Which book got you started on science fiction/fantasy?

[Grunkins]

How could I not read these at the age of 12?!!

And it gets extra points for having an 6 armed cyclops DJ robot.

 

[Mr. Aware Eagle]

As far as books go, 2001: A Space Odyssey was my first sci-fi love.

 

[Toby Frost]

That reminds me of this rather brilliant picture by the cartoonist Tom Gauld, which sums up what I think about modern "literary" fiction:

 

[johnnyjet]

When I was a young kid (a long long time ago) I read one of the Lucky Starr young adult sf books by Paul French (pseudonym for Isaac Asimov) and I was hooked for life.

 

[Timba]

Poor form to quote myself, but I figured out what the series of books is. It's the Winston Science Fiction set that consisted of 35 different titles geared for younger readers by authors such as Arthur C. Clarke, Lester Del Rey, Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, Milton Lesser, etc. And I also found the illustration on the inside cover that captivated me so much:

How could I not read these at the age of 12?!!

You can see a slide show of all the covers from the series here http://home.comcast.net/~ea4tr/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

Frankly I think I might enjoy reading them today at my um.... advanced age.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Heheh. I Just Read "The Secret of the Ninth Planet" a couple of weeks ago. A free ebook from Baen, sorely deficient without the cover art.

Thanks for posting it.

 

[clovis-man]

Heheh. I Just Read "The Secret of the Ninth Planet" a couple of weeks ago. A free ebook from Baen, sorely deficient without the cover art.

Agreed. I just couldn't stand it. I found a copy of Rocket To Luna by Richard Marsten (Evan Hunter) that was in excellent shape on eBay. So I pulled the trigger and it's on its way to me. I may or may not read it. I just want to have it in my hand (again)!

 

[Extollager]

He is definitely one to read "in order of publication":

1. The Hobbit
2. LOTR
3. Silmarillion (if you loved The Hobbit and LOTR)
4. Unfinished Tales
5. Children of Hurin (damn, that's a tragic tale worthy of Wagner!)
6. History of Middle Earth (all 12 volumes, for serious fans and scholars only).

If I may -- I'd refine this a little. Here I focus just on Tolkien's work related to Middle-earth, but the short independent tales Farmer Giles of Ham and Smith of Wootton Major are perfect literary works in their own right, etc.

1. The Hobbit
2. LOTR
3.The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, a collection of poems with a mock-scholarly preface; several of the poems, such as "The Sea-Bell," are real gems
4.Tolkien's translations and commentary on [FONT=&quot]“Nam[/FONT][FONT=&quot]á[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ri[/FONT][FONT=&quot]ë[/FONT][FONT=&quot]” and “A Elbereth Gilthoniel" at the back of The Road Goes Ever On (1967) -- here were tantalizing glimpses of things relating to The Silmarillion (1977); also, one might like to look over, at least, the treatise on the Nomenclature in The Lord of the Rings that is printed in Hammond and Scull's The Lord of the Rings Reader's Guide; the treatise was prepared by Tolkien to aid translators and contains some interesting nuggets
5.The Silmarillion
6.Unfinished Tales
7.Children of H[/FONT]úrin
8.History of Middle-earth series; I particularly recommend the following volumes:

a.Sauron Defeated -- for Tolkien's longest unfinished work, The Notion Club Papers. In the year 2012, in an Oxford basement, minutes of a dons' discussion group are found. They begin with a symposium on science fiction, then proceed to a weird tale about intergenerational memories of the downfall of Númenor. JRRT worked on this during a hiatus in the composition of LOTR.
b.The Lost Road -- a shorter unfinished romance also dealing with intergenerational memories or dreams
c.Morgoth's Ring -- for interesting late private papers on topics such as the origin of Orcs, and, notably, a poignant masterpiece, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth.

 

[Extollager]

So which book started you off as a reader of SFF?

I wish I remembered. The first sf books that I became acquainted with might have come my way in the form of Classics Illustrated comic book versions. I have little doubt that one of the first sf novels I read was Wells's War of the Worlds. Other early sf reading would have included juveniles by Robert Silverberg -- Time of the Great Freeze and Conquerors from the Darkness, and, I suppose, Lester del Rey's Outpost of Jupiter. Wollheim's Secret of the Ninth Planet really got home to me.

The Hobbit would've been an early fantasy book, also some of the Narnian Chronicles, and the little-known-by-Americans (so far as I can tell) Little Grey Men by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, who illustrated it himself with superb scratchboard pictures. This author often published as "BB."

 

[Mangara]

The Pearls of Lutra by Brian Jaques

This was the catalyst for me, it was pretty long if I remember rightly, but the mix of animals, fantasy and humour appealed to me greatly as a 10 year old! I'd definitely want my children to enjoy Redwall as I did, it was so accessible!

 

[geordie bob]

Legend by david gemmell,I got lucky

 

[TomS]

My first Fantasy book was Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony. I just kept reading them and many other books by Mr. Anthony. I stopped some time ago, though. All the Xanth books started being all the same. I put up with it for a while, then he would write one that was refreshingly different then go back to his formula. So...that was enough for me.
For SF, it was Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I got caught up on the first three then read the others when they came out.

 

[Beamer]

Since I am now in my late 50's and started reading science fiction/fantasy when I was 7 or 8 its hard to remember for sure, but I suspect the first science fiction I read was Tom Swift, followed shortly by the juvenile Heinlein and the Winston books. Fantasy with the exception of the OZ books I started reading much later in high school, most likely Lord of the Rings. As a few people have mentioned the Winston set was great. I have a number of them in old library editions. I think my all time favorite of them is Vault of the Ages.

 

[Morgan Kane]

I'm rather new at SFF (just like the forum ) so I havn't read that many. Sure, originals are good but I have a thing for books based on games as I'm a video-game-nerd to the core. My first real book though that got me into this jungle of creativity has to be Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn.

 

[Janga]

I would say Lord of the Rongs would be the first book to get me into this genre... but what actually got me interested in fantasy/sci-fi was the Final Fantasy game series.

 

[biodroid]

Hey welcome to the chrons Janga! I read Magician by Feist as my first hook, but i read a lot of Dean Koontz and Stephen King before that.

 

[Janga]

Hey welcome to the chrons Janga!

Thank you! This is a great forum! I'm glad I found it!

 

[biodroid]

Hehe, Janga, you have just scratched the surface of what is on offer on this site. Happy lurking

 

[yaxomoxay]

I do not recall the first book, but clearly recall loving ” Dune” by Frank Herbert when I was.13.
I clearly remember buying each of the books in the series, translated in Italian, from a bookstore called Libreria Milano, a few steps from Milan's cathedral. I bought the books separately, hardcover. One of the librarians was a girl, her name Elena and she wasn't bad at all .
When I bought ” Chapterhouse Dune” she gave me the hardcover boxset for free.

last time I went to Milan the bookstore was a sporting goods store. Sad, isn't it? Tells a lot about society.

 

[Nerds_feather]

hmm, good question. when i was a kid, i guess the first fantasy i read was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, followed by The Chonicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. i then discovered A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, and then The Belgariad by David Eddings.

for science fiction, I guess it must have been The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. wasn't long after that i started reading my dad's old Clarke, Bradbury and Asimov books.