Which book got you started on science fiction/fantasy?

[Talysia]

So which book started you off as a reader of SFF?
It seems like I've been reading SFF for a long time now, but I can still remember the first book I read that started me off as a fan of the genres. It was The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey, and I've been hooked on science fiction and fantasy ever since.

[Marky Lazer]

The Lord of the Rings, of course. Is there any other fantasy?

[Paige Turner]

Can't remember the title. A Boy and his Robot kind of story I read when I was nine.

[nixie]

As an adult? Feist's Magician

[chrispenycate]

Earthlight: Arthur C. Clarke. I'd have been about nine, too.

[Perpetual Man]

Hoo boy, good question and a long answer...

When I was very young I was part of a trial where it was thought children would learn faster with a slightly altered version of the language. I believe it was called ITA (or some other set of initials). Basically certain letter combinations that might have been confusing such as 'oo', 'ie', 'ee' etc were replaced with extra letters, meaning something like the alphabet I learned to read with had something like 32 characters not the normal 26. I learned, enjoyed then at the end of a year was told that I was going to have to learn to read all over again and gave up. I fell back from my classmates, being left behind. (They all coped I didn't, must be something in the way I learn)

Then my mum took me to an ex-teacher friend who took me under her wing. She loaned me a series of childrens learning books featuring pirates. Simple stories that were beautifully illustrated with pictures of the pirates, their boats and the wonderful creatures that inhabited their worlds: griffens, dragons and the like.

They just drew the reader in and made you want to read the words to know what was going on in the pictures. It worked, Sparked my imagination and from that moment on I don't think there was much choice I jumped from book to book mostly science fiction of Fantasy.

It never did me any harm - by the time I left Junior school (10 years old) I was a good three years above average as far as reading went!

(The books were the Griffen Pirate stories by Sheila McCullagh, featuring pirates like Benjamin the Blue, Roderick the Red and Gregory the Green - hard to find now and exchange hands for quite a bit of cash on ebay)

[Stenevor]

The Chronicles of Prydain - The Chronicles of Prydain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . I got a box set of all 5 books when I was 11 or 12, still got it somewhere in the loft. According to the wikipedia page they were based on Welsh legends. All the names are familiar but I cant remember any of the stories.

[Somebloke]

I guess it might have been the Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure type books that really cemented things for me. (remember those?) First? Maybe the Chronicles or Narna being read to me when I was little.

[pyan]

Asimov's Mysteries. It must have been about 1969, I'd be 14.

[Leandra]

Originally Posted by Somebloke

I guess it might have been the Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure type books that really cemented things for me. (remember those?) First? Maybe the Chronicles or Narna being read to me when I was little.

'Course I remember those! I always cheated, though.

I got started on I, Robot. We were cleaning out the house we live in now and in one of the rooms I found a box full of Playboys and with I, Robot lying on top

[Somebloke]

Originally Posted by Leandra

'Course I remember those! I always cheated, though.

I got started on I, Robot. We were cleaning out the house we live in now and in one of the rooms I found a box full of Playboys and with I, Robot lying on top

How old were the playboys?

Nothing funnier than old porn mags. The women stay the same but the hairstles and settings get progressively sillier.

Everyone always cheated on those. My sister read one out to me (letting me make the choices) one time; in the end we had to cheat to win (not technically cheating as such...just letting me call my provisions 'salt').

[elvet]

Lord of the Rings was my first foray into fantasy when I was a teenager. I read the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant soon after. Then I took a 25 year hiatus, and picked up LotR again just before the first movie came out. I was well and truly hooked on Tolkien and the next few years I read and reread the Middle-earth stories (the Silmarillion is still my favorite). In 2004, my friend convinced me that there was fantasy beyond Tolkien, and introduced me to Guy Gavriel Kay, Tad Williams, and Jaqueline Carey. That was all I needed to light the flame.

[j. d. worthington]

I was exposed to them first through film before I learned to read, and through fairy tales when read to. Then, at age 6, I came across Asimov's I, Robot (or portions of -- long story but, essentially, I'd shredded my brother's copy when I was a toddler, and somehow the pages survived and I eventually found 'em all and put it back together ... still have that copy today, somewhere) and a collection of stories by Poe. I've been hooked ever since, though I do prefer the older stories and the classics that influenced the older writers, going back to the 18th-century Gothics (the Poe influence, no doubt).

And Marky: Yes. Lots. And many every bit as good, though different.

[Karsa Orlong]

Susan Cooper and Alan Garner and the like were pretty influential on me as a child, but LOTR was probably the real gateway, and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant was the first fantasy I ever fell in love with.

[Triceratops]

That would have to be Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet. Followed by Ice Rigger by Alan Dean Foster.

Tri