The Fantasy Book that started it all

[Zelly]

Do you remember your first fantasy novel? The one where you knew it was something special.  Starting it idly, not realizing you were plunging into not only into a book, but a genre (dare I say lifestyle) that would make a nice little nest in your heart?

I have an unusually clear memory of mine.

I was in 6th grade.  I loved reading and was a fast reader, but didn't know much about fantasy (had an older brother deep into D&D and MtG, which had my parents mildly nervous).  We were suppose to be reading My Friend Flicka. I'd finished it and was dangerously bored.  My teacher let me go to his "free reading" shelf.  

There was a BIG book there.  Like 500 pages.  I was curious.  Cover looks seriously intriguing (especially if you've been reading My Friend Flicka).

 

(Good 'ol Shannara covers, So dated, so nostalgic)

I kinda ignored the "Book Four" label.  And despite having no idea what was happening in the story, I was HOOKED.  ELVES??? DRUIDS? MAGIC SWORDS?? I didn't know this was a THING.

Never looked back.  From there it was Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist, L.E. Modesitt, Robert Jordan and anything else I could get my hands on at the public library. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Zellyia

[Aon Ati]

The Chronicles of Narnia. My mom read it aloud to my siblings and I, and in the following years I read Redwall, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and a lot more. After a long dry spell, Sanderson rebirthed my love of fantasy and I have not stopped since.

[Devout Pathian]

Like @Aon Ati I also had parents read me.  I don’t remember them all, but Narina and Harry Potter were part of it.  My dad also read the Dragonlance Chronicles.  Once I started reading I started with Inkheart.  I have always been into fantasy and have kept reading it.  Inkheart isn’t my favorite book anymore, but it’s what got me started so it will always have a place in my heart.  I remember that for years people told me to read Sanderson and I finally did over this last summer.  He was just as good as everyone said he was.

[Awesomness]

Everything started with Harry Potter 

[Ink]

Hmm, I’ve read so many books, its hard to remember. I think it was Percy Jackson that got me into fiction around third grade. Now very few books in the children’s/young adults section of the library are unread by me.

[Scyora]

My first fantasy read was The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (in German, as I'm from Germany )

It has a very special place in my heart. I had seen the movie and liked it. Nothing special, until quite a while later. (I'm not sure how many months/heart or how long it's been since then...)
My cousin was to stay the night and had a book with her: The Neverending Story. An old edition with the two-coloured print and the beautiful illustration at the beginning of every chapter. I borrowed it from her, read it, loved it. And wanted a copy of my own. But it was impossible to get the same edition as it was out of print. And all the other editions didn't have the illustrations or two-colour-print.
Fast-forward a few years, I stood in the bookstore and was on my way out, not having found anything - until there it was. The Neverending Story. Just a paperback edition, but with the same cover as the old hardcover my cousin had. I picked it up, looked, and there it was: two-colour-print, illustrations, everything I wanted. So I bought it. And all since then it's a treasure to me. Not only being the first Fantasy novel I read, but finally getting it after a kind of nevernending story of it's own

[Iarwainiel I]

GREAT topic @Zellyia!!

From childhood I remember getting these at the library & enjoying them:

• The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
• Beneath the Hill by Jean Louise Curry
• Shadow Castle by Marian Cockrell
• The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
• The White Stag by Kate Seredy

... just now noticing that almost all these are by women - wow! Ahead of their time!

But it wasn't till after college that I returned to the genre and read, for the first time, TLoTR - - changed my life forever.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Lump-wing
addition

[SilverTiger]

I have been reading for so long, and so many books, that it's kinda hard to remember...

But I remember reading The Magic Treehouse series when I was really little; and then Chronicles of Narnia, then the Hobbit and Anne McCaffrey's books. I especially remember Narnia, because my mom has this really old boxed set of the books back from when she was little. The pages are all yellowy now, but I still have them on my bookshelf. I ventured through the wardrobe with Lucy and Peter and Edward and Susan, met Aslan, and have loved the series since.

[Andy92]

The Chronicles of Narnia (my mom read them to me when I was little). My first personal reading experience in the genre was LOTR. 

[Draginon]

I don't remember any specific Fantasy book that started it for me unless one wants to count fairy tales. If not then the earliest ones I can recall is the Harry Potter books. I'm sure I read other Fantasy stories before that but I don't quite remember what books I read as a kid before that.

[Eluvianii]

I guess the first fantasy book I read was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I love HP practically since I was born so it kinda was its own thing to me. It wasn't until I was 12 I think that I stumbled into a copy of The Neverending Story in my school's library. It changed everything. Granted, it took me still several years to fully get into fantasy but it all started there, it's a book that every time I read it, I like it a bit more and it even seems to me that it gets deeper in meaning, I don't know how to explain it but it might be my favorite book to date.

A fun thing is that I still have my school's copy of the book. It was in pretty bad shape when I borrowed it and when I tried to return it they wanted me to repair it. I didn't have any idea how to do that and they didn't ask me for it a second time, sooooo that was it.

[Briar King]

My 1st was either LOTR after the 1st movie came out and before the 2nd did or Dragonlance 1 obviously in the same time period but I can no longer recall. Nothing but Sci Fi or Stephen King before that. The point is it was Fellowship movie that kicked me off on genre.

[Wolven]

All the way back in 5th grade I got a set of books for Christmas.  It was The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I still remember it pretty clearly, because it was after all the other presents had been opened, and I happened to look down while I was checking out my other stuff more closely and I just saw this other package down there in the midst of that sea of shredded wrapping paper and there it was.  It had my name on it so I happily ripped it open.  I didn't even know at that point in my life that I would come to love reading as much as I do.  So they were not just the books that kicked off my love of fantasy, but my love of reading period.

[Quickbronze]

I have no idea. The earliest fantasy books I can remember reading are Eragon, the Hobbit, and a book series about clay dragons. I was already enough of a fantasy fan to look for such books by the time, however, so I have no idea what my first one was.

[Yvainnie]

the Hobbit

[Bort]

I started early - The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton, starting with The Enchanted Wood.

Then, as I grew up, the Chronicles of Narnia, and Fighting Fantasy.

I didn't really consider myself as a fan of the fantasy genre though, until I read Sorceress of Darshiva by David Eddings. Although technically book 9 of a ten book series (or book 4 of a second 5 book series), it was the first novel I read that made me go out and seek the other books in the series.

[marles]

When I was younger I read and followed Harry Potter as it released but never read much other fantasy. I got pulled back into fantasy hard ~2009 when somebody introduced me to Game of Thrones. I read through A Song of Ice and Fire 1-4 two or three times back to back and couldn't wait for the next. Since then I haven't been able to get enough of these massive and complex fantasy stories. One of my friends recommended Wheel of Time a couple years ago and that led me to the Cosmere, which I again cannot wait for more.

[Ammanas]

Probably the Feist Riftwar books starting with Magician:Aprentance and Magician: Master. Even though as I get older I can see some of the flaws in them I still love them and reread them occasionally.

[Unhinged]

I honestly can't remember what Fantasy book I read first I think it might have been harry potter but it also might be Redwall my introduction to fantasy was actually from the Hobbit which my father had as a book on tape (actual cassette tapes) and he convinced me to listen to them since I was like three and hadn't learned to read yet.

[Bort]

7 hours ago, Ammanas said:

Probably the Feist Riftwar books starting with Magician:Aprentance and Magician: Master. Even though as I get older I can see some of the flaws in them I still love them and reread them occasionally.

Feist was one of the first fantasy authors I got into of my own accord - Magician was brilliant. I'm even currently reading the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts. I got sorely disappointed by Feist though. It seemed he got to the point where he was just writing because he was expected to, and Midkemia just got more and more horribly complicated for no good reason.

The last straw, which stopped me buying his books, was a comment from him, answering a question  about one of the Great Houses in the Empire trilogy. Namely, why is it in his later books when the House was utterly destroyed in the Empire trilogy? His answer was simple: I write a lot, and can't be expected to remember every minor detail. While yes, I can understand that logic, the House in question was a major antagonist for two books, and their defeat a major, major plot point that literally ended with the obliteration of the name and everyone associated with it. Not only was it pretty easy to remember, it was easily avoided sloppy writing, Isn't this why long standing authors hire lorekeepers, or whatever Peter's job title is?

[Ammanas]

4 hours ago, Bort said:

It seemed he got to the point where he was just writing because he was expected to, and Midkemia just got more and more horribly complicated for no good reason.

Hah yeah I get that, but I guess I have a bit of a blind spot concerning him. I guess part of the reason is that reading Feist brings up a lot of memories of growing up in Texas.

[ScarletSabre]

I think for myself it was Harry Potter, though another notable one that I remember was from a book day at my school, where we could buy a book, and there was book Two of Darren Shan's Demonata series. (I forget the name, it's been a while since I've read them... And I maaaay have picked it simply because the covers were a deep green (my favourite colour) with a cool picture of a demon snarling open mouthed at the reader). From there there were a few books here and there, nothing I particularly got into or remember aside from The Black Tattoo, which was really damnation good... Until Brandon reignited my love of the fantastical Thanks to him I've finally read (and LOVED) Terry Pratchett's Discworld and quite a few of his other books, GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire, and have now been trying plenty of other authors, ranging from a fantasy world where people can create things of hardened, coloured light, to a post-apocalypse where cities are on gigantic tank treads roaming the barren world devouring one another for resources. So thank you Brandon! ^__^

[Mulk]

The Hobbit.  I read it at...six or seven I think.  Tried Fellowship at that point, wasn't quite ready for it, came back at 11 and it was all over at that point.

There's so much I read on the way that helped cement it.  C.S. Lewis, Raymond Feist, Stephen Donaldson, Hickman & Weis (Dragonlance) and a whole host of others along the way.  But the Hobbit was the first.  That story and that map have captivated me for most of my life.

[Just a Lifetime]

As I was growing up, an aunt carried out a many-year project to encourage my reading habits.  With each birthday or Christmas she'd try to introduce me to a new fantasy author, evolving from the likes of John Bellairs, Brian Jacques, Susan Cooper & David Eddings, through Raymond Feist & Robert Jordan, eventually reaching Stephen Donaldson & George R. R. Martin.  Even a few years into that process I was successfully indoctrinated and exploring on my own, both raiding my mother's bookshelves (Lord of the Rings, Prydain, Pern, Shannara) and browsing at a few local libraries.

Anyway, out of that list, two early ones that I would highlight are Eddings's Belgariad and Cooper's The Grey King.  The Belgariad didn't hold up so well as I grew up, but it successfully introduced me to second-world 'fat fantasy with maps'.  I honestly don't remember many details of The Grey King (and much of it probably went well over my head at age... 7, I think), but what I do recall quite distinctly is the sense of wonder I got from that book's mythology and (Welsh) setting.  (It is probably coincidence that I am again trying to get a job in Wales---I've gone 0/5 in Welsh job applications since 2013, but perhaps persistence will pay off.)

Anyway, I thought this story might be interesting for those of you who are (or may become) aunts or uncles...

[Xtafa]

I don't remember the name of the first one, I've been trying to find it since I was a kid. 

It involved two armies, one leader had a blue sword, the other had a gold sword. I remember LOVING IT and looked for similar books as a kid.

 

The Amulet of Samarkand was an earlier pick up that I remember, gave me a sense of wonder.

The RIFTWAR saga was one of the first 'Heavier' books I got into, It made me crave larger worlds.

 

I have a horrible memory for names though and tend to forget the titles of books I love.