Gateway books: What were the first books that began your love of SF?

[PADDY]

I was intrigued by the short stories of HG Wells quite early on. The first of his novels I read were 'The War of the Worlds,' and 'The Time Machine,' when I was about 14. For Jules Verne it was 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth,' and 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.' But my first choice you may find surprising: It was 'The Day of the Triffids,' by John Wyndham, which I read when I was about 14, quickly followed by every other book he had ever written
Christopher Priest famously criticized Wyndham's work as "the master of the middle-class catastrophe". Brian Aldiss condemned his books as suitable for an audience who 'enjoyed cosy disasters," but for me it seemed so 'real,' set as it was in modern Britain, and at the time I read it, 'Ban the Bomb' was a topical subject made even more real by the Cuba Crisis when the world seemed to be on the brink of WW3. By choosing to write about situations that were not about space, but relevant to the present day, Wyndham was a pioneer of a form of sci-fi we might nowadays call 'speculative fiction". I used to lay in bed dreaming of how I planned to survive when the bomb dropped. Later my tastes became wider and much more diverse in SF but I will never forget the day I first read 'The Day of the Triffids.'

 

[Karapace]

i would have to say Michael Moorcock. Dancers at the end of time and the Jerry Cornelius series. I also read Asimov's Foundation trilogy

 

[RDArmstrong]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Not really the best for new readers in my opinion, but it got me into the genre.

 

[Pyan]

These might make interesting reading...

The First Classic Science fiction novel you ever read. (2020 thread)

Can You Remember Your First Science Fiction Novel? (2007 thread)

 

[Snicklefritz]

Red Planet by Robert Heinlein for sure.

 

[Parson]

@Pyan points to some similar threads which would bear scrutiny.

As to the first SF which got me into the genre I think that would have to be Catseye by Andre Norton. I'd read some before and I'm not sure when I read Jules Verne's stuff (after I think) but that's the one which really grabbed me. I was 12?

 

[Elckerlyc]

Difficult to say after all these years, but it might have been The Dreaming Jewels by Theodore Sturgeon.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Started out in the public library with Asimov, Verne and anthologies of writers from the 30s and 40s which included plenty of Lovecraft. The middle school library sold classic paperbacks. Bradbury, Wells, and Verne were all there and I added Wells and Bradbury to my must read list. Those authors shaped my conceptions of what I thought science fiction was. You were limited to what you could personally find which was limited to what had been written up to that point. There weren't any specialty bookstores, those came later. There was no internet, no lists of someone's idea of the top 100 stories, very few reviews if I ever did see one. I guess back then you read what was available, now you can read what you want to read. I wonder how people look at the stories now, being able to pick from thousands of stories written over the last 100 plus years.

 

[Vince W]

Doctor Who and Star Trek started me off but it was Space Cadet and Starman Jones by Heinlein got me started reading SF.

 

[Extollager]

I wonder if it wasn't the pictures by John Polgreen in Roy Gallant's Exploring the Planets that flipped the early switch as much as any other book to that time. The 1958 edition. I nabbed a library discard copy years later, in 20120 -- you can imagine how pleased I was to get it.

 

[Extollager]

 

[Extollager]

 

[Extollager]

 

[Randy M.]

Possibly the first s.f. I read and enjoyed was H. P. Lovecraft's novella "At the Mountains of Madness." I didn't think of it as s.f. at the time, being a teenager who enjoyed ghost/horror stories.

Probably the first s.f. books that I recognized as s.f. and enjoyed were Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke, and In Dreams Awake, an anthology edited by Leslie Fiedler. (Huh. Well, lookat that. I read one of the Alyx stories by Joanna Russ years ago, but had no memory of it when I read it again within the last couple of weeks.)

 

[BAYLOR]

The First Science fiction novel that I recall reading was in 7th grade Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury . I liked it but it didn't really get me going on science fiction and fantasy. I read few after that but even wasn't particularly voracious a reader at that time after , Logans Run by William F Nolan, and George Clayton Johnson and was later amazed to find that the book and film differed so much. read Starship Troopers, The Preservation Machine by Phillip K Dick, The War of the Worlds and The Tim Machine by H G Wells.( at the time, had not idea that these book were written so long ago, and at that time was confused that . The I read When World Collide by Edwin Balmer and Phillip Wylie and was gain amazed that it differed so much from the 1951 Georg Pal film and was amazing to fins out, It had a sequel After World Collide The War Worlds novel and the 1953 film were so different. The I read Destination Universe by A E Van Vogt . The Other side of the sky was the fist book id ever read by The Fist AsIMOVE book Id ever read was Pebble in the Sky. At that time, I had no idea who Isaac Asimov was and would many years before I found The Foundation series . Then ny Interest in since fiction lit began to tail off a bit add the I found two water that change all of that . Robert E Howard's Conan Stories and Harlan Ellison . Howard was among the earliest fans id ever read , Id read some fans before that time but not much , The fist fans I recall reading Ws Day of the Giants by Peter Del Rey . The Conan stories were fun and exciting and got to take a good look at more fantasy authors . Then one day, I was reading the introduction to a Doctor Who book written by Harlan Ellison where he was expounding the virtues of Dr Who. Unfortunately , I was put off by his options on Star Wars and Star Trek. Who ws this person that he would dare be so critical of them? Well, I found out when I got hold of Ellison anthology Stalking the Nightmare. Reading Ellllions was the literary equivalent of getting punched in the face . In his stories , you couldn't count things like neat happy endings for characters. After reading that , I found I wanted more , much more ! In finding those later two , my reading of science fiction and fantasy , went up exponentially !

 

[kythe]

I don't believe I really had "gateway" books into sci-fi/fantasy. I simply never outgrew a childhood interest in magical and fantastic worlds. I still like The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis from my earliest memories. I still periodically reread books I was introduced to in Jr. High such as A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (the source of my user name), and The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher.

I also grew up watching both Star Wars and Star Trek. I don't remember a time without these stories in my life, and I don't foresee a time without them.

 

[Swank]

I read the somewhat science fiction book The Watchers of Space in second grade, Splinter of the Mind's Eye in fourth and then 20,000 Leagues in fifth. Around 6th I started working my way through the library SF section, and had a life changing moment reading Dune in seventh.

I also read Narnia in elementary school, and saw the difference between SF and F right from the beginning.

But I was heavily influenced by the art and music of 2001 that I listened to since I was three, Star Wars at five and BSG a few years later. I was a SF fan before I could read.

 

[PADDY]

Doctor Who and Star Trek started me off but it was Space Cadet and Starman Jones by Heinlein got me started reading SF.

As far as TV programs were concerned I was an avid watcher of the ones you mentioned and before that it was 'Quatermass and the Pit,' and before even that the British radio program 'Journey into Space.' Does anybody else remember that one?

 

[PADDY]

I don't believe I really had "gateway" books into sci-fi/fantasy. I simply never outgrew a childhood interest in magical and fantastic worlds. I still like The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis from my earliest memories. I still periodically reread books I was introduced to in Jr. High such as A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (the source of my user name), and The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher.

I also grew up watching both Star Wars and Star Trek. I don't remember a time without these stories in my life, and I don't foresee a time without them.

I too loved 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' on many levels but it was a reinforcement of my fascination with portals to other worlds that started with HG Wells 'The Green Door.' Incidentally, when my son was up at University I used to enjoy going to 'The Eagle and Child,' where the famous writing group the 'Inklings' met to discuss their books in the 1940/1950s including Lewis and Tolkien.

 

[Rodders]

2000AD
Star Wars
Movie Tie In Books (nothing specific, but all were for Science Fiction movies.)
Star Trek novelisations.

I joined something called the SFF book club and the book that started my love of "adult" Science Fiction was Iain M. Banks's Use of Weapons. (There were a few others before this, but this is the one that got me.)

Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire got me back into Star Wars.

Ironically, i've gone full circle and am really enjoying the 2000AD stories again.