Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

My first fantasy book was "Sword of Shanara." by Terry Brooks. Read this back in my teens and it lead me into the wonderful world of fantasy/sci fi novels. Found such fabulous books to read after that.

What about you?

For me it was The Chronicles of Narnia as far as fantasy and that was when I was seven. Then my first science fiction would have probably been something like The White Mountains or one of Jules Vernes books. I tended to read fantasy first and watch science fiction films and shows first.

The first SF/Fantasy book I can remember reading was A Wrinkle in Time. I was probably seven or so.

The first sf/f books I read was a collection of translated sf novels and short stories I read while I was in 6th grade. There are 50 volumes of them. I can't remember the title of the first story I read but some of the ones I still remember are "Frost and Fire" by Ray Bradbury, several ones in I, Robot, Rendezvous with Rama, The Time Machine, and "We Who Stole the Dream" by James Tiptree, Jr.. Roughly at the same time I also read a bunch of Chinese fantasies, but I doubt if anyone else in this group have ever heard of them.:) The first sf/f book I read in English is the Harry Potter series.

The Land Behind The World and A Wrinkle In Time were probable the first although I didn't know they were fantasy. Then in my teens the Pern books and all the John Wyndham books (Day of the Triffords, Chocky, The Chrysalids).

Jaq wrote: "...I'm tempted to say The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
"

If we're counting Beatrix Potter, then I started even earlier.

        My first sf/fantasy may have been Time for the Stars by Heinlein.  It was the first book I remember reading that I definitely thought of as sf.  I may have read Burroughs's Martian series before that, and I know I read Tarzan of the Apes before A Princess of Mars, so its possible one of them was my first, depending on how you define sf. But Time for the Stars was what led me to the genre.

        Well, that and The Rolling Stones. I discovered Time for the Stars in a box in my fifth grade classroom's coatroom.  Shortly afterwards, they took us to the school library.  For me, it was already like taking an alky to a bar, but someone saw and laughed at The Rolling Stones (it was 1964, and the British Invasion had just begun.)  I checked it out and read it, and with the two very good novels by the same author, I went looking for more by him.  And the Heinlein books were in this section with other books, and they all had this funny yellow and red stickers with an atom symbol and a rocketship, and that did it.

I remember that sticker on library books!

THE FORGOTTEN DOOR, by Alexander Key. A YA which was a Scholastic Book publication. I got it out of the school library. From there it was on to A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle.

WOW!
I dont even know if I remember the very first sf/fantasy book I read.

I remember reading "The Hobbit" at a young age, but I also read "Elric of Melnibone", right at around the same time.

Rendezvous With Rama was my first sci-fi book and what got me hooked.

The Lord of the Rings was my first fantasy.

Misery was my first horror.

I too don't remeber what are my firsts... old age and all that... :D
I think one of the first SF was The day of the triffids by John Wyndham... or maybe it was I am legend by Richard Matheson. Well maybe it was The Time Machine by Wells... I really don't remeber!

The same for Fantasy... One of the first (maybe) was Mary Steward Merlin series...

Anyhow, I, as many of you, have started first with SF and then migrated to Fantasy. I'll always remeber my mother's astonishment when she find out that O was reading SF! She's been reading very "serious" staff (Tolstoy, Dostojevski...) and she couldn't understand why I found fascinating those "strage books about little green men" (as she called SF). :D
Things got worse when I migrated to Fantasy: "OMG, dear, those are fairy tales! You're grown up now, you should read something serious!" Sounds familiar to you? *wink*

I can't remember the exact first ones I read, but I know that they included Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" series, a bit of Pern, and definitely The Hobbit. I raced through the kids' section at the library and my parents had to ask for me to be allowed to borrow from the YA/adult section by the time I was four. There were also quite a few Westerns in my reading pile - no wonder I'm drawn to space westerns!

My first was "Pebble in the Sky" by Isaac Asimov, about 1967. I have always bought my books (paperback) and love to re-read! Have hundreds of scifi from lots of the old writers.

If Beatrix Potter tales count, Mom read them to me as early as I can remember & I used to love to look through the wonderful pictures in the book. I remember reading several others mentioned here early on; The Forgotten Door, A Wrinkle in Time, & The Hobbit, but couldn't say exactly when. Conan, Tarzan, & the Barsoom series were others I read early.

I recall being fascinated by my father's copies of Amazing & other pulp magazines. One in particular was Mrs. Myob - a nosy neighbor finds a girl chained up like a dog in the neighbors back yard, but she turns out to be an alien who eats her. Myob standing for Mind Your Own Business, which I didn't get until the end, I think. I remember it making an impression because it was so cool to see a word/name made that way. We do it all the time now, but it was new to me in the 60's.

My first Fantasy was probably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was about 7. I then devoured anything and everything so I don't actually remember my first sci-fi but I read so much as a child my high school librarian even signed my shirt when I left, by that time I think I had read everything in the school library starting with any available fantasy and sci-fi.

Wow! It's hard to remember the firsts. For fantasy it would probably be The wizard of Oz series because I can remember my mother taking me to the library and checking them out. SF I think it was The Foundation trilogy by Asimov and that's what got me hooked on SF.

Wow, it's hard for me to remember too!

I think it was when I was 7....ish and sick at home. My father read The Hobbit to me (cause I wanted to hear what he was reading) The Spiders in the Mirkwood Forest gave me nightmares!

The first I read on my own... Mouse and the Motorcycle? ... or maybe John Carter of Mars (Barsoom #1) Once I started on my own I read a lot in a few years... it's hard to tell the first one.

Stephen wrote: "        My first sf/fantasy may have been Time for the Stars by Heinlein.  It was the first book I remember reading that I definitely thought of as sf.  I may have read Burroughs's Martian series b..."

My first book was also by Robert Heinlein...in sixth grade. It was "Red Planet." I've been hooked ever since.

Probably Mio, My Son, by Astrid Lindgren, first published in 1953, or so. I read it as a kid (and I won't say when that was!). As an adult, the first sci-fi I read was Heinlien. I don't remember which one was first, but I think I read most of them back to back. One of the "quotes" I have made use of many, many times over and through the years since then is one I recollect having come from one of those books--though I couldn't say that for sure and even if it was from him, I couldn't say from which book. The quote--at least as I remember it--was essentially this: "Man is not a rational, rather, a rationalizing being." if anyone knows, let me know. If it is not his, maybe I should claim it for my own...?

LTW&W and Pern series. And Earthsea. Ah, good times.

Tough, tough, tough question to answer because I started with comic books. And comic books invariably led me to my science fiction/fantasy books, one way or the other. I can't nail down the first one. But the first one that comes to mind, the one that left the greatest and most profound impression, was The Martian Chronicles. I still find that book to be stunning.

I, Curmudgeon wrote: "Wow, it's hard for me to remember too!

I think it was when I was 7....ish and sick at home. My father read The Hobbit to me (cause I wanted to hear what he was reading) The Spiders in the Mirk..."

I thought about books like The Mouse and the Motorcycle. Do they count? It seems like there's a demarcation line that separates sci-fi/fantasy from children's lit. So like, do Winnie the Pooh or Alice in Wonderland count? In that case, my first would be Stuart Little. I think.

R.L. wrote: "LTW&W and Pern series. And Earthsea. Ah, good times."

Dragonriders of Pern. Good. That was right after I started reading specifically fantasy. It was among my first non-Conan fantasy.

Brenda wrote: "THE FORGOTTEN DOOR, by Alexander Key. A YA which was a Scholastic Book publication. I got it out of the school library. From there it was on to A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle."

THE FORGOTTEN DOOR...was that the one with the boy Jon who could make his feet lighter or something...?

I don't know what my first SF/fantasy book was, but I remember most mentioned here very fondly. I just finished listening to some audio versions (available free as downloads from the library) of Heinlein's juveniles; Farmer in the Sky, Double Star, Starman Jones, & Tunnel in the Sky. It surprised me how well these books have held up & how fond I still am of them. They made me want to learn when I was a kid & introduced me to some awesome subjects.

Trying to figure out how Jupiter's moons would show the way he describes in 'Farmer' was a project I did for fun & got extra credit for, after my teacher got over the shock.
;-)

When I was a kid there weren't a lot of translated Sci-fi/fantasy in Norwegian. I started reading a lot more when my English was good enough to read books. I started reading Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy when I was fourteen years old and followed with Johnny Nmemonic and Jonathan Seagull. A year later I read The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow and Thorne).

The really first books I read (Norwegian translations) was Narnia, The Hobbit and the Earthsea books.

My first was Andromeda Strain by Micheal Crichton. I read in the early 70's when I was still single and had been in my first apartment for only a couple of weeks. Scared the daylights out of me. Could not put it down, never left the cough for most of a weekend. Have read everything he wrote since. Some of the later ones mostly out of loyalty.

Diana wrote: "My first was Andromeda Strain by Micheal Crichton. I read in the early 70's when I was still single and had been in my first apartment for only a couple of weeks. Scared the daylights out of me. Co..."

Never left the "cough"? Freudian slip?

Patricia wrote: "Probably Mio, My Son, by Astrid Lindgren, first published in 1953, or so. I read it as a kid (and I won't say when that was!). As an adult, the first sci-fi I read was Heinlien. I don't remember..."

The other one I remember reading over and over again as a kid was Little Witch, by Anna Elizabeth Bennett. I guess I have always been a fan of fantasy....

My first sci-fi was probably John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids. A potentially gloomy start but I've grown out of doom-glooming and these days I prefer writers with a positive view of the future, such as Poul Anderson.

My first sci-fi read was Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Our fifth grade teacher read it out loud to us. I didn't really understand all of it then, but I understood enough to know that I loved it. I read it again in 10th grade along with the next two sequels. Definitely a favorite series!

I think my 1st SF book came first. I would have been inthe 3rd or 4th grade, in the mid-70's. I only recall the book cover having an astronaut in space, tethered to a spaceship.

I believe The Hobbit was my gateway drug, though. The Hobbit inspired me to discover Pern, Thomas Covenant, Xanth and Shannara in my early days. I walked 2 miles to buy a smoke damaged copy of "The Elfstones of Shannara" when my parents wouldn't drive me. The book was on sale due to smoke damage in the store.

the lion, the witch and the wardrobe when I was 7 which led me to Tolkiens Hobbit about a year later (took a while to get through the Chronicles of Narnia)

Eyjólfur Örn wrote: "the lion, the witch and the wardrobe when I was 7 which led me to Tolkiens Hobbit about a year later (took a while to get through the Chronicles of Narnia)"

Did you ever make it around to Lloyd Alexander's The High King or the rest of the Chronicles of Prydain?

I believe that foundation was the first sci fi book i ever read though I cant be sure. it could have been caves of steel but whichever it was it turned me into a fan of the genre for life.

I can remember my mother reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my brother and I when we were in elementary school. She went on to read all the rest of the Narnia books plus The Hobbit and A Wrinkle in Time, all before I was in 7th grade.

the first scifi novel I read was '2001' by Arthur C Clarke, the first fantasy novel would be 'Lord of the Rings'.

Again with Narnia and the Hobbit read by my mother. The first sci-fi I remember was the tripods, and several dozen doctor who novelizations.

Jurassic Park. It was a month before the movie came out and I heard nothing but rave reviews for the book. I raced through it and found it amazing. I went on a huge Michael Crichton tear after that and have since been hooked on the genre.

Probably my true first was John, Carter Warlord Of Mars or one of James Blish's Star Trek Collections, but the first I read with the idea I was specifically reading Science Fiction was The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame. It shaped my reading for the next couple of decades, as I read novels by the authors I liked in it. I also read War of The Worlds and Journey to the Center of the Earth, possibly before any of them. But SFHF I would consider my gateway drug.

I think my first was probably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but the ones that stick with me from the early days are The War of the Worlds and The Dragonbone Chair (one of these days I'll finish that series, but I just can't bring myself to, I've put it off for at least 1- years so far).

I think mine was the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. The reason being that this was the only book in the house, my parent's weren't big readers at all but they had this book for some reason. And thou they encouraged my reading it was all Enid Blyton!!!

I think my first one was some dungeons and dragons book, where you made decisions to continue with the story.

Earliest SF book I read was the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. The year was 1982 and I was in elementary school. I was so impressed with the book, that I wrote and mailed a letter to the author c/o his publishing house. I was saddened when the publishing house wrote me back to tell me he had passed away. However, they kindly gave me a package that included his biography as well as some stickers. I've been a SF fan ever since.

Fantasy The Hobbit I did not know at that time about "Fantasy" books.

Sci-fiThe Voyage of the Space Beagle I always enjoyed "travel" books, space travel of course.

Stef wrote: "Fantasy The Hobbit I did not know at that time about "Fantasy" books.

Sci-fiThe Voyage of the Space Beagle I always enjoyed "travel" books, space travel of course."

Both were early books that I read, too. Van Vogt was a good writer. I really liked "The Selkie" by him, too.

easy one... The Story of Doctor Dolittle...i was a little kid and it hooked me for life

The Hobbit when I was 7 or 8 years old, I think. But Dragon Riders of Pern really got me into the Fantasy genre at age 15. Starship Troopers was my first Sci-Fi around the same time. Absolutely love it to this day. I read it again and again.

The first I read for myself was The Hobbit, when I was in grade two. As I remember, it was the first book I read for myself that wasn't a school reader; my parents always read to us a lot, but with The Hobbit I got fed up with the chapter-at-bedtime approach around "Roast Mutton" and devoured the rest of the book myself.