What Hooked You into the Genre?

[El Mahdi]

For me, it really wasn't any one specific work, though if I had to pick one it would be Dune. But honestly, for me I became hooked as a result of a class in the 5th grade.

I was one of those freek kids that was reading at a high school/college level very early. My school had used the self-paced Weekly Readers for reading education. However, I and a few other kids had long outpaced the readers, and the school didn't really have any more material for us. As a solution, the school created a class specifically for us, but still didn't have any real curriculum for it. So, the teacher they assigned just had us reading and studying mythology - Greek/Roman, Norse, Arthurian...basically Bullfinch's Mythology...and some Native American Mythology also. A whole year (5th grade) of a class just reading and studying mythology. It was beyond cool, and had quite a lasting impact on me. So, I guess what got me hooked was just reading a lot of the original speculative fiction... After that I moved on to the other ones most people mention. I had read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and Dune by the time I'd hit 8th grade. But that class was where it all started.

 

[Ariosto]

Into SF? The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells. I guess I may have seen "Star Trek" or something on TV before then, but as far as I recall that novel was my introduction.

The heroic fantasy, swords and spells thing (in modern form, as opposed to mythology) didn't catch my interest much until someone loaned me The Silver Chair when I had nothing else to read. I'm pretty sure I read Lewis before Tolkien. A while later, the Frazetta cover of Conan the Conqueror caught my eye.

I credit D&D and T&T, including magazines The Dragon and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with stoking my interest in swords & sorcery, and even for suggesting many of the writers whose works I have found worth the seeking out.

 

[Hussar]

Very cool. I'm getting a warm Christmassy glow here.

 

[Haltherrion]

It's boring but it must be Lord of the Rings. Although it might actually be D&D itself. I was reading science fiction in grade 4 or so but I don't think I found fantasy until grade 8-ish and about that time, I also had my first D&D experience (sufficiently moody in an old basement and with a ref who could really set a scene. I still remember my wide-eyed awe. Didn't hurt that most players were West Point cadets quite a bit older and more mature than me. Made it a little scary )

From that point on, one of the more memorable reads for me after all these years was the Thomas Covenant series. Even at the time I had alot issues with that setting but it was still very vivid. (For one thing, the world always seemed to empty to me and I never liked the start of the first book.)

 

[Ariosto]

From that point on, one of the more memorable reads for me after all these years was the Thomas Covenant series. Even at the time I had alot issues with that setting but it was still very vivid.

I found Covenant himself vividly irritating. The story of the Land was one of many "epic fantasies" I have set aside -- but one of the few I returned to and finished years later. Donaldson's work, I think, calls for one to see it through to the end.

(McKillip's Riddle Master trilogy is another that can be frustrating along the way but rewards patience with its unfolding.)

 

[TarionzCousin]

I was kept in a cage in the basement and only fed grainy pellets when I pressed the lever AND correctly answered a question about Fantasy or Science Fiction literature. After a dozen years of this I was electrically shocked if I didn't roll my dice quickly enough when it was my turn.

It wasn't until nearly 20 years later when I escaped that I learned that "Dungeon Master" isn't usually a literal term.

 

[lamia]

I'm not entirely sure when it started for me. I grew up in a Star Trek household.
When I was 10 or so all the normal girls had posters of people in boy bands and such on their walls, and I had pictures of Wil Wheaton!

I think the first book that really got me interested was "An Acceptable Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.

 

[El Mahdi]

...I think the first book that really got me interested was "An Acceptable Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.

I really liked her also, though I've never read that one. I really liked the three that come before it (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet). They have a cherished place on my bookshelves right next to the Narnia books.

 

[lamia]

I really liked her also, though I've never read that one. I really liked the three that come before it (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet). They have a cherished place on my bookshelves right next to the Narnia books.

So are they still as good as you remember? I've been meaning to re-read all of them, but I have an irrational fear of tainting the memory if they don't live up to the initial experience!

 

[Merkuri]

I, too, remember Madeleine L'Engle's books as being awesome while growing up.

When I was 14 or so, my uncle took me to a lecture she gave at a library about being an author. To my surprise, after the lecture was over, he walked up to her and asked her if she'd like to go to dinner with him, his SO, and me. I was even more surprised when she said yes. I've still got that book she signed on my shelf.