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?

[Sophonax]

Oh, I loved Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. Especially Thanatos. LOL.

[Megs]

The earliest I remember was probably Terry Brook's "Kingdom for sale/sold"

Though earlier than that I remember thinking that some of the "magical" things that happened in the Nancy Drew series (that she did end up explaining away) did catch my interest as well. "What if there was a world where this WAS possible? Where it WAS magical?" That sent me off to my doom. :)

[Judge]

I would love to say that it was some great author like Tolkien etc, however when I was a kid my favorite authors were Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. I don't think they even sell them anymore, not in any bookshop I've been in, in the last decade anyway, I guess computer games killed them off.

[Sethanel]

lol, I don't really agree with Tolkein being a great author, moreso just the first. His work is much too dry to be great.

[Bill B]

AH the advantage of the internet age and online buying: One can find almost anything and often in HB for less than the price of a new mass market PB.

There is not a lot of really old fantasy that has not been re-printed. SF is different. I recently acquired old HBs of The Moon Pool</> by A. Merritt (1919), Mission of Gravity by Hal Celment (1953) and Davy</> by Edgar Pangborn (a 1964 edition) all for <$10 each including shipping.

FWIW, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone are both listed on Amazon and readily available.

[Felix]

I began reading The Lord of the Rings when I was about 14, but I didn't stick to it. I think for one part because it was kinda hard for me to read it and understand everything, since English is not my mother tongue (it was the first book i read in English ^^). But mostly I just didn't like it, it got boring too soon (in my opinion).
After that, I read the Quicksilver triology by Stan Nicholls, and ever since I'm mostly only reading fantasy books ^^

[Bill B]

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

This was before LOTR was published in the US, but I was on 5th or 6th grade, so The Hobbit was absolutely fascinating. I read it over and over. I wanted more, but there was little available. The only other thing I remember was CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, but I really liked Tolkien better.

There were books like Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte's Web, Wind in the Willows and such, but they were not the same as Hobbits or Narnia and I still do not think of them as fantasy, more like modern fairy tales.

In college I started reading the ACE editions of LOTR, but joined the boycott against these un-authorized books from which Tolkien got nothing. When the Houghton Mifflin edition came out, I read and reread them and my love of fantasy was instilled forever.

Between these rarities, I read all the Science Fictions I could get my hands on.

Bill

[Brite]

You mean pick ONE??? I could read by the time I was 5... and being a military brat meant that books were my best friends till I was 7... so... umm... well... Shakespeare's fantasies?? I was precocious... ;) I was allowed into the "adult" section of the library by the time I was 8... Yeah... I know... makes me a bit of a freak...

[Dehvi]

The books and author that brought me in at first would be, Tolkien and his writings, but I got into it deeper with Salvatore, and now Brent Weeks (keep up the good work :D)

So I'll list it

Tolkien - The Hobbit

R.A. Salvatore - Homeland

I've now read all of Salvatore's books surrounding Drizzt, and I did read the Highwayman. I've read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and The Children of Hurin. I started reading The Way of Shadows last week and just finished Beyond the Shadows. Great Trilogy I'm hoping in the future we will see more writing from Mr. Weeks that has something to do with Kylar or Durzo.


~Dehvi

[Jeddicus]

Terry Brooks, The Shannara Trilogy. David Eddings is great also.

[Nickwick]

Brian Jaques and the Redwall series, later went on to read his Castaways of the Flying Dutchman... good memories. Anyway after that it was Harry Potter and Dragonlance.

[Jacob Moore]

i know it's kinda cliche, but i was brought in by fairy tales my mother used to read me when i was little. The first one that really drew me in though was The Hobbit, I watched the cartoon when i was little and i read the book soon after :-)