me to RJ. But I was finishing the WoT books too fast, and needed something else to read. I stumbled onto Terry Goodkind's stuff in a _Thrifties_ by sheer chance. I loved it. But in hindsight, after I've had a little more experience with reading and writings,  I can admit that  there is a certain heart that  is lost in Goodkind's stuff, while Robert Jordan isn't nearly so good at  writing intricate plots as he is straight exciting action. 

My hopes hang on GRRM these days, but it takes him so long to write a book. I guess I can wait, because he writes with such wonderful subtlety.


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## nixie (Oct 26, 2007)

As a child I was drawn to fantasy, I adored reading Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair etc, Lewis's Narina series things like that.I could watch Wizard of OZ over and over.I loved Dr Who, Tomorrow's People etc.As I got to around 10-11 I discovered horror and black magic. For years I never read anything else then about 20 years ago I was browsing and discovered Feist's Magician after that I was back on the fantasy path.


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## Mr Baatard (Nov 1, 2007)

I read Tolkien, Heinlein, and Lewis growing up.  I also played AD&D as a kid, up into my late teens.  Many of the characters in my book are refined versions of the characters I used growing up.  

Jeez, that really sounds cliche.  I think I should admit that only sparingly from now on.


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## vampress13 (Nov 1, 2007)

it's my dad's fault im a "nerd"... i love sci-fi.. fantasy... all that sorta stuff 
not the normal teenage girl


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## zedlav (Nov 3, 2007)

Learned to read at a very young age, read extremely fast and everything I could get my hands on and was never told that Science Fiction was somehow anything to avoid. It didn't have the stigma that it seems to have in Western Europe and North America over here at that time, although LARP nerds and the like seem to do their best to correct that. 

Fantasy is a different story. That I started reading only a couple of years ago, when somebody on another forum recommended aSoIaF.


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## Commonmind (Nov 3, 2007)

Ironically my fantasy obsession started with the movie "The Hobbit," a notoriously bad adaptation of the book. As a child, however, I loved the film. I don't know when I realized the movie was based on an actual piece of literature, but I do remember it being one of the first books I picked up read the entire way through. It wasn't long after that when I realized there was an entire genre of entertainment containing these similar elements; swords and sorcery; knights, elves, dwarves, gnomes and fair-maidens; malignant dark lords, etc. I quickly latched on to all things fantasy, and haven't turned back since.

My sci-fi obsession began in a very cliche fashion as well. I had seen the movies 2001 and Star Wars. I had fallen in love with Buck Rodgers, Battlestar Galactica and V at an early age. When one of my aunts found out I loved sci-fi movies and television programs she thrust Ender's Game, Ranma, Starship Troopers (which I shouldn't have been reading in my tender youth) and the 2001 series into my hands. Not long after I had finished them all she gave me two entirely too-large boxes filled to the brim with sci-fi novels; which I utterly devoured.


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## Cayal (Nov 3, 2007)

Commonmind said:


> Ironically my fantasy obsession started with the movie "The Hobbit," a notoriously bad adaptation of the book. As a child, however, I loved the film. I don't know when I realized the movie was based on an actual piece of literature, but I do remember it being one of the first books I picked up read the entire way through. It wasn't long after that when I realized there was an entire genre of entertainment containing these similar elements; swords and sorcery; knights, elves, dwarves, gnomes and fair-maidens; malignant dark lords, etc. I quickly latched on to all things fantasy, and haven't turned back since.
> 
> My sci-fi obsession began in a very cliche fashion as well. I had seen the movies 2001 and Star Wars. I had fallen in love with Buck Rodgers, Battlestar Galactica and V at an early age. When one of my aunts found out I loved sci-fi movies and television programs she thrust Ender's Game, Ranma, Starship Troopers (which I shouldn't have been reading in my tender youth) and the 2001 series into my hands. Not long after I had finished them all she gave me two entirely too-large boxes filled to the brim with sci-fi novels; which I utterly devoured.



Was that the cartoon version of the Hobbit?


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## Commonmind (Nov 3, 2007)

Yes sir.


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## Cayal (Nov 3, 2007)

I liked that. Don't know if it is anything like the book but I really liked the cartoon and the singing Goblins.


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## grave999 (Nov 5, 2007)

Initially...that might be Jules Verne's book <The Island>,the first sci-fi novel I've read.
Then, by nature, I get to love the world of Science Fiction.


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## malfunkshun (Nov 7, 2007)

Nothing really 'inspired' me to get into sci fi or fantasy... that would assume that there was a time in my life when I WASN'T into sci fi or fantasy.  It's just a natural thing for me.  I've always been a sci fi fan.  And fantasy also, to a lesser extent.


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## Kettricken (Nov 14, 2007)

My dad used to read me fairytales, I think that was the first influence. Loving it, I used to pretend-play with my friends we were witches and made potions of shampoo, mud, crushed leaves, etc. A few years later I read 'the Hobbit' and loved it; again a few years later I read LOTR. I had no idea there was a whole genre of fantasybooks until much later. A shame, I think I would have read more if I had known sooner... Fortunately, after reading the compulsory literature for school, I discovered fantasy again with Robin Hobb!


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## tarifa (Nov 14, 2007)

i have no idea! My parents had one shelf of books in the house, one of which wwas a complete Lord of the Rings, I read that very young, remember struggling with it but loved it, but the first sci-fi book i read? Its wierd but can't remember it feels like its just always been one of my things


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## Rahl Windsong (Nov 23, 2007)

It all started for me because of the online game Ultima Online. I had been playing that game for about a year and that is all I was doing, playing a game. Then one day I joined a guild and suddenly I had this character that lived in this virtual world that was Ultima Online. 

After a few years Rp'ing in my guild I found out about a volunteer program that allowed players to become dungeon masters in the game, they were known as Seer's in UO. 

I took the online interview and I passed their tests and became a Seer. As a Seer I was given a special account that could do things like teleport around the game world and be invisible to the players, even take on the form of any monster in the game and make it seem intelligent to the players. We could do pretty much anything we needed to do in order to be a dungeon master in the game.

So now that I was a Seer I needed ideas for my stories and up until then I had read The Hobbit once and maybe started to read Lord of the Rings never finishing it. So I started reading any fantasy I could get my hands on just to fill my head with ideas for in game stories. I never copied anything from the stories I just used the ideas I found in them to help me to come up with stories that would fit into the world of Ultima Online.

The first book I read to get ideas was the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn series by Tad Williams and to this day it remains one of my all time favorite stories.

Up until all that took place I mostly read Science Fiction but since then I have hardly read any of that...


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## Jamfke (Nov 23, 2007)

I'm a Star Wars baby.  It was the first movie I remember watching that really grabbed hold of my imagination when I was about six years old and it hasn't left me yet.

My first fantasy hook?  I suppose it was a story book in the library when I was in the fourth grade that had fairy tales and legends in it.  Beowulf was the first one I read and I fell in love with it instantly.  I actually bought that book and have it lying around here somewhere.


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## Alurny (Nov 24, 2007)

Originally I'd assume TV programmes such as HE:MAN , Thundercats and Knightmare inspired my imagination along with other classics such as  Maid Marian and her merry men and a programme I think was called the odyssey or Ulysses. 


Star Wars got me interested in Space and all things similar which was further fueled by Farscape, which really captured my imagination. 

My first fantasy reads were the Redwall books, at about age 10 and from there borrowing Star Wars/Star Trek books from the library. 

My major influence on reading however was an absolutely fantastic year seven english teacher, who, in his first lesson, read an extract of Lord of the Rings which led to my borrowing of the book and the fantasy I have read to date.


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## VionesspXmoone (Nov 26, 2007)

Aniri said:


> Piers Anthony. Having an older brother (6 years my senior), I emulated him as much as I could. When he was not around, I would sneak peeks at his book shelves, and then eventually started reading the books he had myself. I remember the cover of _On A Pale Horse_ striking my fancy.
> David Eddings as well, turned me onto fantasy. Sparkhawk is forever burned into my memory.
> 
> I exchanged letters with Piers Anthony a long, long, long time ago. Still have them some where in storage...as yellow as they are now
> ...




Piers Anthony for me too, it's awesome you corresponded with him!


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## Creabots (Nov 29, 2007)

This is probably going to sound strange, but I think it was video games that got me into SFF, especially the Final Fantasy series. Before I was into books, I was into video games. I didn't read considerably until middle-school, when I found books that more resembled what I'd find in the video games I liked. I don't play video games much anymore, though. Some of the first SFF series I read were books by Lloyd Alexander, Diana Wynne Jones, and the animorphs. I had the Chronicles of Narnia series since elementry, but for some reason I'd start but wouldn't finish them.


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## Junomidge (Nov 29, 2007)

In grade 6 we had to read a number of books and write a  number of book reports. I read all the books and wrote none of the book reports. At that time I read anything about animals, Gentle Ben, everything by Marguerite Henry, Watership Down, Call of the Wild... but one of the books in the book cupboard was A Fall of Moondust. I read it and was completely hooked. After that my mom started buying us novels for stocking stuffers, and she bought me The White Dragon one Christmas because of the cool cover by Michael Whelan, and that hooked me on Pern. The next Christmas it was Dragon on  Pedestal by DK Sweet, and I was hooked on Xanth. Both series have since disappointed me, but I am still a rabid Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan


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## Junomidge (Nov 29, 2007)

VionesspXmoone said:


> Piers Anthony for me too, it's awesome you corresponded with him!


 
That's interesting, I corresponded with Anne McCaffery for a while too. I had an interest in Maine Coone cats and her fiction so we sent a few emails back and forth. I have also emailed Sydney J. Van Scyoc and received a reply, but I believe she no longer writes. I was quite enthralled by Starsilk and her others way back when.


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## Lady of Winterfell (Nov 30, 2007)

As a kid I really enjoyed the movie The Last Unicorn. There was also a movie about dragons that I can't remember much about now, but I _really_ enjoyed that one. You think I'd remember that.  Then when I was in middle school I decided to go to my local library and find a book about dragons where they weren't the bad guy. I found dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey and I've been reading Fantasy ever since.


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## Stormflame (Dec 2, 2007)

As a child of the 80's, I was ever placed before the TV when Conan was great, Heman fought Skeletor, Red Sonya fought and killed everyman she came to, and I owned every action figure.  The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books were a dime a dozen, and allowed you to plunder into the Mountain of Mirrors and fight dog-packs in the City of Thieves.  My dad and myself use to set down and write little stories and make up our own sketches of monsters.  
In the fourth grade, the creators of the cartoon/film LOTR came to our little school in Fort Ashby WVa and said that we were a test school for the new art of mixing cartoon graphics with real film.  I was in love and the bug grew ever so....


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## Karn Maeshalanadae (Dec 2, 2007)

Ah, the days of Choose your own Adventure...I remember those ones well.

I'd say I've always been into fantasy. I've had a good imagination my whole life-my early childhood didn't have a computer-and I spent a lot of my time reading. These days, I really can't remember what kind of stuff I read, but it was always at least good fiction, if not totally fantasy, and when I dreamed worlds would be created in my-if you'll pardon the expression-wake.


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## Lady of Winterfell (Dec 2, 2007)

Wow...I had almost forgotten about those Choose your own Adventure books. Are they still around?


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## Karn Maeshalanadae (Dec 2, 2007)

No idea, unfortunately...I remember the first one I ever read was one where you find a cloak of invisibility while visiting your grandparent's farm for your birthday...

Has anyone ever read the Transall Saga, by-of all people-Gary Paulson?


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## george c (Dec 10, 2007)

my 10th grade english teacher had us read tolklein and cs lewis then didnt read at all for 30 yrs(books) then my son found swan wars by sean russell.
last couple of yrs have been reading a book every 2 weeks or so.


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## Ramoth's Rider (Dec 10, 2007)

My Brother! He had to Read Lord of the rings and being a younger sister i stole it as you do and then started reading it! It got me hooked and then he discovered Harry Harrison and that was it! Sci FI Fest!!!


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## Sassee (Jan 4, 2008)

I was drawing things like winged horses and dragons long before I picked up my thirst for the otherwordly   Later, I was also fascinated by the idea that everything might not be as it seemed.


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## GOLLUM (Jan 4, 2008)

Just the magic it brings and the freedom it gives you to dream. As one gifted author once said it gives me 'cranial summersaults of pleasure' or words somewhat similar. Being a bit of a loner when growing up also meant I could burrow myself into some fantastic world for a few hours. It also helped that my mother and sister were heavily into literature and we had a pretty extensive library of the classics at home (you see folks the term 'library' was even making an impression upon me at such an early age there was never any hope of escape... ) Of course the spark was solidified with LeGuin's Wizard Of Earthsea and to a lesser extent Alan Garner's Weird Stone Of Brisingamen. As they say in the classics, 'never looked back since'.


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## Lith (Jan 5, 2008)

I never had a chance. I was steeped in SF and fantasy since day one, thanks to my family. Oddly though, Narnia escaped me, because my mother made us think it was something we ought to read, to become good Christians, and having a perverse streak, I wouldn't read it (being that reading is for fun, first and foremost, and moralizing is what Sunday School is for). 

I also didn't read LOTR until I was in college, because I hated the cartoon version with a passion. Only my enduring love of elves and a desire to finally acquaint myself with some modern Christian writers overcame that.

And I hated Star Trek. Certain aspects of DS9 aside, I still hate it. And yet I've seen almost every episode of all of them save Enterprise, thanks to other family members.

All that, coupled with loathing for the Dark Crystal, and the wonder is that I'm still reading and watching SF&F. (The positives are actually too numerous to mention or remember. Star Wars is somewhat above all the others.) I like wild ideas, and other genres are too much like real life to invest a terrible amount of interest in. Might as well go out and live that life, if it could really be lived.

And I'm guilty of the cover art thing too. Not so much these days, but I still browse the shelves for things that catch the eye. The ONLY book in years to pass the other tests after the cover test (namely, reading the synopsis, first paragraph, and random page) was Angel with the Sword, by uh, Cherryh. And it was okay. I've mostly switched to word of mouth for my reading material now. Ironically an eye-grabbing cover on an unknown book now makes me suspicious, as it's a mark of mediocrity. But I still like pretty pictures for their own sake.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 13, 2008)

I think it must have been my sister buying me a picture book version of Journey to the Centre of the Earth when I was 10. Still got it somewhere! 
(Gawd,31 years ago!)


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## Karn Maeshalanadae (Jan 13, 2008)

Sassee said:


> I was drawing things like winged horses and dragons long before I picked up my thirst for the otherwordly  Later, I was also fascinated by the idea that everything might not be as it seemed.


 
"Winged horses" what a term. PEGASUS, sassee, pegasus. I'm a Greek mythology buff and terms like "winged horse" just offends me for some reason....


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## Lith (Jan 13, 2008)

I thought Pegasus was a proper noun?  I.E. the name of the creature Pegasus, not a general term, which could be argued to have been misappropriated...


(Why no, I don't have more important things to do today, why do you ask?)


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## Overread (Jan 13, 2008)

Ramoth's Rider said:


> My Brother! He had to Read Lord of the rings and being a younger sister i stole it as you do and then started reading it! It got me hooked and then he discovered Harry Harrison and that was it! Sci FI Fest!!!


 
I think I have done this to my younger brother - but I had to push the book into his hands the first time -- and it was a new copy -- nobody gets thier grubby mitts on my precious ones!


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## Woodfoot (Jan 13, 2008)

I have watched Star Trek and programs like Lost in space  since the 70's ....god i feel old!!

First Sci fantasy book i remember reading (there may have been others) i picked up from the local library it was The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson i really enjoyed and from there on it was all downhill!!

My late auntie was a sci fi nut and had lots of bookcases full so from the library it was the obvious choice to ransack her collection.

I also remember getting hold of a copy of the War of the worlds on vinyl!!


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## Sassee (Jan 15, 2008)

Manarion said:


> "Winged horses" what a term. PEGASUS, sassee, pegasus. I'm a Greek mythology buff and terms like "winged horse" just offends me for some reason....


 
Not all winged horses are Pegusi (is that a word or did I just make that up?).  Most of the ones I drew had bat wings, not bird wings.


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## mchc (Jan 17, 2008)

Grew up in the 50's. Only access to books was in libraries. Got hooked into SF: 1) Escapism 2) Loved the radio space operas when I was a child. Which progressed naturally into the Sat. cliiffhangers on early TV, Flash Gorden and such.
As I learned how to read, gravitated to hard SF, where I was first exposed to hard core satire and the possibility that maybe, just maybe, a world could be created that was ruled by justice and rationality.
However the older and more cynical I became the less I believed that world would or could be planet Earth.
The "moon" and this solar system was just to close for comfort.
Then came writers who'd actually built worlds from scratch based on the known physics of our universe. From there I've just progressively read whatever was new no matter where it went.
One of my biggest gripes, and why I don't think there was any so-called sf 'golden age',
was the dominant macho male / alien phobic / sexist thinking that oppressed the genre for so long.


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

I think it all started for me when as a kid when Mum read for us "The Talking Parcel" by  Gerald Durrell (now known as the Battle for Cockatrice Castle) then there was Narnia and Alice. Then when I was a teenager It was well a boy  who got me into it again by introducing me to Pratchett.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

Cool way to get into books. I have collected Gerald Durrell for years and have over 30 now,most are first editions. Don't have the Talking Parcel tho. Anyone read his brother's stuff?


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

The Talking Parcel is one of the best pieces of work for young people (IMHO) I haven't read any of his brothers stuff though.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

One of gerald's best books for me is Rosy Is My Relative,his only novel, about a boy who buys and elephant and they get up to all sorts of scrapes. He was such a great story teller and his stuff is so easy to read but hard to put down. Simple,but elegant.


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

I shall have to read it. I have a couple of his in my bookshelf, one is "Two in the Bush" and I can't think of the other one. One of my sisters has "The talking parcel" which I need to recover back into my shelves. I always loved the Mooncalves, Cows crosses with Snails, who's slime was a very hard substance, yet it moulded to what ever your mind thought of, with taps on their sides that gave I think, warm milk cold milk and chocolate milk. what a story.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

*eyes up bookshelf* 

Catch me a Colobus, Zoo in my Luggage? Fillets of Plaice?(which is actually him making fun of his brother's book Spirit of Place) 

Oh the memories are coming back now... 
Also have most of David Attenboroughs books,a few signed. I'm athiest but I'm quite sure that man is a God!


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

Fillets of Plaice is the other one.

Daved Attenborough is a legend. I only have one of his books. The only signed ones I have are Pratchett books, oh and the one my ma wrote.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

Oh I'm glad you know Attenborough in Australia too. He has a new Tv series out soon,Life in Cold Blood,about reptiles. You'd never think he was 84! 
I'm afraid I cheated with the book signing. They were bought that way(tho I do have a signed photo of Stephen Baxter he sent me personally) 

I bought a second hand copy of Life of Earth for £10 pounds and found it was signed. Nice bonus!


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

I have "The Life of Mammals" which is beautiful. He is amazing and he isn't boring. There are few who can keep you watching, He is one, Stevo was another and Jeff Corwin is really quite good.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

Hmmm not heard of Jeff Corwin. I used to watch an australian show called the bush tucker man,is that him? 
Ever seen Mad Mike and Mark? They're 2 south african guys who go round photographing wild animals up close,great fun to watch!


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

OH they are Mental. I used to watch them when we payed for tv, I think they were national geographic, animal planet or discovery, one of those. I saw once one of them was almost right on top of lions feeding.
The Bush Tucker Man is Les Hiddins. Other Aussies are Malcom Dougless, Harry Butler and the Leyland Brothers. 
Jeff Corwin is an American, I think he is in his mid to late 30's but he is like a less mental Stevo, but very very funny. He's a Herpatologist by speciality I think. Always seems ends the show with a snake or lizard.

Anyway I am going to bed soon, it is very very late here.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

Yea and once he dropped his video camera off a mountain,wrecked is but he was ok cos he got the shot. Mad buggers!(on Animal Planet here occasionally) 
Yes it must be about 2 am there-3.55 pm here! 
Been great chatting!


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

It has been, very much so. This place is a very friendly place I think.

I think they would almost equal Stevo in the "maybe gets a little to close to the dangerous animals" category


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

I did kinda like Steve Irwin but find him annoying after a bit,reminds me of a David Bellamy on speed! It was tragic what happened tho,nature needs its balmy army,we need people with passion for their subject. I feel sorry for his little girl


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## celestia (Jan 18, 2008)

Stevo was a good guy, what he did for conservation, but sometimes his enthusiasm was a bit too much, but he was a lot more popular tv wise in the states than here, his zoo is about 90 mins from here, but costs heaps so I haven't been yet.. Bindi's show is pretty good, it is nice to see a role model for young girls that isnt an anorexic bimbo, but rather a kid really enthusiastic about wildlife conservation and saving the planet.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 18, 2008)

***************
Bindi's show is pretty good, it is nice to see a role model for young girls that isnt an anorexic bimbo, but rather a kid really enthusiastic about wildlife conservation and saving the planet.
***************

Hear hear. Start em young! And down with size zero!


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## steve bolger (Feb 16, 2008)

I bought a David Gemell book by accident and loved it(Waylander) that hooked me on fantasy.I was given Frank Herberts classic Dune as a present as a teenager and it blew my mind! I'm still hooked!


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## Connavar (Feb 16, 2008)

steve bolger said:


> I bought a David Gemell book by accident and loved it(Waylander) that hooked me on fantasy.I was given Frank Herberts classic Dune as a present as a teenager and it blew my mind! I'm still hooked!



Thats the luckiest thing i have ever heard of.  Buying a Gemmell by accident.


My first fantasy book was by R.A Salvatore,his ultra generic Demon Awakens.....


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## steve bolger (Feb 16, 2008)

I've never read R.A.Salvatore. Maybe i should?


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## RodneyMcKay (Feb 16, 2008)

Memnoch said:


> *So what initially drew you into these immense and ever varied genres? *


 
The mere fact that it is immense and ever changing. My mother and father both were right into fantasy and I'm pretty sure I started loving fantasy when I read Shirley Barber's Fairy Stories.
Science Fiction was something I picked up on my own, no-one in my family really likes "zap-it" though my brother and I spend hours  watching Stargate Marathons (It can take up to eight weeks when we watch all of them, so we don't tend to do that). I really can't say exactly what it is but I've always been a bit of a geek, attached to the computer, so this is definately a starting point for any Sci-fi addict.
So thats it in a nutshell

Rodney


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## Sire Of Dragons (Feb 17, 2008)

I am so, so ashamed. My real life nick name for half of my life has been Dragon. Now here I recently started using Sire Of Dragons online ...

Dragons have played different roles in my life, I hunt them down online with a passion, I collect them, I read about them and watch every movie about them, I relate to them in my own sense...

Yet sadly, I have never even heard of the movie Flight Of The Dragons 
(the movie mentioned by this threads creator)

I don't know how that was never mentioned to me or that it never crossed my path.

I just watched a preview, it looks really good. Now I need to get the movie. 

I am so in awe right now.


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## RodneyMcKay (Feb 17, 2008)

I'm sensing that you like dragons...


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## Sire Of Dragons (Feb 17, 2008)

Thats rather an understatement don't ya think?  

I just couldn't believe after all these years that I never herd of that. I mean it was made 22 years ago. Thats a long time to be unaware of something.


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## RodneyMcKay (Feb 18, 2008)

Especially if you are that stuck into a topic... I see where you come from (New York I believe)... I actually mean't I know where you are coming from


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## Montero (Feb 18, 2008)

Well I had a false start with my father handing me HG Wells when I was about 12.  Read War of the Worlds, then the Time Machine (which was a bit marginal in terms of too scary all those white creatures) then the Island of Dr Moreau gave me nightmares for ages and I couldn't face any more.

Then about 2 years later I happened to borrow Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong from the library and read it twice before handing it back and had to have my own copy.  Most of her Dragon books happened to be out of print in the UK that year, but then they started coming back on the shelves.  My local book shop was a small one so I had to order them, but that is where all my pocket money went that year.

I think John Wyndham was probably the next SF author I read.  Read The Hobbit at some point but never could get into LOTR - text was too dry.  The range of what I read just expanded with the available libraries and budget 

I think for me the important things in the fantasy and SF I read are:

I can believe in the characters.
They have a lot more going on in their lives than trouble at school or marriage problems
You meet strange and powerful creatures/aliens

You can do _anything_ with sf and fantasy settings - your imagination is the limit.  I get to be somewhere totally else for a few hours.  Also some of the SF additionally look at where the world might be going - in an interesting and ultimately positive way.  (Forget apocalypse novels, way too much doom and gloom on the news already  )

So to paraphrase the start of the thread - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations


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## Essie (Feb 19, 2008)

I know it's already been said but initially for me it was the Chronicles of Narnia which as a child I read over and over. From there I moved on to Tolkein and Ray Bradbury (I remember being blown away by his short stories). To a certain extent though I believe its in the the blood as it were. I've always loved TV with a scifi leaning right back to being very young. Doctor Who was always watched but even real kids programs of that era - Chocky (do you remember that?), the Tomorrow People, Tripods and all that sort of stuff - they were just what I wanted to watch. As a young teenager I remember being quite excited about the 'new' Star Trek which I watched avidly. Its always been there and always one thing I would choose to read or watch.


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## Vladd67 (Mar 1, 2008)

As a small child I watched a lot of Gerry Anderson, Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, Secret Service, UFO, Space 1999. Its only since watching recent repeats of UFO as an adult I realised what a dark storyline it was. I started watching Dr Who with Jon Pertwee, I have vague memories of a series called Moonbase 3 which is odd as I was about 6 when it was shown, it must have made an impact. Then of course there were all the old American series, Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Voyage to the bottom of the Sea, (even as a kid I felt there was something just not right about that sub) my childhood would have been very dull without Irwin Allen LOL,and The Invaders, add Star Trek on top of that and I had no chance. Bookwise what hooked me was buying through the Puffin book club at primary school a copy of Islands in the sky by Arthur C Clarke. After that I didn't look back.


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## Pyan (Mar 1, 2008)

Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein.....and _*my*_ first SF author was Isaac Asimov.
Those three between them have an awful lot to answer for....


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## Purdy Bear (Mar 20, 2008)

On Tv I grew up in the era when everything was Sci Fi :

Star Trek, UFO, Dr Who, Joe 90, Thunderbirds, The Bionic women, 6 Million Dollar Man, Stingray, Blake 7, Battlestar Galactica, Space 1999, Tomorrows People,  thats without mentioning the more recent ones like B5.

The first almost adult book we had to class read at Primary school was the Hobbit, then the great Narnia series which I learnt to read out loud at secondary school.  Once I learnt to imagine I was part of the story, reading became an obsession.  

Then  Dragons of Pern came into my life, swifly followed by David Eddings Belgerade, then Eoin Coffer ( his a real blast, espcially the Artemis Fowl series) and JK Rowling.


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## Hilarious Joke (Mar 20, 2008)

Hey I've just recently got into Belgariad, after some hesitation because some people on here have panned it, but I actually love it and am racing through it.


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## Rae (Apr 3, 2008)

Honestly...  

It was went my Dad got me started playing D&D at age 6.  I've been a Fantasy junkie ever since.


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## chopper (Apr 3, 2008)

my parents amde the mistake of taking me to the cinema one rainy weekend in 1977. unfortunately for them, the disney film had finished its run at the Regal. 

a long time ago.....

can't wait for my niece to be old enough to be sat in front of the dvds....


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## Grimward (Apr 4, 2008)

I think mine was a cumulative series of things.  I too watched the Apollo crew touch down and walk on the moon, after what seemed like endless hours of approach.  Then we moved and the school library only had so many sports autobiographies, so I picked up Lloyd Alexander one day and, well, the rest is history!  Having been an avid Marvel comic collector in my youth and a huge fan of "a long time ago...." like Chopper above kept me on course to eventually find Tolkien, Brooks, Zelazny, Williams, Wurts, Feist, Flynn, Friedman, Lackey and many others.


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## Sar (Apr 14, 2008)

I was bored over Christmas break one year when I was a teenager and my dad had a Fiest (King's Buccaneer) book on the shelf in his room.  I picked it up and devoured it.  I've been hooked ever since.


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## Hilarious Joke (Apr 14, 2008)

I think Feist is good for new readers of fantasy.


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## CliffHinNJ (May 3, 2008)

One of the first times I went to the movies as a kid was to see Stanley Kubrick's 2001. I was drawn in by the speculative nature of the film. Also in High school back in the 1970's I was required to read The Hobbit as part of my English class. after that I read the Lord of the rings on my own. I was so hungry for more after that, so I took the bus to the local Mall,( not old enough to drive yet), and luckily there was a book store with a large Science Fiction and fantasy section. I am so thankfull for that English class because since then I have been transported to other worlds, alternate realities, Orc filled realms and deep within my own imagination. I read other genres but always find my way back to science Fiction.


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## Xwing Mom (May 4, 2008)

Star Trek....it was definite escapism from a small rural town with no outside interests except football.


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## MKG (May 21, 2008)

Wyndham without a doubt. I tried others when I was knee high to a flea, but they were mostly American and the references they used were (this was late 50s) alien to me. When I found Wyndham wrote similar things which were terribly, terribly British, I was hooked. Never looked back.


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## daisybee (May 21, 2008)

As a kid I loved all the cartoons like D & D, Thundercats and Lost Cities of Gold (aaaahaha), and picked up a book called Pawn of Prophecy when I was about twelve.Cos it looked quite magical. Little did I know that there were more books, and the adventure went on and on- so I picked up more books that looked similar and went from there. The Stainless Steel Rat got me into sf, although I'm picky about what I read sf wise. Some just loses me completely and I feel dumb. 

Give me a map, and a world in peril and I'm happy.

I still read in other genres, but love finding different styles of fantasy-stand alones that are little shiny nuggets of wonder. Yum. 

I love the idea that anything is possible.


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## Memnoch (Jun 3, 2008)

daisybee said:


> As a kid I loved all the cartoons like D & D, Thundercats and Lost Cities of Gold (aaaahaha)


 
Me to ha ha I used to love those cartoons, my girlfriend bought me the entire D & D collection for my Birthday after I said how much I used to love them. Still enjoy re-watching them although was gutted they never completed the last series before it was axed! 

Thundercats!! Why do they not make cartoons or kids T.V. that good anymore or is it just me. The stuff today my nephews watch is politically correct rubbish where the female characters are amazing and lads are dumb!! 

 . . .


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## Memnoch (Jun 3, 2008)

Or completely commercial shows that are based round the merchandise that sells off the back of the shows rather than decent plot lines and characters, i.e. pokemon cards etc . . . (Rant over.)


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## daisybee (Jun 3, 2008)

Old cartoons seemed to have a more fantastic edge to them-epic sort of scope too, which led nicely to reading longer books and following them as a kid.

Dr Dolittle was a cool cartoon, and Dogtanian. That went on forever.


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## Memnoch (Jun 3, 2008)

Belle and Sebastian ?! lol  (love Dogtanian)


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## Interference (Jun 3, 2008)

Memnoch said:


> politically correct rubbish where the female characters are amazing and lads are dumb!!



Politically ... err ... _correct_??  Sounds like Positive Political Correctness to me.  The world is going to spiral into a political correctness nose dive any --- second ......... _now_!


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## daisybee (Jun 3, 2008)

I know-lol, Milady was the best though. 

Recently remembered my collection of Enid Blyton books-The Magical Faraway Tree was a favourite so that probably sowed a few seeds of interest in magic and stuff as a kid.


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## ktabic (Jun 4, 2008)

Wow, I'd forgotten about The Magical Faraway Tree books, those where favourites of mine when I was a kid. Hmm, wonder if my sister still has them and can I get them off the niece?


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## Memnoch (Jun 4, 2008)

Saying that when I was in my first years of school we read some books as we learnt to read (funny that eh? Learning to read with books!!) Can't remember the names of them *HELP ANYONE*, each one was dedicated to finding a different precious stone, ruby, emerald etc . . . there was definatley a Griffon in them, which captured this young boys imagination!! Just can't remember the name of them, they seemed truely magical.


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## Vladd67 (Jun 4, 2008)

The Pirate books?
Roderick the Red Benjamin the Blue and Gregory the Green?
by Sheila K McCullagh.


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## Memnoch (Jun 4, 2008)

The name doesn't ring any bells but have googled them and it seems you may be correct, although a thread I found in another forum said, they are out of production and sell for up to £40 each!!! Unreal. Although there is a serious fanbase out there by the look of it!! Alot of parents want their four/five year olds to experience the joys they had at that age.

I started reading them when I was about ahem . . . 12 but hey we have to start somewhere lol. 

Only Joking had moved onto "The Worst Witch", by 12. Sheesh do I seem dense!! 

Thanks for that Vlad I will investigate further.


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## Vladd67 (Jun 5, 2008)

Click the link takes you to Amazon


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## Talysia (Jun 5, 2008)

daisybee said:


> I know-lol, Milady was the best though.
> 
> Recently remembered my collection of Enid Blyton books-The Magical Faraway Tree was a favourite so that probably sowed a few seeds of interest in magic and stuff as a kid.


 
Wow, that definitely takes me back.  I remember reading that when I was very young.  I wish I'd kept books like that when I was younger.


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## Simian (Jun 5, 2008)

I started out reading / playing fantasy gamebooks, Jackson & Livingstone's _Fighting Fantasy _and Joe Dever's _Lone Wolf _series being particular favourites. From there I moved onto the _Dragonlance _books, and I've been hooked on SF & fantasy ever since.


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## Memnoch (Jun 5, 2008)

Coincidence, or my brother from another mother?you are a person of very similar taste Simian, check this old thread out which inspired me to create this thread, way back, look for my post!! 

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/33892-which-book-got-you-started-on-science-fiction-9.html


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## Simian (Jun 5, 2008)

Downright spooky that Memnoch, _Deathtrap Dungeon _was one of my favourites too. Some secret Lancastrian cloning experiment gone awry perhaps.


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## daisybee (Jun 5, 2008)

I still have Folk of the Faraway Tree, Tales of Long Ago, Rubalong Tales, and Toyland Tales on my shelf.

I gave hundreds of my books to charity a few years back-most were Enid Blytons. 

But those stayed put.

She loved tales didn't she our Enid?


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## Memnoch (Jun 5, 2008)

I had an Aunty Enid (Horrible woman!)  . . . 

(Wonders if *he *should admit to reading Malory Towers!!!)


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## daisybee (Jun 5, 2008)

LOL

Too late, you already did!!

(I was more a twins at st clares reader)


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## Constantine Opal (Jun 8, 2008)

daisybee said:


> I know-lol, Milady was the best though.
> 
> Recently remembered my collection of Enid Blyton books-The Magical Faraway Tree was a favourite so that probably sowed a few seeds of interest in magic and stuff as a kid.


 
They were the first 'fantasy' books I read as a child. I just loved the feeling of escapism. 


I'd have to say, the main introduction into my life as a fan of Sci-fi and Fantasy has to be Star Wars: A New Hope. I watched it every day after school (taped off the telly!) until I could recite it (and the adverts in between!) word for word! 

My first ever crush was on Chewbacca! *blushes*


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## SWfan (Jun 10, 2008)

When I was approximately five, a childrens' magazine named "Jack And Jill" published serial short stories about Baba Yaga the witch but told from the point of view of her familiar, a wiseacre black cat. The stories were not the classic Russian fables but new (circa 1955) fiction. If my memories haven't played me false, the stories were well written and entertaining. Then in grade school, I discovered childrens' SF and have been a fan ever since.


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## Robert T. Knight (Jul 11, 2008)

I suppose the first series I ever read was Dragonlance.  After reading the first set I moved into all the spin-off storylines.  Soon after I was hooked on Terry Brooks's Shannara series, and I think that's really what did it.

Then I couldn't get enough.  David Eddings, Piers Anthony, RA Salvatore, anything by Weiss & Hickman, and, of course, Tolkein...it got to the point that I had read every book in our local library--I kid you not.  I actually had to go searching through _other genres_.  Oh, the horror!


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jul 11, 2008)

SWfan said:


> When I was approximately five, a childrens' magazine named "Jack And Jill" published serial short stories about Baba Yaga the witch but told from the point of view of her familiar, a wiseacre black cat. The stories were not the classic Russian fables but new (circa 1955) fiction.



I remember those stories!  But I don't know if I read those before or after my mother read _The Wizard of Oz_ to me.  I don't think I can pinpoint when I first became interested in Fantasy.  Maybe from the first time someone read me a fairy tale.


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## j d worthington (Jul 11, 2008)

I remember them, as well... my first encounter with Baba Yaga, who (along with her hut) has remained a part of my mental landscape ever since.... And, like you, I recall the stories as being rather well-written....


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## Lobolover (Jul 11, 2008)

nothing special-just got around to it naturaly-sort of an ofshoot form things like Gullivers travells,which has roots of both.


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## Shadowmancer (Jul 12, 2008)

I was initially inspired to get into sci-fi by my dad. He has quite the extensive collection and I was always intrigued by them. As for fantasy, I wanted to read the books before LOTR came out in theatre's and then, about a year ago, I was introduced to Dragonlance and fell in love with it. That's basically how the sci-fi & fantasy bugs bit me


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## Marky Lazer (Jul 12, 2008)

What inspired me? One word: Tolkien.


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## Highlander II (Jul 14, 2008)

bad 80's TV and my dad's obsession with Star Trek.

It all stems off that.


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## Ehkzu (Aug 1, 2008)

I grew up in new suburbs of Los Angeles in the late 40s and early 50s, and it was blank. Boring architecture, boring big flat valley, boring schools, boring kids (I was the one of the few college-bound kids), nothing at home (drunk mom, emotionally absent dad). So scifi was an escape--gave me the futile hope that I'd been left here by accident & my real parents would come & get me. They had science fiction theater on AM radio at the time--maybe that gave me the first inspiration. And some truly cheesy sci fi shows on TV where the "special effect" was a paralyzing ray gun. Aim, fire, and the guy you shoot freezes. The first CGI I can recall was the id monster in Forbidden Planet--you only saw it when it was illuminated by the humans' rayguns. Apparently Disney's aimators did the monster. Oh, and it had the first electronic music score of any movie. The music would be innovative even today--and really stand out amid all the thundering John Williams and Williams wannabe soundtracks.

For books, a mix of Dr. Doolittle's Adventures and Heinlein's kid stuff, followed by Asimov, Clarke etc.--people with great ideas whose limited writing skills were invisible to the excited kid I was. I especially loved the exobiological stuff like Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity.


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## Scifi fan (Nov 22, 2008)

I know what got me into reading - when I was 9, my family friend, of the same age, introduced me to Enid Blyton, the British children's author. I took to reading with a passion, and she was my favorite author. Then, somehow or other, I got into fairy tales, and, eventually, Perry Rhodan and the Star Trek novels and, the rest is history.

Reminiscing is always fun.


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## dask (Nov 22, 2008)

First it was comics, then a comic collecting buddy introduced me to sf books. The first sf novel I read was The Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton and the first short story collection was Asimov's Mysteries (by Asimov of course). I don't remember which I read first but either way I was hooked.


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## sloweye (Nov 22, 2008)

Mum's book collection and childrens T.V of the day. stuff like Doctor Who but also things like 5 children and it.


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## Boneman (Nov 22, 2008)

When I was a kid, Television started at 4 in the afternoon, and we didn't have one anyway. My older sisters used to read 'The Faraway Tree' and 'The Secret Seven' books to us, and my young brain was hooked on Fantasy and Mystery........ Lying in bed aged 16, with bad tonsillitis, I asked my sister to get me a really big book to read: she came back with this funny looking book called 'Dune' by some guy named Frank Herbert...


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## dask (Nov 22, 2008)

Boneman said:


> When I was a kid, Television started at 4 in the afternoon, and we didn't have one anyway. My older sisters used to read 'The Faraway Tree' and 'The Secret Seven' books to us, and my young brain was hooked on Fantasy and Mystery........ Lying in bed aged 16, with bad tonsillitis, I asked my sister to get me a really big book to read: she came back with this funny looking book called 'Dune' by some guy named Frank Herbert...


 
Great intro!


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## Moss (Dec 1, 2008)

Aged 12, and an avid reader of anything with an adventure theme ( from Enid Blyton, through the British story comics, Rover and Wizard, to R.L. Stevenson and R. M. Ballantyne), I came across Heinlein's Starman Jones. It inspired me to read every SF story I could find for the next 15 years, although I believe the genre, or myself, began to lose some sparkle by the end of the 70s.
Aged 17, I discovered The Lord of the Rings, and could hardly believe the beauty of the prose, or the magnificent handling, development and merging of the narrative themes. I have read lots of fantasy since, and only Wizard of Earthsea and Gormenghast have come close to having the same impact on me.
If these two enormously different favourites have anything in common, it is a strong and clear narrative structure. Is it my perception, or do storytellers too often forget these days that their first task is to tell a story?


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## Jimmy Magnusson (Dec 1, 2008)

Star Wars, no doubt.


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## shadowbox (Dec 1, 2008)

I think it began when I was three.  My very first nightmare.  I was sleeping in my mothers room and when I woke, there was a witch there, brewing potions on her vanity.  She wouldn't let me go, and tried to poison me.  As dreams too often were, it was vague.I remember it though.  My brother, my knight in shining armor, busted through the door and saved me, slaying the witch and taking me to the kitchen to make me 
I remember he said waffles. 

From there it has been witches, to dragons, to demons and vampires.  I never got into Science Fiction until Far Scape, and I watched that like it was my life.


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## ratsy (Dec 1, 2008)

My brother read Magician and loved it when he was a teenager.  I, of course wanting to be like my older brother, read them as well and from there there has been no turning back.  I have read countless fantasy books and find that to this day, I have to read all of Feist's books, (even If I find them subpar compared to the other authors I read).


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## Brett Howell (Dec 9, 2008)

When I was a kid I use to play the Battletech boardgame, and later the Mechwarrior games. So one day I'm wandering through a bookstore with a friend and just happened to see a Battletech title (Wolves on the Border). A little curiosity forced me to buy it. That hooked me, and after I'd read every Battletech book I could get my hands on (granted they weren't the BEST Sci-Fi around), I moved on to other books. While I got in to Sci-Fi and books because of Battletech though, Dune and Hitchhikers are the reason I love it and are two of my favorite reads. Magician would come third (first in the fantasy realm)


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## bloodfiredeath (Dec 9, 2008)

I can remember being set on the path of Fantasy by a kindly Librarian when I was 13 or so.
She recommended the *The Chronicles of Prydain *by *Lloyd Alexander *and I recall being totally enthralled by it. I then Graduated on to *The Belgariad *by *David Eddings* and so on.
The funny thing was I can recall reading *The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe *series by *C. S. Lewis *beforehand, and not being taken with the whole fantasy thing! Unless it was just that series! 
As for Sci-fi, ultimately it was the Original Star Wars trilogy as a kid, combined with Battlestar Galactica (Original) and V the series, that did the trick.
Though I would imagine that a healthy appetite for Ray Bradbury certainly contributed.


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## Lapuspuer (Dec 11, 2008)

I recall my father telling me the stories he'd read when he was young - the most vivid in my mind is Donald Wandrei's _Colossus_ - and scraps of knowledge about Tunguska, antimatter and so. At the time I was perhaps eight, and the sense af awe I felt then is what I look for when reading new SF (although it's getting harder and harder to feel as I grow up). 

Nonetheless, my interest in sci-fi dates so far back I can't pinpoint an exact date. I used to love TMNT before I went to primary school, for instance, and there were many sci-fi concepts (although childish) in the series.


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## afroelf (Dec 12, 2008)

Probably my reading as a child - Finn Family Moomentroll, fairytales - I loved anything with a princess and a spell, ghost stories etc.
Too this day I still love the shivers you get from really good spooky tales, travels through deep dwarven mines or people calling up wraiths.


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## Soulstar (Dec 12, 2008)

Not being able to read till I was 10 (due to dyslexia) I found once got past the simple books that bored me, I decided to take grasp at the Wind in the willows then Hobbit, that got me into fantasy and watching Dune in the cinema got me even more into Sci-fi than Star trek.


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