What are you reading? - October 2017

[Richards]

I think the first fantasy books I read were Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom novels, starting with A Princess of Mars. I was probably in 4th or 5th grade at the time.

Johnathan

 

[Zaukrie]

Red rising. Just started.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Before I could read, my mom read Beowulf to my brother and me. This explains a lot. Now, as far as first fantasy novel I actually read, it’s probably Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin.

A Wizard of Earthsea is an amazing book. One I wish I had read when I was younger. Same with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.

So a topical question for the masses: what's the first fantasy story you ever read? (Or optionally, what's the story that got you into fantasy?) I was into SF, and in 4th (?) grade a friend lent me "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. LeGuin. I devoured it and that started my lifelong love of fantasy fiction. And there are still echos of that book in the homebrew settings I run when DMing.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The really are outstanding books. I'm down to under the last hundred pages, and am so excited to see how it ends. Jorg is such an interesting character – easily my favorite antihero in a long time.

Broken Empire is one of the few trilogies I've read where each book was better than the one previous.

 

[TwoSix]

So a topical question for the masses: what's the first fantasy story you ever read? (Or optionally, what's the story that got you into fantasy?) I was into SF, and in 4th (?) grade a friend lent me "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. LeGuin. I devoured it and that started my lifelong love of fantasy fiction. And there are still echos of that book in the homebrew settings I run when DMing.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Pool of Radiance (the SSI Gold Box CRPG) got me interested in D&D, and looking for D&D stuff at Waldenbooks led me to the Dragonlance Chronicles.

 

[TwoSix]

The really are outstanding books. I'm down to under the last hundred pages, and am so excited to see how it ends. Jorg is such an interesting character – easily my favorite antihero in a long time.

I think you'll like it. I actually just read it about a month ago, so it's still pretty fresh in my mind, and I quite enjoyed how it ended.

 

[Blue]

Before I could read, my mom read Beowulf to my brother and me. This explains a lot. Now, as far as first fantasy novel I actually read, it’s probably Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin.

A Wizard of Earthsea is an amazing book. One I wish I had read when I was younger. Same with C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.

Guilty admission: I've never read any Narnia. I've got an omnibus of several of the books sitting on my to-read pile put there by my 11 y.o. daughter who's read them twice already.

(Pretty good return for introducing her to Lloyd Alexander's Taran Wanderer series when she was smaller. She's currently reading the Hitchhiker's Guide series for the first time.)

I remember the Myth books. I enjoyed them a lot when I was a young teenager, though nowadays the jokes and plots don't hold up as well. It may have been the occasional prurient detail that held my interest, like Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant did. (Or even his Xanth books for the matter.)

 

[Blue]

Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Pool of Radiance (the SSI Gold Box CRPG) got me interested in D&D, and looking for D&D stuff at Waldenbooks led me to the Dragonlance Chronicles.

Cool. I got into D&D through the summer camp I went to - two people played and got me interested. Dragonlance wasn't out yet at that time.

Man, I remember /serious/ discussions as only a teenager can be earnest about Sturm and the knights and Tanis' nature and everything.

 

[Zaukrie]

The elric books were my gateway into loving fantasy, though I had read others before

 

[Jhaelen]

So a topical question for the masses: what's the first fantasy story you ever read? (Or optionally, what's the story that got you into fantasy?) I was into SF, and in 4th (?) grade a friend lent me "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. LeGuin. I devoured it and that started my lifelong love of fantasy fiction. And there are still echos of that book in the homebrew settings I run when DMing.

That's an excellent question, and I have to admit that I don't remember

Like you, I was into Sci-Fi before I started reading Fantasy. In Elementary School I developed an interest in reading collections of faerie tales and novelized versions of myths and legends. Philip Jose Farmer's 'World of Tiers' series may have been my transitional book: a fantasy story in sci-fi trappings. Shortly after that came 'The Book of Corum' by Michael Moorcock which left a lasting impression on me.

I'm not sure when I first read the 'Earthsea' novels, but it was definitely after reading 'The Left Hand of Darkness' and 'The Dispossessed'. I didn't think much of it at the time, preferring her sci-fi works. It wasn't until I read them for the second time (when 'Tehanu' came out), that I truly learned to appreciate them.

I only started reading most of the fantasy classics after I had discovered roleplaying games (and d&d in particular). The 'inspirational reading' section in the AD&D DMG was quite helpful in that regard. Notably, I didn't read any Tolkien before some of us had to read 'The Hobbit' for German class(!) ca. 1987. But I had already read Lord Dunsany, Fritz Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, and many others at that point.

Edit: I'm currently still reading 'Eyes of the Stone Thief', the 'megadungeon' adventure module for 13th Age, btw. Interestingly, the way it's written and organized reminds me a lot of the way I prefer to prefer my own homebrew adventures: Many things aren't set in stone until they're encountered by my players. Their decisions effectively shape the adventure.
But it also has a lot more depth than my own creations: It features a lot of well-developed factions, plenty of quest ideas, and very important for the 13th Age setting: everything is (potentially) linked to several icons.
So, i guess, it's hardly surprising that I consider the book pure genious!