What was the first epic fantasy you read?

[Randy M.]

That exact edition. Those old Ballantine covers will always hold a certain mystique for me.

That's it!!!​

Those are the covers I remember, watercolors painted by Tolkein hisownself. There have been some nicely done covers for LOTR over the years, but these, to me, capture the feel of the novels better than any I've seen since.

I, too, started reading epic fantasy with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. My binge didn't last long, but I read Joy Chant's Red Moon, Black Mountain and Donaldson's first Covenant trilogy before moving on to other types of fiction.

Randy M.

 

[Bastard]

If I mention mine, you guys are going to kick my ass so I'll remain silent. But you'll probably guess anyways.

 

[Randy M.]

If I mention mine, you guys are going to kick my ass so I'll remain silent. But you'll probably guess anyways.

WOTever can you mean?


Randy M.
(don't know, of course, but couldn't resist)

 

[Bastard]

WOTever can you mean?


Randy M.
(don't know, of course, but couldn't resist)

LOL, there's no truth in that. Nothing to be ashamed of with WOT, everyone knows it's awesome.

 

[Loerwyn]

LOL, there's no truth in that. Nothing to be ashamed of with WOT, everyone knows it's awesome.

If your first was SoT, then we'd be ashamed

 

[Violent Emesis]

Lord of the Rings at eight years old, then The Chronicles of Narnia at eight years old.... Then Doc Savage, Tarzan, and Conan stole me away!

 

[Tragedy]

Game of Thrones.

 

[DailyAlice]

Narnia, I''m pretty sure, and then the full Tolkien. I don't think I'm much of an epic series fan. My nephew/niece pushed me into GRR Martin, which I love, and I respect to the skies The Blade Itself and its siblings. Good, hard stuff.

Oh, Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is obviously in a category by itself. I call it the numinous category. I can't tell you how often people ask me what

that means. Tough. Look it up.

 

[CodanOfCanada]

If it's considered epic fantasy, my first was The Hobbit when I was in grade 5. After that I'd read a bunch of random R.A. Salvatore then the Lord of the Rings when I was in gade 8 and 9.

 

[henderson]

Demonwars Saga by R.A. Salvatore

 

[hippokrene]

Oh, Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is obviously in a category by itself.

Yes. The science fiction category.

 

[JimmOD]

And On and On

First Tolkien's Hobbit & Lord of the Rings, then Narnia. Then on & on...

Age 12, 1973 or so; visiting my sister in Tucson (New England native).
Had just finished LOTR and she brought me to a bookstore to look for
The Next Thing. Clerk introduced me to Narnia. Seems obvious now.

After that it's a jumble, but I think the next discovery was John Norman's
Gor/Tarl Cabot "Counter-Earth saga. Then I started hunting for all I could
find. Side-trips into straight SF or 'lesser' fantasy aside, I went on a trip
through many of what we now call Tolkien's influences: Gormenghast,
William Morris, Ourboros, Dunsany, all that older or classic stuff. Also
not forgetting Lewis 'other' great work, the Perelandra trilogy...

Then there were 'new' writers (at the time): Piers Anthony's Adebt cycle
and the Xanth series (couldn't possibly stay with that one); McKillip's
Riddlemaster series; and Hoo-Boy if you haven't found Zelazny's Amber,
you MUST! but missed a lot of important ones like Conan or Fafhred.

And then came Donaldson's masterful Thomas Covenant trilogy. And then
another. NOT cheerful stuff, but artistic and substantial. It might sound
extreme, but I surely remember at the time (late 70's - early 80's) that
when Donaldson came along, it was clear that this was The Next Thing.

And pardon the possible blasphemy, but The Wheel of Time just didn't
turn me on. I bought the first, fully intended to give it a go, but just
couldn't. It seemed to me to be directly and exactly derivative. You
know how Hildebrandt art is lovely and charming and well-done but
still kind of soft and cartoony? That's how Shannara seemed to me.

It seems to me that any exploration into fantasy ('High' or otherwise)
will include all manner of forays into other, shall we say, 'dimensions' -
even Asimov's foundation Trilogy (-ies) came into my journey.

Can you imagine if I had put that much time and energy into researching
technology and business? Holy crap, I'd be running the world by now!

 

[msaerfen]

The Belgariad by David Eddings then the Mallorean. Didnt much rate the others after that but they were great!!

 

[DailyAlice]

Yes. The science fiction category.

Nope, don't buy it. There is nothing that smells of science in those books. I guess it's the "science looks like fantasy in the far future" routine.

There used to be a designation known as "science fantasy" that might have covered this. It was thrown out of court?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

The Sword of Shannara trilogy was my first.

...Its probably blasphemy for me to admit this but I enjoyed The Sword of Shannara much more than LOTR.

Don't worry, I'm saying my penance prayers right along with you!

 

[Rexington]

The Shannara series followed by Eddings and Feist

 

[Thirdbase]

The Hobbit, followed by LOTR, followed by too many to remember, but not Narnia.

 

[expatrie]

Does Narnia count?

I read all seven, even though I pretty much didn't like any of them after the first book.

--Brian.

 

[Alucard Hellsin]

R.A. Salvatore's Servant of the shard got me into fantasy i did not know what the hell was goin on (its like book #12 on a series) but after reading that i just had to have more fantasy books and even if the book itself is no Game of thrones or Name of the wind Jarlaxle is still my favorite character of all time

 

[JT Billow]

The Hobbit, with the Lord of the Rings
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn