Israel SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I think it was The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe that really got me hooked onto fantasy. David Eddings and Lloyd Alexander got me addicted to epic fantasy and Piers Anthony's Xanth series was another favorite of mine as a teen (though when I tried reading one as an adult I found it really boring).

So what books got you turned onto sf/f?

Dragonlance, no doubt of that.

I must mention that I remember the very day I started reading Dragonlance as if it was yesterday.

For some reason I've actually never read Dragonlance, though I have a whole bunch of them on my shelf. Would it be worth it for me to pick one up now, or do you appreciate them more when you're just starting out?

I guess that starting with DL does make you appreciate them more, but you can enjoy them even now. There're lots of DL books out there, but many of them are not considered as good books. The good books were written by the original authors (weis & hickman) and maybe a few more authors. If you ever start reading this series then you should start with DL Chronicles first.

the first Harry Potter was the first book I ever read, I was 9 years old and it got me hooked on fantasy for the remainder of elementary school in which I've read three more Harry Potter novels, The Hobbit, the first Lord of the Rings, the three first Narnia novels and the two books of The Neverending Story, after all these I pretty much neglected reading until I was nine-teen (I read around five books throughout these seven years) only to get hooked again by another semi fantasy novel Mr Vertigo, I've been an avid reader ever since

I read The Chronicles of Narnia first, but it was A Wrinkle in Time that hooked me.

Dear God... Uhh, uhhh... Oh, yeah, my parents gave me Monday Begins on Saturday to read one day when I was still small enough to fit under the table (not difficult - I am sort of short) and that was that, I guess.

Perhaps it was Winnie the Pooh.

I am with Genia on this. Strugatsky brothers in general, I would say, though Monday Begins on Saturday is such an unusually optimistic and happy book.

What can I say? I was nine or ten at the time.

Hell, I was even younger.

Actually Bulgakov came earlier for me (I was seven, I think), and I suppose he counts as Fantasy.

The other way around for me - took me a while longer to get to Bulgakov.

i just got to Bulkagov recently, read The Master And Margarita obviously, there were a lot of things i did not understand, i guess you need to be russian or to have a very good knowledge of history to truly enjoy this book

fantasy. something like the "percy jackson" series are the type of books i like best.

Definitely The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was eight (unless it was fairy tales beforehand, which it might have been).

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was one of the the first books I read and I loved it. I read the whole Narnia series several times. I also loved books like Tom's Midnight Garden and by Alan Garner and Joan Aitken but in those days children's books were less genre-typed and for me Fantasy=Tolkein so I never thought I was reading fantasy until much later.
Sci/fi was different because I was older - definitely Trillions by Nicholas Fisk. I loved all his books and also John Christopher but first of all came Trillions - I loved that book so much.

For me, it was definitely Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I started with Red Sonja books, but i think WoT was the one that actually got me into fantasy. I read it just after we moved to Israel and still getting sentimental remembering the series and the hours of joy i spent reading it :)

Shir wrote: "i just got to Bulkagov recently, read The Master And Margarita obviously, there were a lot of things i did not understand, i guess you need to be russian or to have a very good knowledge of history..."
I bought that recently after a trip to Moscow. I wonder if there are notes online to help explain any cultural references?

Reading I, Robot as a teen definetly got me hooked onto sci-fi and probably Harry Potter for fantasy

We have new members in the group now, so tell us what got you into sci-fi and fantasy.

My father gave me a book of short stories from Asimove, and the rest is history.

I don't remember what my first sci-fi was, I know that I grew up with Ben Bova -The Weathermakers in the house, and the various coloured fairy books. It was just in the air. ;-)

My first fantasy book (not counting Sipurey Tsadikim which are essentially fantasy stories) was Harry Potter, but I wouldn't say this is way turned me from mundane to fantasy lover. It was really a mixture of several books, more on the children side I would say like Roald Dahl's and Michael Ende's excellent books, Circle of magic (of James &Debra) and
The Chronicles of Prydain. and Harry Potter of course.
On the sci-fi it is harder to tell, but Jules Verne has a place of honor

I should imagine that a lot of people here read in English at least part of the time but obviously that is not an option for most Israeli children.
I know that for my children there was basically Harry Potter and the Hunger Games in Hebrew and some of Roald Dahl's books. Is there any children's scifi in Hebrew? Translated or even home-grown?

There are a decent amount of sf-f translations. They even transtlated Ancillary Justice, which is a very hard one, to יושרה שניונית.

I know The Wheel of Time series is translated because I made an attempt to organise it in our local library. It is even longer in Hebrew because every book is split into two!

I took Percy Jackson and Narnia books in the local library for my children, so they are translated