First Fantasy book you ever read/Introduction to Fantasy

Earliest I can remeber was second year of junior school when the teacher read us the Hobbit and then LoTR. I went out and bought the books but I think the earliest fantasy authors I can remember reading were people like Weis and Hickman - Death Gate Cycle, Piers Anthony - Incarnations of Immortality, Donaldson - Covenant and Mirror Duology, Katherine Kerr's Deverry. I basically devoured the fantasy section of the local library

Magician was the book that got me hooked on fantasy (well that and LoTR, but didn't enjoy reading LotR as much it felt hard work at that age). Think I was about 12 when I read it. I'd read Faerie Tale first then moved on to Magician and then the whole of the series. I still love it now.

I guess back even further would be things like The Faraway Tree, Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, The Lion, The Withch and the Wardrobe
 
Last edited:
I'm not entirely sure anymore which was the first fantasy book I read. I suspect it was H. P. Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath because a Lovecraft binge was pretty much the start of my s.f./fantasy reading.

What I can't recall is if I set HPL aside awhile and didn't get to TD-QoUK until after I read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Randy M.
 
I remember reading (along with the teacher) The Hobbit in grade 5 or 6, but I recall reading The Chronicles of Narnia and the Chronicles of Prydain before that - I think it was the Narnia books that came first, though. (It was so long ago).
 
I graduated from Goosebumps (which isn't fantasy) to Harry Potter after I saw the film in 2001 (I was 6 or 7) and then my love of fantasy books began.

I started out with trashy stuff like Eragon but managed to find a few gems like Philip Reeve's books, Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy and His Dark Materials. Then I found this place one day when I was trying to decide whether or not to buy a book and I've been able to get brilliant recommendations for what's hot and what's not ever since ;D

So thanks for all the tips guys. This is a great community, even if I do tend to lurk more than I post.
 
I've seen this thread in a few forms and when I really think about it my first fantasy was probably one of Enid Blyton's books. I preferred the Faraway Tree books, but I think I read The Wishing Chair before them. From there I graduated onto the Moomin books and the Narnia ones. I was 10 when I read The Hobbit, but I was a confirmed fantophile by then.
 
I stumbled across Face in the Abyss and The Moon Pool by A. Merrit when I was a teen and I have been hooked on fantasy ever since.
 
I think it was The Golden Compass. I wasn't much of a reader before I read it, but after that I started to slowly get more and more into fantasy. I used to despise having to do the required reading books for school, and never thought there would be books I actually liked. Once I found His Dark Materials, however, I realized there was stuff out there that was interesting and worth reading.
 
I started with a Song for Arbonne. Amazing writer, Kay is. Really surprised I didn't start while playing d&d growing up...:rolleyes:
 
Read The Hobbit when I was about 10 and didn't read anything other than Tolkein for the few years.
 
Kaz the Minotaur. I don't remember much about it but I remember the whole series was awesome.
 
My first was the Dark Elf Trilogy by Salvatore followed by the Chronicles by Weis and Hickman in early highschool. Took a break until I read Harry Potter series and Wheel of Time in college.
 
I started out with Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard.
 
Hi all, new to the forum, just putting in my two penneth!!

I think my first exposure to fantasy was being given my mothers Enid Blyton Faraway Tree and Wishingchair books one rainy afternoon to keep myself occupied....that was followed swiftly by a beaten up copy of The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe when i was 7. Something in that book fired my imagination and stirred a thirst for myth, legend and fantasy that to this day, some 27 years later remains unquenchable!!!

After that it was The Hobbit and other works of C.S Lewis. Around the same time the penguin book club at our school started offering Fighting Fantasy game books by Jackson and lewis. How could a wide eyed eight year old say no to books with titles like The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain or Citadel Of Chaos?

One poster earlier on mentioned The Lone Wolf series, i remember those too!! Written by a guy called Joe dever as i recall!
 
Wowsers, this thread is almost 10 years old....

At a young age I was immersed into the Iliad and Odyssey, which was sort of a start for me, although there was a large gap of my life where nothing was consumed.

Then, years later I read Memory Sorrow and Thorn, of which unfortunately turned me off (which is sad, because I like Tad Williams).

Then I picked up the Hobbit, a novel that was read to me as a child, and I read it and it re-kindled my obsession for fantasy..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsors


We try to keep the forum as free of ads as possible, please consider supporting SFFWorld on Patreon


Your ad here.
Back
Top