Books I grew up with

Every fan has one: the book that drove them into fantasy, the book that first addicted them to the genre.

Today I thought I'd share some of the books that first got me reading sci-fi and fantasy. Because I was a slow reader to begin with, I didn't really explore the genre until late elementary and early middle school

Junior Jedi Knights
On Goodreads

Late elementary:

• The Animorphs. Yep, I read each of these up until... I think about book 30. I think I aged out of the target range about then, because they started losing their appeal. 
• Star Wars: Junior Jedi Knights. I'm surprised how few people heard of these, but they were my gateway into the Star Wars extended universe. 

On the whole I mostly missed the fantasy boat in elementary school. I have a bunch of friends who read Tolkien in 3rd grade, but nope, not me. I was still in Boxcar Children and Sweet Valley at that point. What can I say? My middle school years were pretty great, because I got to catch up on the good books all my friends had enjoyed before me.

Middle School:

Probably better
than Galaxy of Fear,
but I'll never know.

• Dragonsong, by Anne McCaffrey, and the sequels. Menolly's series captured my heart, and I must have read and re-read this trilogy a dozen times or more. 
• Star Wars: Young Jedi Knights. I moved straight from the juniors, featuring young Anakin and Tahiri, into the stories of their older siblings Jacen and Jaina. 
• Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet. Finding a fantasy book with a female hero just plain rocked. The fact that Pierce is an amazing writer helped, too. These I've re-read many times and always enjoyed.
• Everything else by Anne McCaffrey. I dipped my feet into the waters of Pern and came back addicted, so I started reading the rest of her series. Didn't finish until high school, but hey. I gave it my all.



Best thing EVER.



Young Jedi Knights

• The Star Wars Galaxy of Fear books. Really, you don't know what you're missing. And chances are, you missed these. They were THE BEST THING EVER.* (*Warning: may be better in my memory than in real life. I refuse to re-read them and shatter my illusions, because I have... suspicions about whether or not they'd stand the test of adulthood reading.)

High School:

On Goodreads.

• The Star Wars extended universe (yes, you know it was leading here). The Corellian trilogy was the most re-read set; loved them and read them until they all but fell apart. 
• The Belgariad by David Eddings. I re-read these recently. Should never have done that; my happy childhood is now dead. They're not bad; they're just... Let's just say some books can't possibly live up to their memories.
• Everything else by Tamora Pierce. And I still read anything new she puts out, too. (Anyone who touches my signed copy of The Will of the Empress will die a thousand deaths. No, really; MINE.**)
• Jody Lynn Nye's Waking in Dreamland and The Magic Touch, and then anything else she touched, because I loved her voice.
• Mercedes Lackey's Owl Knight series, set in Valdemar. Then her other series. Every. Single. One. (You'll pry my signed 500 Kingdoms books out of my cold, dead hands. Never mind; I'm taking them with me.**)

  

  The cover of
  my edition.

• Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons series. Everyone else read them in middle or even elementary school. I won't lie; I envy them those extra years of knowing this quartet.
• Robert Asprin, whom I first discovered through books he co-wrote with Nye. It's a good choice.
• Terry Brooks' Shannara books. I started with the WishStones, three books I found at a reseller, and binged my way through everything else that was out at the time. They started getting depressing, though, so I slipped out of them for lighter and easier reads. 
• Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. I fell in love with these and have stayed in love them ever since, no matter how many times I re-read them. If anything, they've improved with time.
• Elizabeth Kerner's The Song in the Silence. Loved this book. Loved it so much I listed it as my absolute favorite for the next ten years or so. The sequels, when I found them, did not quite live up to the first book, though. Good but not lifetime-favorite good.



Well, I loved it.

• Rosemary Edgehill's The Sword of Maiden's Tears. I got this as a gift one Christmas the year it came out. Didn't think I'd like it. Then I read it. Unfortunately, the series was left discontinued; after years of searching I finally found the next two, but that's all that were ever printed. (sniffle)

After Pern, I pretty much started working my way through the Sci-fi/Fantasy section of the library, so there's a lot of books I've missed on this list. But these were the major staples of my reading youth, the best memories and the ones I've kept with me longest. With these under my belt I've never doubted that fantasy and science fiction are my genre of choice. Of course, there are a lot of sub-par books that I came across, books that made me gag and want to throw out the genre as a whole. But then I just picked up one of my favorites and was hooked all over again.

What are some of your old favorites, the books that helped hook you into your favorite genre?

(**Note: author has been known to show signs of dragon-like tendencies over signed books in the past.)

Fangirling! Brandon Sanderson

Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson sign books. I squee.

One of the two times I've been to Dragon*Con, I went as an Aes Sedai. If you've read the Wheel of Time series, you know what I'm talking about.

You also know Robert Jordan, the primary author, passed away before finishing the epic fantasy series. Fans were saddened by this news (understatement of the century). However, a new author was chosen to finish the series using Jordan's notes: Brandon Sanderson.

I actually picked up and read his Mistborn trilogy before I found out about that. It was fantastic. And I've liked every other book of his I've read (Warbreaker, Elantris, The Emperor's Soul, The Alloy of Time). I stopped reading the series after Jordan passed away, though, because I wanted the last books to come out before I finished (I knew I'd have to reread the whole thing anyway, so I figured rereading it all once was enough). A Memory of Light, the 14th book in the series and the long-awaited conclusion, is now out, courtesy of Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan('s in-depth notes).

So when I heard Sanderson was going to be in my state, I packed up and headed out to Quail Ridge Books to fangirl in person.

Also at the signing was Jordan's editor at Tor, and later his wife, Harriet McDougal. They spoke, and they're both good speakers.

We learned that much of the beginning and ending of the 14th book was Jordan, while the middle was mostly Sanderson. We learned Sanderson's technique for getting into the head of the characters was to read the last scenes Jordan had written from their points of view, and then show the product to McDougal, who having edited the first eleven books could advise if it was ready or needed work to be in character. We learned that McDougal could always tell whether her husband had been writing a villain or a hero just by how he walked into the room, and that Jordan had been particularly vehement against the idea of others writing in his universe--but that he'd been insistent that the series be finished. Sanderson disclosed to use which scenes in which books had been written by Jordan ahead of time and which were him (the Matt scenes in 12 were mostly Jordan but Sanderson in the next book; Perrin mostly Sanderson in 13, and so forth).

(Despite a disclaimer at the beginning in which Sanderson politely asked that no one reveal any spoilers, there was the inevitable moment when someone made a comment "But I wasn't upset when _____ died, because I didn't like the character in the first place." If you've never heard a hundred people groan in spoiler annoyance at once, it sounds like the agonized cries of marathon runners when they arrive after months of training to discover the race has been changed to a 100 meter dash. Sanderson strongly but politely reworded his request for no spoilers, which said guest, having arrived late and apparently lacking in common sense, had missed by coming in late.)

It was a fantastic talk, and could have gone on forever. However, then we would never had gotten any signed books. So we adjourned and the signing began.

While we waited for our books to be signed, the staff of the bookstore had created such amusements as a crossword puzzle, a trivia game, and a game in which the name of your character was sticky-noted onto your back, and you had to identify your character by asking those around you only yes or no questions. (I was Masema! >.>  <.<  >.> And no, I did not try to convince anyone to marry strangers.)

Quail Ridge Books does a fantastic job of signings. They're organized and have a great and efficient process in place to move fans through lines while still giving each person a chance to really talk to the authors. The store staff were great, willing to stay open late, and the volunteers (who'd entered a contest to be allowed to volunteer, and seemed to be having the time of their lives) were friendly and happy to be there.

And I was especially impressed that Sanderson took the time to point out that signers would have plenty of time to grab a bite to eat between signings (thanks to the store's system of signing and a limit of 3 books per run through the line), and he promised he wouldn't leave before 10:30. I was very impressed with how considerate he was towards his fans and also towards everyone who worked there, everyone whom he interacted with. Both he and McDougal seemed to be genuinely nice people, and so it was a pleasure to attend the signing, not just for the books but to meet them.

Also, after his talk, I think I know what inspired him to write The Emperor's Soul (which I devoured in the same day I purchased, nom-nom-nom!). I can't help but think that must be how he felt, digging through Jordan's notes, trying to recreate the work of a master. "I've learned so much," he said over and over again. "This experience has made me grow as a writer." Humble, considerate, and a great writer: it's a powerful combination.

The same goes for McDougal: funny, charismatic, and deeply devoted to her husband, I could hear her love for Jordan in her voice when she spoke, as much as the passion for the series she spent years editing. With her there, it was like Jordan was in the room as well.

I'm thrilled to gotten the chance to meet Sanderson and McDougal, and if you ever have the chance to hear either of them speak, do so.