First Fantasy book you ever read/Introduction to Fantasy

Thinking about this topic and I can't remember alot of the book names I read when I was younger. Sooo, I was wondering if anyone can recall the name of this series:

The story goes something like this:

The world is split into powers of good and bad (heh what's new) and there isn't really that many good guys around anymore. The characters have inherrent special magical powers that are genetic (they come to discover them as they grow older) Such as firebrand, and physic abilities etc. Anyways, the only other thing I can remember about this book is the climax where they all fight in a temple agaisnt some demon made of crystal or something and they summon an ancient god made of gold to defeat him.

Sound familar?
 
The first fantasy book I read was "Pawn of Prophecy" by David Eddings. Soon followed the rest of The Belgariad and The Malloreon. After that it was Dragonlance and from there to Robin Hobb and on and on... Now I'm actually trying to write some fantasy of my own and maybe some scifi too.
 
I read a book once, cannot for the life of me remember the title, from the Hildebrandt brothers. The pictures within were very nice and I realised only later that the brothers were mostly artists, not writers. Can't recall what the story was about, so that makes sense.
From then on I got lost in the worlds of Jack Vance, specifically Tschai, the Demonprinces series and Lyonesse, and soon after came Roger Zelazny's Amber chronicles.
Then it was Donaldson's Covenant saga and from here it is mostly a blur and the road goes ever on and on.
I had a lot of time to read these days and there are few older writers that I haven't read. Some I stayed with (Vance, Donaldson, Zelazny,Card, Williams), others I lost interest in fairly quick (Eddings, Brooks, Feist). Just a matter of taste of course..
With my busy schedule nowadays I unfortunately have less time to read, so most of the new arrivals are still on the to read mountain (Stover, Hunter, Elliot, Farland, etc.) I try to keep up, but get more and more hopelessly lost in all the newer stuff...
 
Wizards First Rule was the fantasy novel to get me hooked at the ripe age of 22. Now that I am 27 may other books have kept that interest alive and growing.
 
The first fantastical (not fantasy) book I ever read was also the first book I had read that did not feature Clifford the Big Red Dog on it. I was four and a half, and it was called Bionic Commando. It was from the "Nintendo Worlds of Power" series and written by a man called F.X. Nine. I vaguely remember that the hero had lost his arm in a tragic fall from a hotel, and that he, and his partner, "super Joe" had to fight against some kind of ultimate weapon. Possibly called "Gorgonzola", although I think that was just a youthful misconception of mine.
The first fantasy series I ever read was the Chronicles of Narnia, which really struck a chord with me, because they were some beautifully written and imaginitive works.
 
My mum was my teacher for the last 3 years of primary school (age 9-11) and yes it was as awful as you can imagine! ;(
The one good thing was that she read us a few chapters of The Hobbit every day for the last 1/2 hour of class. That was my introduction, and I read the Hobbit myself in the holidays and then moved on to LOTR. And the rest is history. >twitches< and many hours of counselling.
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The first fantasy book I read was probably one of the Narnia books, I think it was Prince Caspian but I can't really remember.

The first fantas book I fully remember reading was the Hobbit even though I was hardly able to read it because I was only in year 2, I re-read it about half a year ago.

After my first reading of the Hobbit I sucked a few more Narnia books and then a load of Redwall books. After that I moved onto Robert JOrdan's Conan Chronichls in Year 5 and then Kate Elliot.
 
Pathir,

I believe the book you are refering to was entitled 'Ushurak'. Basically the Hildebrandt brothers trying to take advantage of a perceived built in fan base from the Shannara series. I was rather bizarre in some ways but certainly was not much worse than most of the books they were doing the illustrations for at the time. It really is a wonder that any of us who count those years as formative still read fantasy.
 
I have no clue. Since you said "introduction", I remember I saw Conan when I was young. Other than that, I've no clue as to what was my first fantasy book. I read quite a few books from a german fantasy author when I was younger, his name is Wolfgang Hohlbein. The book was "Das Druidentor", and it wasn't all that bad, even though I liked "Der Greif" much better. I have read a lot of other stuff of him by now and must say that neither are special, although fun and easy to read through.


-- Elessar


[This message has been edited by Elessar (edited January 05, 2002).]
 
The first stuff I read (other than classical mythology)that was official fantasy was The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I think I was in 4th grade. I scoured the library bookshelves for anything "with magic and stuff". My librarian sent me home with Le Morte De Arthur and CS Lewis. Then in my teenage years I forgot I love to read. I rediscovered reading again when I was 21. My mother went to a bookstore and asked for recommendations for her daughter, Bless my mom. She remembered. She came home with Mercedes Lackey, Jennifer Roberson, Mickey Zucker Reichert, and Robert Jordan. I didnt even know books like these existed!!! Quite a wonderful event in my life!
 
Well, a long time ago, there was a little girl and the movie 'Willow' . . .
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Years passed, then she read 'Pet Sematary' by King - and even though this is not a fantasy novel, it was my first book in a long row to follow, most of them fantasy.
Actually, after a long absence from reading, I started with King and then turned to Star Trek. Wellwell, I used to be a big fan of TNG.
Logically those novels stood near the fantasy books in my bookshop, and those covers caught my eye.
I then started with Hohlbein (German, as some of you might know. Giving a hint about my nationality.), Eddings and DragonLance.
 
Ushurak, that's right. Thanks JohnH . Strange book indeed. Nicely done artwork, though. But obviously the Hildebrandt-boys should stick to painting, not writing...
 
My first fantasy book was called "Redwall" by the underrated Brian Jacques. That was 16 years ago and I can still remember all the characters and their names (eg Tobias and Fangburn).

That just shows how underrated Brian Jacques is.

And for Qin,.....it's the year 2002 and I have made a new year resolution about not wasting any energy on anti-eddings quotes. As Orson Welles once said..."A man who is greatly critised is a man who is so great and successful" So thanks, Qin ;-)
 
I rate 'Redwall' Belgarion! And Mattimeo and Mossflower and Mariel of Redwall and Martin the Warrior. I'm reading Redwall to my seven yr old brother at the moment in fact! And not only does he 'rate' it, but my 13 yr old brother and 16 yr old sister (who read them herself years ago) keep coming and sitting on the end of the bed. So, I and all my siblings 'rate' Redwall.

Does that help?
 
I don't read fantasy exclusivley.

But here's some of what introduced me to the genre:

Figting Fantasy books
D&D (the cartoon)
Masters of the Universe (cartoon)
Chronicles of Narnia
lots of fairy tales
 
Redwall was OK - read it about 5 years ago.

Mastes of the Universe I had forgotten about now. It all makes sense as to why I like fantasy - I absorbed countless hours of MotU as a child.

I may start signing all my posts with:

BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!
 
I started as a big Fighting Fantasy fan too - I've still got a whole stack of them from Warlock of Firetop Mountain through to about no. 20, complete with crappy hand-drawn maps.
 
I think that I was born a fantasy fan, but never read a lick of fantasy until I was 16. Though, as a kid I watched movies like Willow and The Neverending Story over and over, I loved to make up stories about imaginary places, and thought there was magic in everything.

A friend in high school introduced me to the Dragonlance books, and I've been devouring fantasy ever since. And, I ended up marrying that friend 8 years later.. talk about appreciation!
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I can't remember my introduction, though I remember being kicked out of grade 4 quiet reading because the teacher thought I was mocking her by bringing in The Deed of Paksenarrion. My dad collects first edition hardcovers, mostly fantasy and science fiction. For as long as I can remember I've been surrounded by the books, and completely enamoured of them. The Mists of Avalon was by far the most formative of my youthful forays into worlds fantastic, but I doubt it was the first.
I sort of leapt from Doctor Seuss (read to me backwards by my dad) into fantasy. And I never leapt back.
 
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