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What got you into Science Fiction?
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I stumbled in through the backdoor of paper-and-dice RPGs of the 80s and early 90s.Gamma World, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Continuum, Dark Conspiracy, Rifts, Traveller, Underground, et al.
When I was about 15, my gaming friends tore out of their nerd chrysalises and started *gasp!* DATING, partying, going out for varsity athletics, playing in garage bands, and preparing for college.
Since there was no Internet at the time, this left a huge void to fill. It's chilling to think of the alternate timeline where I might've been sucked down the World of Warcrack clickhole of online addiction, growing my man-boobs and trolling at Reddit, not having the self-discipline to engage with anything deeper than Suzanne Collins or Orson Scott Card.
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Then from the age of about 12 or 13, many, many, many shit fantasy novels, moving on to many shit science fiction novels (I must have read 20 or so novels by Piers Anthony). From there I kinda worked out what authors I liked and which ones weren't for me.
To be honest, not a very interesting story.
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Another of the stories was Strikebreaker. I really liked it.
I think it must be Doctor Who for me. Can't remember a time 'before DW' on the TV. The Target novels were a Library favourite too.
Sleepily stumbled in on my dad watching Blade Runner when I was about 9, and was completely transfixed by the visuals and atmosphere. That sort of loomed in the background for many years, and much later it was probably 1984 and PKD short stories that got me into SF literature.
In sixth grade I started reading H.P. Lovecraft, but the first science fiction novel was Jack Vance' s Blue World. Not a great book, but I was a kid and it had a sea monster. There were probably science fiction pre-cursors on TV - b&w films, of course - but a lot of those have past into the memory graveyard.
For me, it was watching 2000: A Space Odyssey in it's original Cinerama release; I immediately had to read everything written by Arthur C Clarke, quickly followed by Asimov, Pohl, Heinlein and the rest if the golden age cannon. Never stopped finding wonder and inspiration in Science Fiction.
TV - I remember the original Dr Who. However the big inspiration from a science point of view was the Apollo missions. I was 10 when they landed on the moon. This was science fiction made real.
That coincided with 'Star Trek' and 'Thunderbirds' being shown. High production values if sometimes 'obvious' plot-lines.
AND as Gregg said 2000: A Space Odyssey, we got bussed up from our local school in Musselburgh to see it in a High Quality cinema aged about 10. Extraordinary even if we didn't really have a clue about the last 30 minutes or so.
Mary said "Can't remember a time 'before DW' on the TV" and that's true for me too. I have a vague memory of the 2nd Doctor & Jamie walking down a railway tunnel and the 3rd Doctor talking to Liz, but the first story I really remember is the 3rd Doctor, Jo Grant and the Autons. We only had one TV when I was growing up, so we had to watch whatever my parents wanted to watch, but that included Blake's 7, the Water Margin and Monkey, and we all listened to HHGG on the radio.As well reading as a lot of children's fantasy like Alan Garner, Joan Aitken and Susan Cooper, I know I read Have Spacesuit WIll Travel as I have a clear memory of the cover, but I have forgotten everything about the story, and even Luke's review didn't ring a bell at all. When I was 14 and allowed to use the adult section of the library, I read a lot of epic fantasy involving quests, and some science fiction, including a lot of the Darkover novels (although I thought they were fantasy to start with).
I just remembered that when I was 11 or so, I absolutely loved The Tomorrow People, and I seem to remember a programme that may have been called Timeslip, about a boy and girl who went forward in time and met their much more unhappy adult selves during a future war (or something like that). And I liked Catweazel and The Tripods, and the film The Village of the Damned which I saw on TV. I was never that fond of The Day of the Triffids tv series, but did go on to read it, plus The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and Chocky by John Wyndham.
For me it was very clearly Farscape that got me into the genre. Sure, I had already watched some great sci fi movies here and there, but it wasn't until someone recommended me this show that could only be found through Kazaa in my country that I became completely hooked. I was thirteen or fourteen at the time. It went on to Stargate, then Star Trek and all kinds of shows, movies and books after that.
Back to the future got me into Science fiction as a concept, then I picked up the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and I got into reading. After that it was - and still is - Asimov.
Star Trek: I'm a TOSser. I couldn't get enough of the telly, so I bought the official books. Then I ran out of official books. They were written by James Blish, so I bought some of his other books. I remembering enjoying Cities in Flight. Then I ran out of James Blish, so tried these other chaps, Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov. Wow! They blew my mind: I was on board the addict's wagon. :-)I'd previously watched various things, like Dr. Who (Tom Baker era), which made me appreciate the back of sofas.
2000AD was superb, but didn't get me into sci-fi, it got me into modernism (a greater gift). I can't remember if that came before or after I got into Star Trek and sci-fi.
Since in my childhood we didn't have access to western literature (I live in Romania and back then we were still communist) I think my first contact with Sf was some soviet short stories about the exploration of space. Some of them are rather good, I read them again lat year.Later in high school I watched and enjoyed Star Trek (TNG), but I think the most important influence for me was the first Dune movie. I was so intrigued by it I bought the novel. And after reading it I was like “this is so much better than the movie!” :)
In media Star Trek (TOS), Space 1999 and Star Wars were pretty pivotal. In books Isaac Asimov short stories and Robot novels were instrumental and so were the juvenile science fiction novels by French Canadian writer called Suzanne Martel.
Have vague memories of old Doctor Who episodes on Friday nights. But probably my most consistent exposure to Science Fiction in my youth was Red Dwarf.I didn't read any decent science fiction novels until I was in my mid 20's with P.K Dick and I.M Banks.
Star Wars, pretty much. The original set of movies were a favorite part of my childhood, as were other sci-fi films and TV shows. I also liked videogames, which had plenty of sci-fi themes.Reading-wise, I became fascinated with UFOs as a kid, and read all the library books on the subject I could get my hands on. I don't remember what my first proper science fiction novel was, but it was probably in the kids' section, A Wrinkle In Time or something like that. I do remember that my parents bought me a copy of Dune, after the 1984 movie came out. Didn't fully understand it at the time, but it became a favorite.
In college, I started gradually reading the "classics" -- Hyperion, Ender's Game, Gateway, Neuromancer -- but it was only after 30 that I really turned into a hard-core reader. I had a serious infatuation with a bookish friend and tried to impress her by reading a lot and getting physically fit, which led to listening to audiobooks while jogging. The friend never took me seriously as a romantic prospect but the habit stuck anyway.
When I was a kid, I was really into the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Trek films, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. I started reading science fiction classics and more modern sci-fi novels as well in high school. My favorite novel is 1984 by George Orwell, though I also love: almost any books by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein. My favorite film-to-novel adaptor is Alan Dean Foster.
I recall reading several Arthur C. Clarke books in my early teens. While I enjoyed those, I don't think I appreciated them enough at the time.
Then, in my early 20s, I read Iain M Banks' Look to Windward and was blown away at the scale of the thing, the ideas, the AI, everything.
Then, in my early 20s, I read Iain M Banks' Look to Windward and was blown away at the scale of the thing, the ideas, the AI, everything.
I remember watching the original Planet of the Apes movie as a kid and being freaked out. My buddies and I had sleepovers when the sequels came out, the Apes movies were different than anything else us grade school lads had seen at the time. I also really liked the original Star Trek, the reruns of that series were on after school everyday before Gilligan's Island. Fast forward 35 years - I'm sitting in US Airways Arena getting ready to watch a Phoenix Suns NBA game and a bipedal gorilla wearing a white collared shirt comes running out on to the court with a freaking bazooka! WTF?! For a split second I felt like Taylor in the cornfield. Turns out the gorilla was just shooting t-shirts at the humans. No harm done.
when I was 13 i sent into a Boom shop looking for FF stuff but for some reason told the owner that I liked science, space and stuffhe suggested Lem's Transfer and that was it, i was hooked...
up to today still the most archetypical SF i've ever read
I would honestly have to say watching the Star Wars trilogy on VHS as a child, although of course some purists would say that Star Wars is more fantasy than science fiction.
Robert - I think it's technically considered science-fantasy. A crossover between science fiction and fantasy. Of course if you go to the library, Star Wars will be in the science fiction/fantasy section.
Yeah. Some people find the debates about the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy interesting, but I really don't. For me, spaceships are enough for something to count as sci fi.
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Books mentioned in this topic
The Day of the Triffids (other topics)The Hugo Winners 1955-1961 (other topics)
The BBC used to broadcast a book reading/adaptation at 8:45 AM.
I was aged about 10 when this one was broadcast.
The Day of the Triffids
Loved it so much I borrowed it from the 'adult' section of the library using a 'grown ups' ticket.
A couple of years later found a second hand copy of this.
The Hugo Winners 1955-1961
The 'original' version of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Had me it tears.
That set me off on searching out the Hugo and Nebula award winning Novels. Not necessarily the best route to go!