What was the first fantasy book you ever read? Was it what hooked you into the fantasy genre? Did it influence or inspire you in some way?

For me it was "Into the Labyrinth" a Death Gate Cycle novel by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. It was this book that inspired me to become a writer and drew me into the fantasy genre as a whole - at least pertaining to books. I'm now re-reading it, and falling in love with the characters and story all over again Definitely one of the best books ever in my humble opinion

I read "Unicorns of Balinor" by Mary Stanton when I was 6 years old. They were easy to read, light and highly childish, but they got me hooked

I definitely think that that what what pulled me into the fantasy genre. I must admit that with each passing year I find myself drawn more and more towards other genres, but I will always have a special place in my heart for fantasy

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And all will turn to silver glass...



By Goldstrike

My mom first read the Narnia series aloud to me when I was four or five. I wasn't super into fantasy until I read LotR when I was 11, though I had periodically dipped into the genre before that and had read The Hobbit, Artemis Fowl, Inkheart, and quite a bit of Arthurian mythology. I've since read any fantasy I can get my hands on.

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AIEEEE! Another Death Gate fan! Those books are AWESOME.


Ahem. Anyway, Narnia was definitely the first fantasy I remember reading. I also read Unicorns of Balinor and became a full fledged fantasy fan after reading The Lost Years of Merlin.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Lost Years! I remember reading those! Fabulous books...

My mum and dad would sit at the end of my bed and tell me the Hobbit when I was about 5, so that sort of started the ball going.

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And all will turn to silver glass...



By Goldstrike

Narnia started me on fantasy in about fifth grade. (Yeah, kinda late, but my parents were extremely paranoid about letting me read fantasy for some reason. O.o) Since then though I've been hooked. =] I think shortly afterwords I read Ella Enchanted, which I'm re-reading at the moment.

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and I'm still a dreamer, a believer
I've lost my faith in so many things but I still believe in You

Sweet! There's another one out there! It's so rare to meet anyone else who not only read the "Death Gate Cycle" but is a fan. Very please to meet you!

It looks like there's quite the myriad of variety out there that's gotten so many of us hooked. It's really quite interesting when you think about it

I honestly can't remember. I had always been interested in mythologies and religions (both can lead to reading fantasy I find), and I guess that I just gravitated towards fantasy because of that.

I remember reading Tamora Pierce books in grade school (probably 3/4), and Artemis Fowl in grade five... I read Harry Potter when it first came out (whenever that was, '99 I think?). It's hard to remember the exact first fantasy book.

Most Ridiculous. Books. Ever.



I think my first fantasy book must've been Harry Potter. I was... oh gawsh, 4 years old, if I'm remembering correctly. I used to run around on the playground of my school pretending to be Hermione and I always told my friend (who had no idea what Harry Potter was) that she could be Fluffy.

... Not that I was a strange child or anything. xD

Oh, and I suppose before that, my dad always read The Wizard of Oz to my older sister, and I always listened. I didn't understand most of it, but I guess that counts as fantasy.

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

^ Are you making fun of me? No, but I really thought they were awesome when I was 5. I wanted to be just like Arianna and I spent years complaining that I didn't have a unicorn. Sometime, I take things to extremes...

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And all will turn to silver glass...



By Goldstrike

Not in the least! Sounds perfectly normal to me!

However, when I was a kid I used to pretend I was a Sith lord fighting the Jedi (yes, I was and still am a HUGE Staw Wars movies fan....and villain fan ). So I may not be a reliable source.

It seems to me a lot of people were influencd by the Narnia series. I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to those. I think I was in seventh grade when I read "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe".

Oh, no, not at all, 'cause I wanted to be Ari too. I kept hoping that I would find the Gap and I would end up in a magical world filled with unicorns. And I was disappointed when it didn't happen. xD

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

^And that Finn would be your best friend and you'd have a talking dog. Come on, who *didn't* want to be in Balinor?


I forgot about Harry Potter. Shame on me. But I also forgot about the Prydain Chronicles, which were some pretty awesome books too.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Lol I completely forgot about the Wizard of Oz! I think that was my first fantasy book now...

Unless picture books about dragons count.

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and I'm still a dreamer, a believer
I've lost my faith in so many things but I still believe in You

You both have points... I suppose I spent a good deal of time fantasizing all the amazingness of Balinor But if you think about it, they were pretty spunky. Ari is a princess, but she's also very take-charge, and which little kid DOSENT want fanatically loyal talking animals and a nice guy friend? Lori was the only thing I didn't like about the books...

Its funny because I didn't read Narnia till I was about 12, but they have so much of a deeper meaning, that I never really looked at them as children's books.

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And all will turn to silver glass...



By Goldstrike

As far as the fantastical part goes, they're very much children's books. I mean, if you're a kid, you read them and are all excited about the talking animals and the kids going into another world, but if you read them when you're older you're often reading FOR the deeper meaning.

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