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

[shadowbox]

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.

 

[ratsy]

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).

 

[Brett Howell]

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)

 

[bloodfiredeath]

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.

 

[Lapuspuer]

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.

 

[afroelf]

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.

 

[Soulstar]

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.