SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hi all! As I sit here waiting for the next wave of kids to come trick-or-treating, I thought it'd be fun to compare what books got us into fantasy/sci fi! How old were you? Have you read it since? Did it age well?

Mine was Pawn of Prophecy which I'm really excited to see is next month's read! That will be my first re-read since I first found it when I was 11 or so.

edit: Thanks YouKneeK for giving me the idea!

Probably The Hobbit. There was a wonderful UK kids TV show called Jackanory which was basically a kids TV presenter sitting reading a book for 10 minutes each day, and The Hobbit would have been read on that, but I'm fairly certain we were also read it in primary school. It will also have been one of the first books i read entirely to myself.


I remember reading the Belgariad later on - the interminable wait between books 3 & 4 and then 4 & 5 were one of things that lead me to almost always wait for a series to be published before starting on it.

For me it was classical writers like Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. When I was young these were the only type of books we had in the house other than encyclopedias.

When I started going to the library I grabbed anything I could find so I'm not sure who my first "modern" writer was. It wasn't J.R.R. Tolkien as I remember reading other things before I was introduced to The Hobbit. I didn't have anyone to direct my reading so it was only as I found them on the shelves. I do remember reading authors like Alan Dean Foster early on.

Well... I'm probably a bit older than most of the SF fans in this group. I remember reading Robert Heinlein's short stories in Boy's Life magazine as a kid, and I enjoyed those; but some of the earliest novels I remember reading were A.E. Van Vogt's Weapon Shops of Isher and Voyage of the Space Beagle. Then of course there was Poul Anderson's 1967 novel War of the Wing Men and I can't forget Asimov's I, Robot and the Foundation trilogy.

The one novel that got me started writing SF was probably Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- still one of my all-time favorites.

John wrote: "The one novel that got me started writing SF was probably Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- still one of my all-time favorites. "

Oh! Mine, too! When my Dad saw I liked Eddings, that was the first sci-fi he recommended to me. I still have very fond memories of it.

Kim wrote: "For me it was classical writers like Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. When I was young these were the only type of books we had in the hou..."

The classics are really good appetite whetters (It's not a word. I'm leaving it all the same). What was the first book that really solidified your interest then, and set you on the path to become a moderator of a reading group dedicated to speculative fiction? (^.^)

The Day of the Triffids got me into SF, more years ago than I want to think about. I also read Dune fairly early on in my reading career.
And The Hobbit was my introduction to fantasy. I wonder how many times I have reread it since then:)

Um. Probably Buy Jupiter and Other Stories. It's the first that I can remember, from over 4 decades ago, that I actually knew was SF. I might have read The Hobbit or The Lost World (by Arthur Conan Doyle) before then but thought of them as just stories and didn't realize there was a whole genre to explore. (I grew up sheltered in a rural village and didn't know much of anything, though.)

Phrynne wrote: "The Day of the Triffids got me into SF, more years ago than I want to think about. I also read Dune fairly early on in my reading career.
And The Hobbit was ..."

I'm beginning to sense a theme here... :-)

Pawn of Prophecy for me, too. And Lucifer's Hammer. I think I was 14 the first time. I finished the entire Belagariad and Mallorean but aside from those and Lucifer's Hammer I didn't read anything else in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genres for 20 years.

My first exposure was a sci-fi short story in the back of my 2nd grade reader. It blew my mind on so many levels that I had to have more.

Fantasy is hard to name one. I grew up on Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen, Brothers Grimm, The. Peter Pan is a standout too. Who doesn't want to fly out their window to a magic land and fight pirates? I still do!
The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia I read in my late teens. Loved them and still do. I reread the Hobbit when the movies came out and I read the Narnia books again to my children. They were just as wonderful as they were the first read.
SciFi not read as much but Childhood's End is the first one I remember reading and it blew me away.

Ellen wrote: "Peter Pan is a standout too. Who doesn't want to fly out their window to a magic land and fight pirates? I still do!"

Is that Peter in your profile pic?

My mom read The Hobbit to my sister and I when we were kids. The first fantasy book I read myself was probably The Fellowship of the Ring

For sci-fi, it's a little fuzzier... she also read to us A Wrinkle in Time, if that counts. I'm not sure but I think the first sci-fi book I read myself might have been Heir to the Empire, a book which I remember nothing about (I never got into the Star Wars books).

It was The Last Astronaut which I discovered around the house when I was a child. I think it must have been before we had a local library so my choice of reading material was somewhat limited. I read it and read it and read it. The characters in it had alphabetical names: Alex Braid, Conrad Dane, Eric F-something (fifty years later I can't be expected to remember all of them) so it went all the way to the stow-away who was Ursula Vernon.
(view spoiler)[Everything went wrong and they kept dying one by one until only the captain was left and he was captured by aliens and ended up in a zoo. (hide spoiler)] If you are wondering, yes it does deserve the goodreads rating.

Trike wrote: "Ellen wrote: "Peter Pan is a standout too. Who doesn't want to fly out their window to a magic land and fight pirates? I still do!"

Is that Peter in your profile pic?"

That is Link from Zelda. It was my grandson's first cosplay at an anime convention.

I found a copy of The Sword of Shannara on a boyfriend's bedroom floor and thought it would be funny to read a book with elves and dwarves and magic. Little did I know it would be the first step on my journey to nerdland (where I have happily lived ever since).

Absolutely my mom's Doc Savage collection, when I was a teen in the 60's. Wish I had kept those when she passed away!



Also her gothic romance/mysteries.

My First was Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, my Dad recommended it. We weren't a reading family and I don't think he ever read any Science Fiction again, but it must have caught his imagination and it certainly caught mine as a young teenager in the 60's.

I also loved the LOTR trilogy, and it's such fun to read the golem's parts, lol!

Fantasy: The Magician's Nephew which I won as a prize for good work in class 1964.
Science Fiction Invader from Space which I won as a prize in class for good work 1966. Refused to read it until 1970 as I wanted another of the Narnia set!!

I started with Andre Norton in both genres. My first science fiction was Daybreak 2250 A.D. otherwise known as Starman's Son. My first fantasy was Witch World.

Shomeret wrote: "I started with Andre Norton in both genres."

Ditto for me! I had read Narnia and the Hobbit before I found Andre Norton but her books turned me obsessive. Witch World was the first book I bought with my own money and it launched me on the path. Sargasso Of Space followed shortly after.

Allison wrote: "What was the first book that really solidified your interest then, and set you on the path to become a moderator of a reading group dedicated to speculative fiction?"

Now that I think about it more it probably would have been The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and anything by Roald Dahl. I started with serious, drifted to childrens, and then went back to more complex books the older I got.

Childhood's End

I remember picking up The City and the Stars in my Junior High Library. I couldn't have been more than 13 years old. I remember loving it so much I checked it out and read it multiple times that school year. I hope to reread in 2017 to see how it stood up.

I said this last year too...

I love that there seem to be a few "gateway" books here! Tolkien, Eddings, Lewis, Brooks, Asimov, Heinlein, and Norton... I think we've basically listed the books for Speculative Fiction 101.

And of course the classics, which are, I suppose, more gateway than these, even. I can't remember if Grimm Brothers came before Eddings for me...I know mythology and fairytales were a little earlier, fueled by the TV show "Wishbone" with the dog who recreated classic stories.

I remember walking into the library at middle school (7th grade) for the first time and being amazed at all the books in one place. For some reason the title "The Plague" attracted my attention. Yeah, that one. I was transported and have been an active reader ever since.

Allison wrote: "
And of course the classics, which are, I suppose, more gateway than these, even. I can't remember if Grimm Brothers came before Eddings for me...I know mythology and fairytales were a little earlier, fueled by the TV show "Wishbone" with the dog who recreated classic stories. "

After watching Wishbone we ended up with a Jack Russell Puppy.

Ellen wrote: "Allison wrote: "
And of course the classics, which are, I suppose, more gateway than these, even. I can't remember if Grimm Brothers came before Eddings for me...I know mythology and fairytales wer..."

That is AWESOME!

Definitely reading the Harry Potter series, specifically Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when I was in middle school!

fantasy as a child, peter pan etc, then found Asimov around the age of 10. After that it was all I could look for at the library. Our family would regularly go to the library once a week.

LOTR's, John Carter of Mars, Heinlein,

i forgot John Carter, but yes to Heinlein and what about Pohl

Can I just say I'm diggin' all the fond memories of libraries? The library was a magic place--still is, though now I feel more like I'm setting up a place of magic for the next generation.

LOL Monica--I believe in you!

Terri--I'm not sure you meant your post to sound heartbreaking, but just the book title and that particular book title was like reading one of the saddest short stories to me! I hope it wasn't meant like that, but well done capturing that feeling if so.

Trike--do you remember what the story was? Or any plot details?

Sarah Anne--twenty years?! What brought you back?

I've been reading Sci-fi a LONG time, so my memory is fuzzy, but I think that the first book I remember in the genre was "The Star Beast" by Heinlein. Before that I remember being really into the Encyclopedia Brown books, which weren't sci-fi, but did get me interested in science.

Encyclopedia Brown was so fun!

Cheryl wrote: "Encyclopedia Brown was so fun!"

Oh my goodness, there was this one that I think of all the time when I'm reading! Someone said they had found something between, say pages 55 and 56 in a book and he knew they were lying because those are opposite sides of the same page. So I think about that every time I'm watching the page count in my book :)

Allison wrote: "Sarah Anne--twenty years?! What brought you back? ..."

Mostly that it was the only book group in my city :) A wonderful happenstance!

It's hard for me to remember the first science fiction book I read, given it was at least 50 years ago. I read pretty much anything when I was a kid, including a lot of comic books, including superhero titles (can be considered science fiction or fantasy) and some generic science fiction comics such as Strange Adventures. My parents read science fiction, along with mysteries and general fiction, and I read the books we had at home, as well as library books. Mary Poppins might be considered fantasy, I guess. The first could've been Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. That's the first science fiction title I wrote into my Reading Journal, in 1965, the year I started the journal. But I didn't start reading SF heavily until the '70s and '80s. Then, as a public librarian, I figured I needed to read more widely, so I added literature and mysteries and historical fiction back into my reading.

Cheryl wrote: "Encyclopedia Brown was so fun!"

I think of him every time I boil an egg because he had case where a boiled egg was involved.

Probably The Chronicles of Narnia, both the book(s) and the BBC mini-series which I saw as a child. There's a great moment (forget which book, it's during a sea voyage) that really sparked my imagination as a child.

Also have early memories of Ace running away from cybermen.

Allison wrote: "Trike--do you remember what the story was? Or any plot details?"

The plot is engraved on my brain, but the title and author are lost to me. Since I read it in 1972, that's not surprising.

The story was about two astronaut brothers who had landed on a strange alien planet. They were fascinated by the bizarre lifeforms and unusual vegetation they discovered. As they were exploring they heard a growling sound coming from the other side of a small hill, which made them nervous. The source of the noise suddenly erupts over the crest of the hill! But it's not a large animal as they had feared, but rather a vehicle, full of aliens! They're hideous - such a weird color, with strange, grass-like vegetation on their heads... and those heads! They each only have one, with two eyes! On the side of the vehicle are markings that spell out "Dune Buggy."

It was my first exposure to the twist ending, where you had to reevaluate everything you'd just read. The astronaut brothers were actually a two-headed alien, each head bald with a cyclopean eye. It made me appreciate how the author had manipulated me by playing to my expectations, which basically showed me that I was unaware of my built-in assumptions. The descriptions of Earth also made me appreciate the wonder and beauty of the world around me that I took for granted. It was a life-altering experience, compressing lessons about writing, science, prejudice and storytelling into what must have been a 3-page story.

Sarah Anne wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Encyclopedia Brown was so fun!"

Oh my goodness, there was this one that I think of all the time when I'm reading! Someone said they had found something between, say pages 55 and 56 in a book and he knew they were lying because those are opposite sides of the same page."

In high school a friend of mine and I bonded over that exact story.

Ellen wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "Encyclopedia Brown was so fun!"

I think of him every time I boil an egg because he had case where a boiled egg was involved."

Two that have always stuck with me were the shoplifting one where the witness says he watched the culprit's reflection in a mirror but they couldn't see him... which allowed Encyclopedia Brown to dismantle his story because two people can always see each other in a mirror, and the other involved Encyclopedia poking holes in the timeline of the mean kid's story who claimed he had looked at his wristwatch when whatever the crime was had gone down (a purloined ice cream cone, maybe; Brown's cases were pretty low stakes), but since this happened at the beach the kid couldn't have been wearing a watch because he had an even tan.

Hey Trike, those are EB stories I don't remember - back to the library I go to see if they have any in the series I missed (I did just read a passel of them a few years ago). And that short story sounds terrific; be grand if someone knows it!

It is really hard to place my finger on the exact moment I became hooked on fantasy. I've always been a fan of stories with a bit of the fantastical, from my earliest reading days. Some of my childhood favorites were The Velveteen Rabbit and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, along with your typical renditions of classic fairy tales. Then I graduated (in about 3rd grade) to The Chronicles of Narnia and the like.

For scifi, I think it was The Stories of Ray Bradbury that I started reading in junior high that got me hooked. And, that was probably around the time that my addiction to Edgar Allan Poe began.

I haven't revisited the children's books in years, but I have my own copy of Bradbury that I still pull of the shelf and peruse from time to time. It has never lost its wonder. Neither has Poe for that matter.


ps - I was also a huge Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective fan!

Valerie wrote: " Some of my childhood favorites were The Velveteen Rabbit and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books, along with your typical renditions of classic fairy tales."

I forgot about "The Velveteen Rabbit"! I still love that one. I still have my old bunny too!!

I see a lot of books that I like, too, and a lot that I have not read. (Yet?) The book that got me hooked was Dune.

...I'm genuinely amazed so many people can actually remember which book started them off. I certainly can't. I know I first read the full Chronicles of Narnia series when I was maybe twelve, but I know I read a number of Star Wars novels around the same time...and I'd read a number of children's fantasy series before then.

i started in the 1950's I had to go to the library and my mum had to argue that the adult books were still alright for me to read.