What Made you read sf and fantasy

[Jo]

Jeffrey wrote: "When I was a kid, before Harry Potter and the recent influx of sf and fantasy for kids and young adults, I made my way into sf and fantasy from reading Susan Cooper, the Borrowers by Mary Norton an..."

Just that I could read about fictional worlds and still have the thriller /mystery /drama :]

[Marc]

I grew up with the Oz books at the foot of my bed. Star Trek reruns nightly. It took me a while to read anything else.

[Sara]

When I was a kid, I used to read stories about animals (Black Beauty, Black Stallion, Stormy, the Warriors series) and that was my main source of books. However, one day I picked up Eragon by Christopher Paolini and fell in love with it. That was the book that brought me into fantasy.

[Jamie]

This thread made me realize I literally have no memory of a time when I wasn't a Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan. But trying to sort out in my head when I read different things is a muddle.

All I know for sure is that Empire Strikes Back was one of the first movies I saw in theatre, I was already watching Doctor Who before that (replays on TVO here and from the Buffalo PBS station, with Jon Pertwee as my first doctor even though it was late Tom Baker on the new episodes). I had very clear memories of the regeneration to Peter Davison.

And then Narnia/Hobbit as some of my earliest reading memories.
When exactly did Oz, Susan Cooper, Pern, Deryni, Mary Stewart, Piers Anthony, Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy, D&D and the rest enter the picture? All by the time I met my main D&D group going forward, and that was when I was 11.

[L.G.]

Jamie wrote: "This thread made me realize I literally have no memory of a time when I wasn't a Sci-Fi and Fantasy fan. But trying to sort out in my head when I read different things is a muddle.

All I know for ..."

Yes, it does seem like most of us start reading science fiction and fantasy even before we understand that it's a separate genre to a lot of other things.

[Jim]

I'm with LG on this. It wasn't until I looked back that I realised that the Narnia books and 'The Borrowers' were fantasy.
And then I loved the Trigan Empire http://www.donlawrence.co.uk/download... when I was a kid, swords, cavalry, spaceships and blasters, what's not to like :-)

[Tim]

I started with Animals :-) The hundred and one Dalmatians was the first book I remember loving, but I got a boost when I realised that my dad was a member of the SFBC. I still have most of his books dating back to the 1950's.

I initially disliked Fantasy because in my mind it replaced SF on the shelves and in comparison lacked ideas, but I have grown to like it, though much of fantasy still lacks anything that is actually thought provoking.

In many cases Indie authors are better than mainstream for this (in fantasy).

[Grace]

Fantasy, sci-fi and historical fiction have always been my favorites because of the high stakes, quite honestly. I always wanted to read about things like huge battles and planet-wide revolutions and kings regaining their thrones, not 'oh no will the nasty mayor close Mrs. Henderson's flower shop?' Fantasy and sci-fi aren't quiet genres, and to me that always meant they were free to talk about the things that really mattered. (And they were way more entertaining) :)

[Christopher]

I started out my reading life with genre fiction. The earliest books I remember reading are The Lorax, Animorphs, Goosebumps, and the Chronicles of Narnia. I took a bit of a detour into literary fiction for about a decade somewhere around my teens and mid-20s, but lately I've been falling back into F&SF and it's been nice just enjoying a story and not completely focusing on some deeper meaning to it all. Not to say that genre fiction doesn't tackle big ideas just as well or better than literary fiction, but it generally is much more enjoyable along the way.

Ursula K. Le Guin was definitely the major catalyst, to be honest.

[Kevin]

I read SFF is mainly because of the characters. This is the one genre that the no matter how bad the situation is, the good will always at least try to triumph over evil.

[Christopher]

Kevin wrote: "I read SFF is mainly because of the characters. This is the one genre that the no matter how bad the situation is, the good will always at least try to triumph over evil."

Maybe in traditional fantasy and sci-fi this is true, but grimdark fantasy and military sci-fi are not nearly as straightforward about good and evil. I actually tend to gravitate towards a lot of work where the characters are very grey in their morals/ethics.

The characters are most definitely my favorite thing about SFF as well.

[J.]

My first Science Fiction was Arthur C. Clark (many books) and my first Fantasy was Lord of the RIngs (read four times). Most other SF and Fantasy pales by comparison in my opinion. Exceptions are Tom Robbins, Stephen King, and Kurt Vonnegut but they are not strictly speaking in either of these two genres. The whole genre thing is too confining, pigeon-holing authors and preventing SciFi and Fantasy fans from finding books they would love. People keep messing with the classifications but it never gets better.

[Grace]

I really agree with what you said, Kevin. I love the strong do good, fight evil messages that fantasy so often carries; it's such a relief from the limp-limbed moral ambiguity other genres pride themselves in :)

[Tori]

I can't really remember a time I wasn't drawn to fantasy. My favorite movies as a kid were Beauty and the Beast, Quest for Camelot, and The Swan Princess.
The first Lord of the Rings movie sold it for me though. I've been obsessed with LOTR since I saw the first movie, so I read the books and it all just kept going from there.

[Tori]

Grace wrote: "I really agree with what you said, Kevin. I love the strong do good, fight evil messages that fantasy so often carries; it's such a relief from the limp-limbed moral ambiguity other genres pride th..."

I 100% agree. I like moral ambiguity in a story, but I like the ending to have an overall good message. I especially love stories that challenge what is good and evil and have good come out on top.

[Michael]

It was TV that set me on the path of SF. I remember well before my teenage years, getting up early on Saturday to watch the old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials. I was fascinated by the idea of space ships, alien world's and amazing technology. The old 50s SF movies or the Harryhausen stop motion movies like Sinbad and the few high concept SF movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet. As I got a little older and got myself a library card I discovered a whole world of juvenile (what is nor called YA) SF and fantasy books by Heinlein, Norton and others. In all the years since, I don't think I've read more than one or two fiction books that weren't SF or fantasy (not counting the required reading in school).