Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Day
Sci-fi author Sharon Lee has declared:
"So! In my Official Capacity as a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I hereby proclaim June 23 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day! A day of celebration and wonder! A day for all of us readers of science fiction and fantasy to reach out and say thank you to our favorite writers. A day, perhaps, to blog about our favorite sf/f writers. A day to reflect upon how written science fiction and fantasy has changed your life.
So … what might you do on the 23rd to celebrate? Do you even read fantasy/sci-fi? Why? Why not?"
Ohhh, yes I do, yes,yes, yes, I do read fantasy (and a little sci fi).
Fantasy really grabbed a hold of me when my brother bugged me to death about reading a little book called, The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien.
When I found myself stirring my spaghetti sauce with the book in my hand and reading non-stop I figured there was something special about this book and Fantasy in general.
J R R Tolkien, author & Scholar.
This is the cover of the first Hobbit book I had. I have had others since then, including a nice green hardback in its own protector cover.
...long before Peter Jackson came along and did his glorious rendition of Lord of the Rings (and soon to be producer of The Hobbit), there was Rankin/ Bass who put out this musical/ cartoon version of the Hobbit, along with a book of pictures from it (this was yet another copy I have of the Hobbit).
It was followed quickly by reading the trilogy that followed, The Lord of the Rings.
It led me on a wild ride after that. I couldn't get enough Fantasy books. I got deeply involved in The Dragonlance series, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman,
and then David Eddings came along with his Belgaraid series,
then came probably the love story of my life... Anne McCaffrey wrote the Pern series!
There have been many other books.. but these were the ones, in the beginning. I will always be grateful to these authors and their glorious imaginations. For taking the time to write it all down, and fighting the odds of getting them published and then waiting to see if the public liked what they wrote.
I can only tell you about this one public... and I loved them all !
They gave me hero's and heroines and characters I could only dream about meeting in person. And then they gave me dragons. Glorious dragons. (the good ones of course) Anne McCaffrey, Anne McCaffrey, Anne McCaffrey.. I can't cry her name enough. Thank you for the dragons.
Has reading fantasy changed my life? I doubt it.
But it has given me moments of joy I would not have had otherwise.
It has given me things to reflect on.
It has given me .... dreams.
I want Gandalf to be real..
I want to live where there is magic...
I want to talk to a dragon...
I want to meet MasterHarper Robinton, and Lessa and F'lar..
I want to live on Pern!
Glorious Fantasy Books .... they take me to places I've never been but want to go to... and there is no such thing as Impossible!
Now, many will say that these authors are not writers who have not done well.. that they are very recognizable but the truth is.. that (other than Tolkien) these books came out a long time ago... and today's younger readers (and I don't mean 9-12 yr olds) don't know who they are or that the books they wrote are so wonderful !
And so I put the names of: David Eddings and Margaret Weis/ Tracy Hickman and Anne McCaffrey out there as Authors that are soooo worth remembering and are more than worth the time of a new reader to become entranced and enamored with. If you have never read their books.. do yourself a favor and try them. My feeling is that you won't be disappointed.
posted by DesLily | 7:54 AM
8 Comments:
Weis and Hickman and the Eddings were gateway reads for me, too. I loved their books so, so much. I remember devouring THE BELGARIAD at a terrible pace; I was absolutely desperate to see how everything would come out.
Memory: I loved that much later he came out with the two individual books on Belgarath and Polgara!
Aww, what a lovely post. (And I have the same image on 'my' first copy of The Hobbit too! It's actually a detail of this image, all surrounded by brown - and in Dutch - and my mother's copy, but it's the one I grew up with and read over and over.
You're lucky to remember the authors you read first. ^-^ I only remember reading Tolkien, but most all of the others were forgotten. I can recall the details of one book, but not the title or the author. I think they were probably Dutch anyway...
I also remember reading Polgara with a lot of enjoyment. ^-^
shanra: oh I can remember reading some books when I was much younger.. somehow I was reading zane gray's westerns.. not sure how that happened my mother didn't read zane gray!
The Hobbit was my gateway into fantasy. I love it for many reasons, but it will be extra special to me forever for that alone :)
You said: "Has reading fantasy changed my life? I doubt it." But I think the things you then listed, making us dream and giving us joy and things to think about, do qualify as changing our lives. They may not be earth-shattering changes, but they matter a lot. Our lives would be so much poorer without them.
nymeth: I think Tolkien did it for many of us. In fact, my brother HAD to read the Hobbit when he was in High School!.. boy they never gave me anything fun to read like that! lol
It was The Hobbit for me too. Followed by Pern some years later. Then I read no fantasy at all until I was probably in my early 50s. Why? I think I thought that Tolkien and Pern were perfect and that anything else would be a pale imitation. How wrong I was. Now I call it my main reading interest.
Cath: I've read many fabulous books since the Hobbit.. but that and Pern remain my all time favorites and I love revisiting them!
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