SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I was listening to a discussion on Italo Calvino's "14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic" and was really struck by this one:

11. 'Your' classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, and which helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it.

There are definitely works which impacted me on an individual level, that have, in part, defined who I am today. Books that I re-read often, or revisit in my head. So my question is:

Which single (sci fi/fantasy) book defined or impacted you the most?

I began reading fantasy at a very early age, so for me, that book is probably Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey.

The Hobbit is absolutely this book for me. I'm 22, and I have read that book over 30 times, for sure. That doesn't even include the times I've read the graphic novel adaptation (which is also a lot). My dad read it to me for the first time when I was five (and I'm pretty sure he simplified a lot of the content for me), and I think I've read it at least once a year, every year since. It defines me in more ways than I can even explain.

I could gush about books that define me forever. I love this question.

No question, it would have to be The Lord of the Rings. I've been known to say that discovering LotR was the only good thing that happened to me the year I was thirteen, and the relationship has only deepened in the subsequent 44 years.

Definitely Lord of the Rings. I was in awe the first time I read Eowyn's showdown with the Witch King.

Hmm. I guess Beauty, by Robin McKinley. It lets me see a level of writing that I dream of matching.

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, it showed me good may triumph over evil but the setbacks might be devastating.

The one I remember *grin* was a library book (amazingly!!) from 1963 - The Serpent - and this set me FIRMLY on the Fantasy road. It was outrageously different (for those times), but b/c I'd been reading folk-lore and 'fairy' tales for so long as a child, I never over-thought the progression to adulthood-type reading :)

I can't actually remember which SF book was first; I read Arthur C Clarke and Lloyd Biggles (can't even find him here!!) b/c they were the emerging lights in UK SF in the early '60s; but I soon found all the magnificent US authors of the 50s/60s once I went to Uni and discovered like-minded people :)

Lloyd Biggle Jr., you mean?

Great question.

"A Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin would qualify for me. It's easily the most dog-earred book on my shelf, and I would go so far as to consider someone who dislikes this book to be utterly unable to appreciate the beauty of the written word, and, sadly, to be lacking a soul.

I haven't read anything by Calvino in a long time, but I've still got everything I've ever read by him, including the copy of "Invisibile Cities" that I read for a class back in 1982--my first exposure to one of my all-time favorite authors.

Willow wrote: "I was listening to a discussion on Italo Calvino's "14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic" and was really struck by this one:

11. 'Your' classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, ..."

I don't know that I've ever read a book that defined me, to be honest, however I did absolutely love Dragonsinger. Even now, thirty years on, it's a book that still resonates strongly with me. Maybe it's because I'm an amateur musician, or maybe it's because I identified so strongly with Menolly when I was an older teen, or because I've always liked dragons and fire lizards :)

I'd like to think that a lot of the stories I've read have helped me to take a fresh look at life and how it works for people from different backgrounds and experiences. Sci-fi is a powerful tool for this - when you have male/female, alien/earthly, terrestrial/nonterrestrial all jumbled up together it makes you think.

Dune had a huge impact on me. Still love deserts because of it! A Wizard of Earthsea made me realise that the writing itself could be a thing of beauty. And in the beginning The Hobbit showed my young self that fantasy could be as realistic as any story taking place in the "real" world.

Dragonlance: Legends did it for me and I've probably reread them 10 times over the years (and I will admit to having a Raistlin tattoo).

I second the 'Dragonlance Chronicles', LOTR was good but didn't appreciate the 'Opus' until later in life. Raistlin, Cameron, Sturm (sp?) even Tasslehoff, it made D&D come alive for me & was simple in both literary style & vocabulary. I re-read them time to time

lotr/dune

Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. The frist book in the series was the first book that I took out of the library myself when I was in Middle School and it single handedly got me hooked on Fantasy. :)

"The Trouble Twisters" by Poul Anderson. One of the first hard SF novels I ever read and the characters and imagery of the Polesotechnic League have remained with me till this day.

Hitch hiker's guide to the Galaxy and Discworld series.

Discovering Moorcock's Elric books and, by extension, the whole concept of the Eternal Champion & the multiverse probably defined my teenage years and early 20s. Probably lead to me listening to far too much Hawkwind too.

Lord of the Rings, and Lovecraft's whole Cthulhu mythos.

I think for me this is a tie between The Hobbit and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I discovered both at about the same age (about 8).

Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. A.C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Edgar R. Burroughs John Carter of Mars. Glen Cook's Garrett P.I.

Mayank wrote: "Hitch hiker's guide to the Galaxy and Discworld series."

I'll second these. Pratchett and Adams are both significant for me.

Lord of the Rings is definitely up there for me too, but I would have to say Harry Potter.

(Not to mention oodles of bad Star Wars and Star Trek tie-ins!)

"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman for me. I'd read a lot of high-fantasy works like LotR and the Forgotten Realms books when I was growing up, but it was really Gaiman's works that defined what I read and enjoy today, as well as the types of books I want to write. I love his ability to take the modern, real world and twist it into something surreal or fantastical.

Along those same lines, most of my generation (late 20's now) grew up reading Harry Potter, but you could write entire non-fiction books regarding their impact in the literature world for future generations.

There's no doubt that Star Wars (yes, the books too), Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter had a huge influence on me. But I realized recently how much Dune affected me. Rereading it, the book has only gotten better with age, and in my writing I've found that I'm subconsciously trying to do a lot of what Herbert did. I'm really having a Dune-crazy year.

Laura wrote: "Lord of the Rings is definitely up there for me too, but I would have to say Harry Potter.

(Not to mention oodles of bad Star Wars and Star Trek tie-ins!)"

I'm glad someone else mentioned the tie-ins, hehe. I read over 70 Star Wars novels in a few years. It was utterly and entirely consuming, in the best way.

J.R.R Tolkien still has the biggest impact on me. Without him, my love for reading and writing would have never been developed, and my Dragon Rising series would have never been realized.


Willow wrote: "I was listening to a discussion on Italo Calvino's "14 Definitions of What Makes a Classic" and was really struck by this one:

11. 'Your' classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, ..."

Several books and series affected me greatly.

The Hobbit taught me to love stories more than any other form of entertainment.

Codex Alera by Jim Butcher was my first, true fantasy series. I started it by chance when I was young and quickly fell in love. It was the first series where I waited for every book to be published and bought it on the opening day.

The Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire were the series that taught me how to read long books and longer series without blinking.

B.E. wrote: "I'm glad someone else mentioned the tie-ins, hehe. I read over 70 Star Wars novels in a few years. It was utterly and entirely consuming, in the best way. "

Agreed, B.E! Even though some of those books are admittedly bad, I look back on them very fondly. They really encouraged me to become a voracious reader and to pick up other, better sci-fi/fantasy novels.

Hiero's Journey in a negative way.
Sovereign in a more positive way.

I read LOTR when I was 13, in 4 days, but I can't say it defined me except as to the types of stories I don't like to read or write. Another negatively defining story (for me as an author) is Her Majesty's Wizard.

Laura wrote: "B.E. wrote: "I'm glad someone else mentioned the tie-ins, hehe. I read over 70 Star Wars novels in a few years. It was utterly and entirely consuming, in the best way. "

Agreed, B.E! Even though ..."

Haha, yes. I forgot to say that they weren't the best. Tried to pick one of the newer ones up semi-recently and it didn't take :(

The Lord of the Rings. I can't escape it.

I'd have to say the Chronicles of Narnia, with Lord of the Rings following close on the heels. My mother read me The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when I was 3, around when my little sister was born. I was captivated, and by the time we got to The Horse and His Boy, I was following along with the words and then eventually picked it up and finished it myself.

So I literally started reading with fantasy. Hit the Hobbit after I finished Narnia, and Lord of the Rings the first time when I was 5.

Thanks Mum!

Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, and all his other writing.

He set a new bar for what writing and reading could be for me, and that bar has yet to even fear approach by others I have so far read. His work has been a monumental influence on my literary life and my life in general.

I definitely can't be indifferent to LoTR and the more I learn about it and Tolkien the stronger that gets, but I can't say it defines me in any way...other than that it defined the fantasy genre for me so absolutely that I've been unable to find anything satisfying at all in that genre ever since. In other words, Tolkien at once defined and killed fantasy for me. Finished the book and thought, "Well, that's fantasy all wrapped up in a neat bow." ;D

Yet I feel enriched by that.

But since then I've really only read SF. There are books that I really, really like and that inspired me to write myself, but none of them really stand out as life-defining. I have that experience more with music than with books.

Do you think that when you read a book matters? I think that as good as some books are, they don't stick with you until you reach a certain place in your life.

L.G. That's certainly true. When I was about 13 I checked out The Hobbit from the library and couldn't get into it at all. I kept getting bogged down in it for some reason, even though it wasn't very long after that when I read about half a dozen novels by Kurt Vonnegut and loved them.

It wasn't until I was in late High School when I finally read The Hobbit and loved it. I couldn't even see what had stopped me reading it before...not like it's a difficult read. **shrug**

The Martian Chronicles. I read it in third grade and read it every year. It set my feet on the road to hard sf and added to my love for the red planet.

Certainly it is Fellowship of the Ring for me. I read it maybe 100 times from age 10 to 16. I would usually intend on reading all 3 books but by the time I got to the end of Fellowship I'd often just start over. Really wanted to live in the Shire. Wasn't interested in having to live where I was. Still feel the same 25 years later.

Certainly Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
is a book that defines me and my taste in books...I think. :P

11. 'Your' classic is a book to which you cannot remain indifferent, and which helps you define yourself in relation or even in opposition to it.

I think I got suckered punch twice into SciFi and Fantasy. It was Arthur C. Clark both times! Before reading "Rendezvous with Rama" I use to read because I was assigned to read something. Then Stanley Kubrick ganged up with Arthur C. Clark and really did it to me with "2001: A Space Odyssey" I read and then saw the movie. Changed the way I saw everything. On the Fantasy side "Dragonriders of Pern" epitomize what I love reading.

"The Sword of Shannara" is what I think got me hooked on fantasy books. After that my favorites became Raymond E. Feist books, and The Codex Alera series.

Jack Vance's

Why no mention of Harry Potter?
Then there is Foundation, Childhood's End and The Wizard of Oz to name a few more.

Glad to see so much Pern love here. That world has been my happy place since I was in grade school.

Lots of other great works mentioned in this thread -- the ones I haven't read will eventually make it onto my reading list. :)

Amber wrote: ""The Sword of Shannara" is what I think got me hooked on fantasy books. After that my favorites became Raymond E. Feist books, and The Codex Alera series."

Feist and Codex Alera played a huge role in my fantasy love as well. Don't forget about David Eddings and his Belgariad series.

Thomas wrote: "Why no mention of Harry Potter?"

I suspect it came too late to be defining for a lot of us.

Mary wrote: "Thomas wrote: "Why no mention of Harry Potter?"

I suspect it came too late to be defining for a lot of us."

And it was quite a young adult-oriented series. I'm probably the youngest one here, and I'm in my 20s.

Yeah, I think it came a bit late... Though tmThe Sorcerer's Stone was published when I was 11, it didn't catch up and become mainstream by 2001, when I was 15.

What defined me was The Neverending Story, though the book was published seven years before I was born, the movie was released two years before and I didn't read the book until I was twelve

The Earthsea Trilogy. My parents gave it to me around my 11th birthday (or maybe 12th, or maybe for Christmas; as a gift when I was a pre-teen). I was a big reader, and I'd already read the Prydain Chronicles.

I just fell in love with the world, the magic, and the characters. Ged is one of my all-time favorite fantasy characters (I can't stand what LeGuin did to him in Tehanu). I also really liked Tenar, and I found myself very frustrated with how that (potential) relationship was handled after Tombs of Atuan. (I guess it's kind of funny I cared so much about that when I was only 11 or 12, but I've always loved a good love story.) So Earthsea really launched my love of fantasy, which is still with me 40 years later, as well as my frustration with the difficulty of finding well-handled romances in fantasy.