Beyond Reality discussion

Do you remember what book first hooked you on SF/fantasy?

*Umm* No. Wow. I really don't. I want to say The Hobbit, but I feel like I came to that late (for a fantasy fan). I'm going to guess it was childhood shows & movies before books that hooked me on the genre:

The Never Ending Story,
The Dark Crystal (which counted as horror for me at the time),
The Princess Bride,
Clash of the Titans,
Willow,
Dr. Who (Tom Baker),
E.T.,
and Firestarter (movie w/ Drew Barrymore - I have not read the book), to name a few.

Oh, I need to add Roger Rabbit and the Highlander series.

I read and loved a lot of the classics as a little kid - A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia - but I distinctly remember being a little older, getting my hands on Alanna: The First Adventure, and immediately thinking I want more like THIS! So I always consider that one my "gateway".

I always consider Star Trek my gateway into SF. My Dad loved the show but we didn't have a TV when I was a kid so I got whatever books I could from the library.

I didn't branch out into fantasy until a little later and I think of The Wheel of Time series as my gateway, got into it based on a co-workers suggestion at my first real job as a teenager.

How in the world did I forget Star Trek!?! I also watched it with my dad and continued watching as an adult through Enterprise, but I have not seen any of the newer shows.

Nyssa wrote: "How in the world did I forget Star Trek!?! I also watched it with my dad and continued watching as an adult through Enterprise, but I have not seen any of the newer shows."

For what it's worth. I thought Enterprise was a low point in some ways. The current crop of shows is more fun!

My gateway SF book was A Wrinkle in Time, at least that's the first I remember choosing for myself and loving. But before that came watching NASA and dreaming dreams of going those places myself. I can remember being fascinated by that at age 5.

Gateway into fantasy is harder, since that goes back to fairy tales (Perrault's Fairy Tales!). I might go back even further and point at cartoons. I think the Bugs Bunny cartoons are trickster tales, and there were some other wildly fantastic cartoons that watched when I had the chance.

Fantasy, well, fairy tales, and The Princess and the Goblin.

SF, Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, I was a young teen and it was displayed at my grandma's library when I was staying with her for a couple of weeks.

I read more SF when I was young, and I think I started with some Andre Norton books. I don’t recall a specific title but I read everything by her that our library had. And I thought the author was male because at that time,I didn’t think women write “science-y” stories.

Narnia might have been my earliest fantasy after the basic fairy tales.

oh wow, its been so long I can't really remember much.

Start Trek was likely my first introduction to SF. I had a crush on Captain Kirk at the age of 3. :)

Fantasy is harder to say. Where do fairy tales end and Fantasy start?

I think the one that made the biggest impression on me was The Hobbit. When I was little, my parents bought me a portable record player and a few of those Read Along books. It was like audiobook crack for young children. One of them was The Hobbit and I remember listening to it a lot while looking at the pictures.

I wanted to be Bard because he killed the dragon with his bow and that was just SO cool. :)