Our Gateways into Fantasy

[tinkerdan]

I did consider those as both the gateway to science fiction and to Fantasy.

(although I think of them as my gateway to science fiction).

From there I had a book of Marion Zimmer Bradley (Colors of Space) and Pohl Anderson (After Doomsday) And then read everything Vernes; Wells; Dumas. I remember at 14 going to school and during lunch going into the library to read The Count of Monte Cristo--the full translation. It was a massive book and would have been combersome to check out and take home and no one checked it out all the time I was reading it(there were plenty of abridged versions available). It was much later that I found the Hobbit and then the LoTR.

 

[Star-child]

I'm not a strong fantasy reader, and was turned off by the Hobbit at 12. But I had already read all of Narnia at 9 and a memorable SF/fantasy book novella at 7. Also at that age I read the novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Greek mythology and a fair number of Marvel comics. Any one of those could have been an influential starting point - so I think it is odd that question was posed and answered largely about adult reading. Fantasy is almost ubiquitous in children's stories about talking animals and monsters.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Tinkerdan, I read The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged, because that was what we had at home) when I was eleven and recovering from a serious bout of the flu. So weak that I was confined to my bed or the living room couch it was the perfect way to while away the dreary hours—because even abridged it wasn't a short book. Not a fantasy, of course, but I rather think Dantes might have served as inspiration for a lot of later fantasy anti-heroes. I read the unabridged later, and was struck by what a great vampire the Count would make, he is so mysterious and almost omnipotent, and he refuses offers of food (because he won't eat the salt of those he plans to destroy, but we never get to see him eat either.).

 

[tinkerdan]

Quite so...

Not a fantasy, of course, but I rather think Dantes might have served as inspiration for a lot of later fantasy anti-heroes.

...Though, being historical adventure and then adventure seems so easily crossed over into fantasy--at least some fantasy writers seem to end up there.
I always thought of Dantes as a tragic-hero rather than anti-hero.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

.Though, being historical adventure and then adventure seems so easily crossed over into fantasy--at least some fantasy writers seem to end up there.

Being one of those who have done so, on occasion, I concur!

I always thought of Dantes as a tragic-hero rather than anti-hero.

He starts out tragic, yes, but the mental tortures he puts even people he likes through push him over the line into anti, in my opinion. Still a hero, but a decidedly dark one. Perhaps he compensates for his years of powerlessness by compulsively manipulating others.

 

[BAYLOR]

With many readers , Comic books and Graphic novels seem to be one of the Gateways into fantasy and science fiction.

 

[Avelino de Castro]

Interesting. GOT was massively popular as a TV series, but I don't think many of those viewers then bought the books.

I have a strong feeling you're right, and I suspect the series American Gods will do nothing for sales of the book of the same name by Neil Gaimann. The series is good, but can't beat the book, sadly those who aren't inclined to read it really are missing out.

 

[BAYLOR]

I have a strong feeling you're right, and I suspect the series American Gods will do nothing for sales of the book of the same name by Neil Gaimann. The series is good, but can't beat the book, sadly those who aren't inclined to read it really are missing out.

Its a great book. I read it before I even saw an episode of the series.

 

[nixie]

I'd read fantasy as a child but moved away from it as I got older, then I discovered Magician, opened up a whole new world.

 

[BAYLOR]

I'd read fantasy as a child but moved away from it as I got older, then I discovered Magician, opened up a whole new world.

Had I never discovered fantasy and science fiction at the time I did , I never would would have made it through College. Up until high school, I was Television head and not much of a reader or thinker. Those two genres greatly expanded my reading skills to the point where I could read and comprehend anything.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Gateway? I can't remember a gateway. I was suckled on the family collection of 42 Oz books. My father read them to me as an infant. As I learned to read (at a precocious age) More Oz books, over and Over; Anderson and Grimm Fairy tales, Mother Goose, prose versions of Greek and Roman mythology; the epic phantasies found in Bible stories, The Scheherazade. Don Quixote... and on and on.

In those days, we didn't need to genre-alize and sub-genre-alize everything.

I craved adventure stories. What's next? gimme gimme.

And the parental library was chock-a-block with RLS, Kipling, London, Wells, Verne, Dickens, Twain... and on and on.

And the parental units refused to own a television set.

 

[williamjm]

I have a strong feeling you're right, and I suspect the series American Gods will do nothing for sales of the book of the same name by Neil Gaimann. The series is good, but can't beat the book, sadly those who aren't inclined to read it really are missing out.

I'm not sure American Gods really attracted enough of an audience to make a big impact on sales.

Game of Thrones is a very different matter. The books had sold 15 million copies in the decade and a half before the pilot aired, since 2011 they have sold another 75 million+ copies. That could still mean only a small proportion of the TV show's viewers bought the books, but I suspect GRRM isn't complaining about those sales figures.

 

[Extollager]

Like Teresa, I early on took to Scandinavian folk/fairy tales — trolls! The 1960 Viking Press edition of Norwegian Folk Tales of Asbjornsen and Moe, illustrated by Werenskiold and Kittelsen, was (and is) a great book for me. James Baldwin’s The Story of Siegfried, illustrated by Peter Hurd, was of major importance. Lewis’s Narnia, Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Watkins-Pitchford’s The Little Grey Men enthralled me. A bit later I found Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Coincidentally, just a couple of days ago, I was hunting for an image from the Red Queen's garden party.



Which I found along with an excerpt from the book.

Scanning some of the prose was so captivating, that I said to myself, "Damn! I need to read that again!"

How long has it been? 50 years? I first read it when I was 6 or 7 years old. I think I read it again in the stoned age, when I was in the late teen years.

It's around here somewhere. In my mind's eye I can see the cover of the same old PB omnibus with "Alice..." and "...the Looking Glass."

I know it was around when I presented it to my kids to read. But that was also a long, long time ago.

Where is it? Did one of my rotten kids lend it out... or steal it?

Where is it?

Much like Duke Nukem, I've been wandering about the house asking, "Where is it?" Soon I shall fetch a step-ladder and start delving, deep into the top shelves of The Pile. Or maybe it's in one of those boxes under the stairs. Or deep in one of the Girl's rooms.

Where is it?


*surprised no one has yet mentioned it as a gateway book to fantasy*

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I did have a very beautifully illustrated Alice in Wonderland when I was quite young. I read it several times, but truth to tell I found the story disturbing. Eventually it worked its way into my nightmares, and I stopped reading it until I picked it up again as an adult. So it wasn't a favorite; it didn't make me eager to read more like it. So I wouldn't call it a gateway.

Worse things happened in some of the fairy tales I read, but Alice seemed like a real little girl, a little girl like me, and the threats to her seemed both irrational and at the same time much too real.

 

[Avelino de Castro]

Gateway? I can't remember a gateway. I was suckled on the family collection of 42 Oz books. My father read them to me as an infant. As I learned to read (at a precocious age) More Oz books, over and Over; Anderson and Grimm Fairy tales, Mother Goose, prose versions of Greek and Roman mythology; the epic phantasies found in Bible stories, The Scheherazade. Don Quixote... and on and on.

In those days, we didn't need to genre-alize and sub-genre-alize everything.

I craved adventure stories. What's next? gimme gimme.

And the parental library was chock-a-block with RLS, Kipling, London, Wells, Verne, Dickens, Twain... and on and on.

And the parental units refused to own a television set.

I grew up preferring the books I had over the television set.. I could see so much more in Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, THe Ringworld and even Alice in Wonderland than what was on the little screen. I like t.v. but I prefer reading, and was lucky enough to be raised to read. Enjoyed an annual reexamination of the Christmas Carol every year!!!
Love SF and Fantasy but I would read lots of historical fact, and loved Dickens too.

 

[BigBadBob141]

Pinocchio, an English translation when I was a child, unlike the Disney version it was very dark in places.
P.S. The chap who wrote it in the nineteenth century was a civil servant in Florence, Tuscany, he actually worked in what is now the Uffizi art gallery.

 

[Night_Eternal]

I was in high school when I started reading the Dragonlance novels. I actually started with Legend of Huma, one of the offshoots not written by the Weis/Hickman duo, but it was enough to get me interested in the main series. TSR had just released the older books with shiny new covers around that time, so I snatched them up and devoured them quickly. To this day, that's one of my favorite fantasy worlds. They did a lot of things right in those books. The cast was large, but varied and pretty well defined. Their world felt alive with cool little details (c'mon, who still doesn't want to try Otik's spiced potatoes), none of the main crew were perfect heroes or 'chosen ones' (except maybe Raistlin, but even he was "evil"), the banter between the characters made me love them early on, and there was a lot of humor in the book as well, especially with Tasslehoff. I laughed out loud for real when I was reading plenty of times. They had tons of dark, serious elements as well, but my god man, you got to have something more than the standard, often humorless cliches that are rampant in so much fantasy these days! So yeah, Dragonlance was my gateway.

I honestly don't care for too many of the fantasy novels I've read in the last......oh I don't know, 15 years since too much of it doesn't hook me for whatever reason or another. Hated 'The Name of the Wind' with a burning rage, have struggled to get into Goodkinds stuff or The Wheel of Time series (though I think I can, just gotta really be in the mood for it), and GRRM lost me by the fourth Ice and Fire book (both the GoT show and the books are too soapy for my tastes). Most fantasy worlds are just boring, repetitive, or too dark and depressing to be any fun. Sure, you can have darkness, even need it, but for the love of mighty Tolkien Himself, how's about a world where we can actually picture the characters living in it when they're not fighting the Big Bad Guy? Love her or hate her, JK Rowling was genius in this regard. She had managed to show us a lot more of the world beyond just the standard stuff. There's special magic food and drink, a sport (complete with it's own world cup), slurs and slang terms (Mudblood, Muggles, Squib), a freakin' magic based Rock band (The Weird Sisters I think they were called?), characters that managed to be both whimsically funny and tragic (looking at you, Dobby), two awesome comedians who's pranks you can root for (Fred & George), a system of magical government that functions but isn't too bogged down in politicking that it gets to be a slog, magical artwork (them paintings, dawg), their own special newspaper, and a ton of other stuff that I'm probably forgetting. That's why she wins. You want to go there, despite the dangers.