I'm interested in what attracts or attracted people to fantasy and sci-fi?

Personally, for me it was an old computer game called Stronghold (not the more recent game), by TSR and SSI. I was in elementary when I was introduced to this game, and by then the game had many years on it already. That's how I developed my secret fantasy obsession.

Final Fantasy 7.

My dad played D&D at work and told me about it. Then he became a DM for me and my friends. I think I was 9 years old at the time. Mind you, this was D&D not AD&D

Final Fantasy 8, I reckon. I used to love that game.

Anne McCaffrey and Traci Harding, if I recall correctly.

Not that they were the first fantasy/sci-fi things I ever read, but they'd have to be the ones I loved the most.

Sara Douglass comes in pretty high on my current list, too.


And for the record... two of those three authors are Australian.

(Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...)

And the other's a Brit. Muaha.

And I quote from the back cover of Powers That Be: "Brought up in the US and now living in Ireland..."

Spfft. Doesn't matter.

(EDIT: Besides, wasn't she born in Ireland anyway? Hmm. It only says brought up in the US. I can't be bothered to go upstairs and check my books, I will later. )

Ocarina of Time. That game rules. It's so good and deep.

Being surrounded by sci-fi and fantasy books since I was an infant...Heinline, McCaffery, Norton, Foster...gah the list goes on and on. Started reading kids-books at 3 and never looked back.

It started when my neighbor showed me his BRAND NEW game - Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. So I had to have it. And that's kind of where I got hooked.

Although books didn't catch to me until I was bored one day in Waldon's, and needed something for a plane ride. My gameboy was dead, I was looking for batteries. >.> <.< I saw this book with an elf on the front, and a horn, on a precipice. So I grabbed it.

Turns out, it was one of the Dragonlance books. I can't even remember it's name - it was the one with the wild elf, and it's just before the Cataclysm... And he finds the horn all broken, and stuff. After that, I got hooked to Dragonlance, and then a lady at my mom's work got me hooked on Wheel of Time, and it just took off from there.

I was, like, nine when I was reading Wheel of Time. >.> <.<

*ponder* My brother used to read Dragonlance, and tell me all the stories (He's a really good storyteller). Which was weird when I finally actually read them, because he was only telling me the interesting bits so I had very skewed notions of what some of the characters were like *snicker*.

And at some point I discovered Anne McCafferey's Pern books, and it just kind of went from there...

The old school PC game Ultima Underworld:The Stygian Abyss and the book The Hobbit.

The Hobbit.

I'm not sure where the fantasy started, but I know where text games popped up for me. 0_o

I was playing around some game sites when I came upon the old "Adventure" or whatever it's called text game. Y'know, the one where you... do stuff. Anyways, I used a search engine for "free text games" and found the glorious world of MUDs.

Dragonlance started it all for me. Then looking up the same authors, I found The Darksword Trilogy which actually has 4 books in it. After that I found The Deathgate Cycle which i finished reading like a month ago, so I'm looking for new books to read. I'm thinking Rose of the Prophet, and Wheel of Time, any others I should know about?

Edit: I recommend all of these series to everyone I find that's interested in fantasy medieval stuff. Come to think of it, Katro still has my Dragonlance books right now.

Damn you thakin, for leaving that question for me. When I get back from sleeping this miagraine off, I will post a semi-comprehensive list of the "Good SWISS CHEESE" when it comes to Sci-Fi and Fantasy - expect half a page to a page and a half of authors and series though.

Edit: language
Love, Richter

You can leave out Sci-fi, only books of the genre I liked was Enders Game and Enders Shadow, but I'm looking forward to the Fantasy list