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

[Kettricken]

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!

 

[tarifa]

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

 

[Rahl Windsong]

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...

 

[Jamfke]

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.

 

[Alurny]

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.

 

[VionesspXmoone]

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.

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

 

[Creabots]

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.

 

[Junomidge]

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

 

[Junomidge]

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.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

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.

 

[Stormflame]

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....

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

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.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

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

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

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?

 

[george c]

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.

 

[Ramoth's Rider]

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!!!

 

[Sassee]

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.

 

[GOLLUM]

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'.

 

[Lith]

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.

 

[AE35Unit]

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!)