[Gothos]

Early reading for me was stuff for school that I treated as an unwanted duty. In any case, school made me pretty much hate reading.

Then...
"The Witcher" books by Andrzej Sapkowski. You may have heard of that nowdays thanks to the games.
the Dune series by Frank Herbert
and very, very soon - Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. I was, I believe, 14 at the time (MoI wasn't out yet, I recall). Erikson has been with me for most of my reading life.
It's only after that that I branched into Tolkien (Silmarillion > LotR, by miles) and Martin, some easy novels by Salvatore too (though I'm not admitting this easily!) and some other books. All in all, I'm not all that much of a reader, perhaps because starting on Herbert, Erikson and Martin so early has really elevated my expectations and made me reluctant to try new authors who just plain sucked by comparison.

[Abyss]

UseOfWeapons, on 18 July 2011 - 09:36 AM, said:

I really don't think the question makes much sense. While Erikson has become perhaps my favourite author, that's not the same as saying that all my reading up to this point has in any way been leading to or preparing for reading him, in the way descent by inheritance provides a direct chain of causal links.

Disagree. I think that the books one read pre-MBF could largely influence how much one enjoyed and was pulled into the series, vs those readers who don't make it past the GotM200. No hard and fast rule, but i suspect that a certain amount of 'farmboy levels up' fantasy leaves one that much more ready for when SE lights the tropes on fire and tosses them out the window.


As for moi, very loosely in order and skipping metric tonnes of books for just the memorable ones, more or less in order...

Piles of Greek, Norse and other mythology.
JRRT's The Hobbit (but NOT LotR, which i despised first time around)
Lloyd's Prydain (all)
CSL's Narnia (all)
Norton's Witchworld (all)
Moorcock's Elric and related Eternal Champion books
Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame (first 4)
Cooper's The Dark is Rising
Eddings' The Belgariad (all, plus the Mallorean)
McCaffery's Pern (first seven)
Weis/Hickman's Dragonlance (first three)
Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (all original series)
Gygax's Gord the Rogue (no, really)
Lieber's Lankhmar (all original)
Brookes' Shannara (first four)
Donaldson's Thomas Covenant (first two series)
Rawn's Sunrunners (all)
Williams Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (feh)
Feist's Magician and subsequent books
Weis/Hickman's Deathgate (all)
RJ's WoT (first 7)
Zelzany's Amber (all)
Stover's Caine (fucking first 2)
GRRM's SIF (just as 3rd was released in mmpb)
...SE's MBF, just as HoC was released around 2002.


There would also be a lot of scifi and a whole lot of comics mixed in there that i'm not recalling off hand.

[Use Of Weapons]

Abyss, on 18 July 2011 - 02:05 PM, said:

UseOfWeapons, on 18 July 2011 - 09:36 AM, said:

I really don't think the question makes much sense. While Erikson has become perhaps my favourite author, that's not the same as saying that all my reading up to this point has in any way been leading to or preparing for reading him, in the way descent by inheritance provides a direct chain of causal links.

Disagree. I think that the books one read pre-MBF could largely influence how much one enjoyed and was pulled into the series, vs those readers who don't make it past the GotM200. No hard and fast rule, but i suspect that a certain amount of 'farmboy levels up' fantasy leaves one that much more ready for when SE lights the tropes on fire and tosses them out the window.

Oh, I agree with that. But that's not how I read the OP. In no way was I reading the books I read before SE as preparation for cliché subversion and/or abandonment. How could I have been? It's like arguing that evolution proceeds down a path of increasing complexity -- total nonsense.

[Knowing]

UseOfWeapons, on 18 July 2011 - 02:25 PM, said:

Abyss, on 18 July 2011 - 02:05 PM, said:

UseOfWeapons, on 18 July 2011 - 09:36 AM, said:

I really don't think the question makes much sense. While Erikson has become perhaps my favourite author, that's not the same as saying that all my reading up to this point has in any way been leading to or preparing for reading him, in the way descent by inheritance provides a direct chain of causal links.

Disagree. I think that the books one read pre-MBF could largely influence how much one enjoyed and was pulled into the series, vs those readers who don't make it past the GotM200. No hard and fast rule, but i suspect that a certain amount of 'farmboy levels up' fantasy leaves one that much more ready for when SE lights the tropes on fire and tosses them out the window.

Oh, I agree with that. But that's not how I read the OP. In no way was I reading the books I read before SE as preparation for cliché subversion and/or abandonment. How could I have been? It's like arguing that evolution proceeds down a path of increasing complexity -- total nonsense.

Perhaps I didn't even consider how others find new authors, but growing up I would devour one from the next. Always searching for a new and more complex, realistic, or gritty set of books. I've had serious problems going back to re-read some authors I grew up with, simply because they lack what I'm looking for. Sadly this is likely why I avoid books like the Davinci Code. I finished that book sick to my stomach because I already knew who was manipulating who and the end was something I had predicted 100 pages ago.

In the end I just wanted to see the way other people may have gotten into fantasy fiction, or if fantasy fiction is even their favorite genre. Personally I'm the only one in my entire family circle who enjoys fantasy, including numerous cousins and uncles, and I have yet to meet a good friend who enjoy fantasy even a fraction of how glued I am to it. So far it's been quite interesting following how people have transitioned from some authors to the next. For some reason when I first made this post I thought everyone else would have followed a similar route as I did, however I'm shocked at the plethora of authors I've never even heard of. As a kid in 5th grade I didn't even know there was a fantasy section in Barnes and nobles. It wasn't until I read Tolkin's The Two Towers (Yeah, I didnt realize there was a Fellowship of the Ring, imagine how blown away I was that an author would start in the middle of a story without explaining a single fucking thing. A feeling I haven't had since I picked up Gardens of the Moon 11 years later) and looked at the back of the book where it suggested other fantasy authors that I began reading outside of school.

[Cyphon]

~ Infinity, has found the sword of truth

My route was as follows;

Goodkind, or Awesomekind as he's known.
MBoTF
And well, then I couldn't finish and had to return to my tenth reread of Goodkind as his ideas are so much better.

[Lusipher]

"There are other worlds than these." It's been a long road, but here goes, in rough order, and as brief as possible:

Greek and Roman mythology
Choose Your Own Adventure books
Dragonlance series (mostly the stuff that Weiss and Hickman wrote, but a few others as well)
Forgotten Realms (RA Salvatore, Ed Greenwood and the Avatar series are the ones that really stand out, but I read a slew of those that came out in the late 80s, early-mid 90s)
Stephen King-the books of his that I have not read is considerably shorter than those I have
Dune series-plus the KJA/BH prequels, cause I'm a sadist
Imajica by Clive Barker
Wheel of Time-still haven't read Crossroads of Twilight, but I didn't let that stop me from grabbing Knife of Dreams onward!
Darksword, Deathgate and Rose of the Prophet series by Weiss and Hickman
A slew of Irish history (various authors) and historical fiction (Morgan Llywelyn) books
A Song of Ice and Fire series
Star Wars EU novels-mostly the Zahn books as well as all of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion books and others in between
LotR-I've never been much of a fan, and it took a few attempts before I finished, but I wanted to read them after seeing the movies

**Kabuki by David Mack. These are comic books, but if you've not read them, the thought-provocation is on par with, or greater than, Malazan. I cannot recommend them enough for anyone that likes a series that makes you examine yourself and strive to be better. Also highly recommended for art lovers-the guy is seriously a genius on many levels and a great human being.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson: I'd be reading his other books right now, if it weren't for:
Malazan Book of the Fallen

This post has been edited by Lusipher: 18 July 2011 - 05:50 PM

[Grimjust Bearegular]

Infinity, on 18 July 2011 - 04:53 PM, said:

~ Infinity, has found the sword of truth

My route was as follows;

Goodkind, or Awesomekind as he's known.
MBoTF
And well, then I couldn't finish and had to return to my tenth reread of Goodkind as his ideas are so much better.

Yes, Goodkind is much better...better with chickens.

[Seatiger]

Was never much of a reader growing up its been just recently that ive started reading alot.

In high school I read a book called,

The oath and measure by Michael Williams (the meetings sextet volume four)

But it never made sence I didnt know it was part of a series and I only got 3/4 of it done before I gave up

After getting with me GF I read 2 bathroom readers then moved on to

Robin Hobb Soldiers son trilogy

after that I seen DoD in chapters skimmed first chapter and the back and I asked and found out it was a 10 book series picked up GoTM and now IM a huge fan of the series amcurrently on TTH

[Abyss]

Infinity, on 18 July 2011 - 04:53 PM, said:

...
Goodkind, or Awesomekind as he's known.
...

Now you're trying too hard.

- Abyss, notes that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and only rarely punishable by death.

[Cyphon]

Illyface Chickendeath, on 18 July 2011 - 05:40 PM, said:

Infinity, on 18 July 2011 - 04:53 PM, said:

~ Infinity, has found the sword of truth

My route was as follows;

Goodkind, or Awesomekind as he's known.
MBoTF
And well, then I couldn't finish and had to return to my tenth reread of Goodkind as his ideas are so much better.

Yes, Goodkind is much better...better with chickens.

~ Infinity, is pleased that he is being so flattered by this fellow doing an imitation of him.

Chickens are always better dead, they are after all a personification of pure evil.

[Mentalist]

hmmm
back home, I started with "The Wizard of Emerald City" by Alexandr Volkov (a soviet re-telling of The WIzard of OZ), and the 5 sequels that followed that. this was when I was around 6.

After this, i veered into historical fiction, reading what were considered "classics" in former Soviet Union: Jules Verne, Sir Walter Scott, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Alexandre Dumas, Viktor Hugo, and others.

when I was 11 or 12, I read the Hobbit, after reading about it in a magazine and how it started a trend.

then I came to Canada. here I started by reading Weis and Hickman, Death Gate cycle ant first, then Darksword, then Dragonlance. while in school, i've also read the Lord of the Rings, but it the prose was still a bit difficult for me, because my English wasn't that great yet. Around the same time I've discovered Stackpole's Battletech series, read the Robotech novelizations. then my family met another family from Ukraine, who had a huge fantasy/Sci-fi library. from them I read FIonnavar tapestry, Elenium trilogy by Eddings, Runelords books by Farland, the Amber books and many others. It was also there that I read the translation of "the Game of Thrones". later I picked up the next 2 volumes of ASOIAF in my local library.

We also went to New yourk a few times to visit my parents' friends, and that's where i was first introduced to Lukyanenko's Night Watch. it was there that I started to build my personal library. Among my first purchases were Vladimir Vasilyev's "Enemy unknown" and "Hot start", as well as Lukyanenko's early work, his Deeptown trilogy.

The really turning point in as far as my literary tastes were concerned was a purchase a trilogy by Nick Perumov, "the Ring of Darkness", which was basically Perumov's first work, and was originally a fan continuation of the Lord of the Rings, taking place 100 years later. Plagiarism issues aside (Eastern Europe has a long standing traditon of ignoring such silly things as intellectual propert and copyright), those books blew me away, due simply to the fact that Perumov relished in moral ambiguity and building the world without explaining much. At that point, i relaized that I can't really read the basic "good hero defeats evil" type fantasy.

later that year I finished highschool and went to University. on my Christamss break, I picked up A feast for Crows. after that, on my next perusal of the Chapters in my Uni town, I noticed Malazan books. I noted the author, went home, researched the books and picked up GotM from the library when I came home for a week in February. I finished it, wasn't blown away, but the last 15 pages hinted at a much, much bigger picture. I picked up the second volume form the library when I came back for the summer, read it, moved on to the third. By the time I finished Memories of Ice, i knew it would take me 3 weeks to get House of chains through the library system, so I went out and bought all 7 books htat were out at the time at once, as well as the first 3 ASOIAF books. that was literally the start of my SFF library, which now filled up an entire bookcase.

[Baco Xpuch]

I loved to read as a child. Choose your own Adventure, Bunnicula, and so forth were my first reads, 2nd grade, I think. Then I had Voyage of the Dawn Treader read to me in Sunday school and I loved it. I read all of the Chronicles of Narnia by 5th grade and then moved on to Lord of the Rings and then in 7th grade I re-read the Chronicals of Narnia. 8th grade to 10th grade I don't think I read a single book being as how I'd discovered women and alcohol. Then I saw a guy reading Dragonlance in class and decided to read again so I read Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends then some other misc. Dragonlance stuff. My junior year in high school, 1996,I went to Australia for 5 months with my mom and while there, I read the first six books of WoT (that's all that were out). Then I went on to Sword of Truth, the shame. Then I read some Deathgate cycle and some Shanara, and other various stuff. Then in college, I was too busy to read for pleasure and I up'd my interest in painkillers to the point of not reading much of anything for about 4 years (well, I read a lot of Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Kerouac, Carrol (Basketball Diaries...very appropriate for the time), Palahnuik, ...etc. Also, I smoked a lot of weed at the time so I was really into anime. Then I moved to San Diego and began reading fantasy/sci-fi again. I just picked up what looked cool at the bookstore. And it goes a little something like this:

C.J. Cheryh - Towers trilogy
Robert Silverburg - Majipoor (Sylvestre's Castle, and more)
J.V. Jones - The Book of Words trilogy (Baker's Boy)
L.E. Modesitt - Magic of Recluse and more
- Space Trilogy (except "That Hideous Strength)
Kate Elliot - Crown of Stars (all except the last book or two)
Sara Douglass - Wayfarer Redemption (3 books)
Tad Williams - Memory, Thorn, Sorrow
Enders Game
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (twice)
Harry Potter - 1st four books
Riftwar Saga - Raymond E. Feist
Larry Niven - Ringworld
Dune series
Foundation Series
All Neil Gaiman books

Then I found Pratchett and devoured all his books in about 3 months.

Then I drank for another 3 years and didn't read much of anything.

Then I got married and on our honeymoon, I picked up a Karen Miller book, and it was, meh.

Then I realised I could look on the internet for a list of best fantasy books and I found bestfantasybooks.com.

I read about twenty books on the list before I picked up GotM. After that I read all of the MBotF in 2 months (then had to wait a year for tCG). The MBotF is everything I ever wanted in fantasy. Every book up until that point had left me a little unfulfilled. Not that a lot of those weren't excellent, they just weren't exactly what I wanted in a great fantasy epic. To me, MBotF is the ideal/essence of what great fantasy should be.

Also, since finding MBotF, I discovered this forum which has led me to countless excellent reads for which I'm deeply thankful (tears). My nights now are no longer shitty T.V. but journeys into fantastic worlds and exotic futures. I fucking love this stuff.

[Gust Hubb]

Oh! I miss bunnicula! New reading list for my kid!!!!

[RolandDeschain]

It didn't take me long to dive in Malazan world.

Hobbit / Lotr.
Dragonlance (everything by Weis and Hickman)
Malazan

While reading Malazan, this forum helped me discover authors like Abercrombie, Glen Cook, Martin, Robert Jordan ect...

[King Bear]

RolandDeschain, on 20 July 2011 - 12:54 PM, said:

It didn't take me long to dive in Malazan world.

Hobbit / Lotr.
Dragonlance (everything by Weis and Hickman)
Malazan

While reading Malazan, this forum helped me discover authors like Abercrombie, Glen Cook, Martin, Robert Jordan ect...

Dragonlance to Malazan after just Tolkien is quite a leap. I'm curious to know how it affected you, because I had read ridiculous amounts of traditional fare before Malazan and was more than ready for something new and revolutionary. Was it jarring for you, plain sailing, exciting, meh, etc?

[Use Of Weapons]

IME, people only get bored of traditional fantasy if they're reading shit traditional fantasy.

[RolandDeschain]

King Bear, on 20 July 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

RolandDeschain, on 20 July 2011 - 12:54 PM, said:

It didn't take me long to dive in Malazan world.

Hobbit / Lotr.
Dragonlance (everything by Weis and Hickman)
Malazan

While reading Malazan, this forum helped me discover authors like Abercrombie, Glen Cook, Martin, Robert Jordan ect...

Dragonlance to Malazan after just Tolkien is quite a leap. I'm curious to know how it affected you, because I had read ridiculous amounts of traditional fare before Malazan and was more than ready for something new and revolutionary. Was it jarring for you, plain sailing, exciting, meh, etc?

Ok, I'll explain my feelings when starting Malazan coming from Dragonlance. This might be a long read. Here goes.


Haha, yeah it was a challenge. I started with Gardens of the moon obviously. It didn't take long for me to get lost in the story, I had a hard time getting to know the characters and things like Warrens and the other races like Imass and Tiste Andi I had no idea what they were suppose to be. I kept reading only because I knew the story was great and I was the problem, I couldn't figure out things and understand it. I loved the writing and some pre chapter poems I had to read a few times because I loved it. Many times I had to read paragraphs several times either to try and understand what was happening or to simply enjoy the phrasing. I liked Ganoes Paran and Quick Ben, the others I was a bit loss in their storylines. About mid way I realized I had no idea what was going on but I kept reading because I knew this was a good book and I would eventually understand it. Finished Gardens, liked it but didn't understand much.

Then I looked up Malazan on wikipedia, I saw that Deadhouse Gates introduced new characters and took place on a different continent. I also noticed that Memories of ice was more of a sequel to Gardens of the moon. I did a bit of research and decided to skip Deadhouse Gates for the moment and Read Memories since it followed some characters I already knew. After Memories of ice I would decide if I was continuing with Malazan or not.

Read Memories of ice and had similar problems with this book. I understood it more than Gardens but was still confused overall, loved the story and got to know Ganoes and Quick Ben better, I also really liked Lady Envy and Toc. I enjoyed the story with the Mhybe and Silverfox. I was a bit lost with everything else hehe.

Then I kept going with Deadhouse Gates. Loved Deadhouse Gates on the first try and I finally got it, the series finally made sense. I re-read Gardens and Memories and was blown away by all the things I missed. I since read the other book all the way to halfway of Dust of Dreams. I did a 3rd reading of Gardens and Memories, did a 2 reading of Deadhouse Gates and a second reading of House of Chains and Midnight Tides. I'll finish the series and then re-read from Bonehunters to then end again. I need re-read with this series.

It was a challenge but I'm glad I took the plunge, Malazan is the best thing I've ever read. I discovered many great authors since and nothing compares to Malazan.

Cheers.

[acesn8s]

I had been reading SciFi/Fantasy for over 20 years, before Gardens of the Moon was published. I think at this point it would be easier for me to list the authors I did not read before picking up GotM.

This post has been edited by acesn8s: 20 July 2011 - 02:57 PM

[Abyss]

Updating for fun after further thought...

Abyss, on 18 July 2011 - 02:05 PM, said:

Piles of Greek, Norse and other mythology.
various authors' Tom Swift series' (especially the one written in the 80s with all the aliens)
JRRT's The Hobbit (but NOT LotR, which i despised first time around)
Lloyd's Prydain (all)
CSL's Narnia (all)
Norton's Witchworld (all)
An absolute pile of SF by Wells, Norton, Block, Stirling, Dick and others...
Moorcock's Elric and related Eternal Champion books
Rosenberg's Guardians of the Flame (first 4)
Cooper's The Dark is Rising
Eddings' The Belgariad (all, plus the Mallorean)
McCaffery's Pern (first seven)
CS Friedman's Coldfire trilogy
Weis/Hickman's Dragonlance (first three)
Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (all original series)
Gygax's Gord the Rogue (no, really)
King's Dark Tower (first three)
Lieber's Lankhmar (all original)
Brookes' Shannara (first four)
Donaldson's Thomas Covenant (first two series)
Rawn's Sunrunners (all)
Williams Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (feh)
Feist's Magician and subsequent books
Weis/Hickman's Deathgate (all)
RJ's WoT (first 7)
A stack of Gemmel
Zelzany's Amber (all)
Goodkind's Sword of Truth (first four before the eyebleeding really kicked in)
Lumley's Necroscope series (first 7 or so)
Stover's Caine (fucking first 2)
GRRM's SIF (just as 3rd was released in mmpb)
Williams' Otherland (all three... there were only three... there were never four...)
...SE's MBF, just as HoC was released around 2002.

....

...which took me to this forum and from here to Mieville, Bakker, Morgan, Butcher, Abercrombie, Asher, Reynolds and a tonne of other good stuff.

[Salt-Man Z]

King Bear, on 20 July 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

Dragonlance to Malazan after just Tolkien is quite a leap. I'm curious to know how it affected you, because I had read ridiculous amounts of traditional fare before Malazan and was more than ready for something new and revolutionary. Was it jarring for you, plain sailing, exciting, meh, etc?

Besides LotR, the most "traditional" fantasy I'd read before Malazan was Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books. (Plus some Xanth; and Feist's Magician, which I hated.) And I had zero problems getting into Malazan. Honestly, I think the somehow-popular idea that you need to be fairly well-versed in traditional fantasy to get the most out of the MBotF is a load of B.S.