What book/author brought you into the Fantasy Genre?

[Sethanel]

I have been surfing through the forums of late and have noticed that a lot of people seem to have read RA Salvatore at one point. I have also read Mr. Salvatore's work (Drizzt moreso than the others) but no longer do.

So here is my question: What author or series brought you full heartedly into the Fantasy Genre?

For me it was a mixture of Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks and RA Salvatore. Who are yours?

[Andrew]

The first fanitsy book that I read (well it was read to me) was the Belgariad series by David Eddings. David writes all of his books with the perfict mix of action, story and comady (<- is that spelled right?). The first series that I read myself was the same a yours, Salvetore's Drizzt Epic. The Forgotten Realms books are still my favorite but sadly I have not found a good FR book for a while.

[Sethanel]

Comedy

[Brynweir]

Have you read the Erevis Cale books by Paul Kemp? There is the Erevis Cale Trilogy and the Twilight Wars. I haven't read the first, but the second has made Cale my favorite character in FR.

[Susan]

Anne McCaffrey, Terry Brooks, and JV Jones were the authors that sucked me into the world of fantasy books. The Dragonriders of Pern is an awesome series.

[Sethanel]

What did JV Jones write? I haven't heard of him/her

[Susan]

JV Jones wrote the following:

The Book of Words Trilogy: The Baker's Boy; A Man Betrayed; Master and Fool.
Barbed Coil (I haven't read this one yet)
The Sword of Shadows Series: A Cavern of Black Ice; A Fortress of Grey Ice; A Sword from Red Ice; Watcher of the Dead (to be published in 2010). This series will be a total of 5 books long.

The Sword of Shadows series has a few tie ins with the Book of Words trilogy, although you don't need to have read the Book of Words trilogy to understand any of the story. You can read sample chapters from several of her books on her website at the following url:

http://jvj.com/jjsam.html

[Empty_Disciple]

Cut my teeth on Terry Brooks. I read all of the Shannara books until First King. Then got into Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I consider the WoT to be up there with Tolkien. I enjoyed Swordspoint and its sequel The Privilege of the Sword as well. The Night Angel series I received as a birthday present so it was an unexpected delight.

[Vendran]

got to be J R R Tolkien. The Hobbit was and probably still is one of the greatest fantasy books ever.

[Buu!!]

Mine was T.A. Barron, and a mix of a great number of others, but I believe it was mostly Barron. I absolutely loved his Merlin series and then the Great Tree of Avalon (I think a sequel to it) blew me away. But...I STILL haven't read the third book to the Great Tree. Which is really, really bad. >.>;;

[Nanaika]

The first fantasy like books I read were from Catherine fisher (i think i was 8 or 9 years old). When i was 12 a friend of my mother recommend Magicien by Raymond e feist and since then i am a big fantasy fan XD so feist was the one who sucked me in the fantasy world ^^

[Taylor Bachman Dierks]

The Ranger's Apprentice series, by John Flanagan.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fantasticfiction....

^^^
Book two since it has the coolest cover.

[Brix]

Lord of The Rings-Tolkien...