Thanks for the link, Ginger. I liked Vance even before the NYT called him "the anti-Paul Auster."

I haven't read the whole article; I'll be interested to see if they mention that Gary Gygax based the magic system in D&D on Vance's work.

I'll be interested to see if they mention that Gary Gygax based the magic system in D&D on Vance's work.

They do.

I discovered Vance in that magic 12-13 zone with The Dying Earth. One of the most pleasurable and decadent reading experiences you can have at that age.

Someone once asked Isaac Asimov when the Golden Age of Science Fiction was. After some thought he replied, "12".

Don't tell Readercon.

(Sorry; I've been sucked into reading the Readercon kerfluffle, and it's just amusing the crap out of me. GRE scores? Seriously?!?)

Given that 12 is when I discovered Asimov, I agree with him entirely. (I don't think there's another sci-fi experience that has come close to the first time I encountered the Foundation series.)

I started reading with Asimov - at least, that's my memory (reading "The Martian Way" collection of short fiction at the age of 5...I may have had other things read to me by grandparents earlier, but I don't remember that.)

Foundation totally skewed my idea of "science fiction" - it all has to be space opera, or it just doesn't feel right. :)

My father read SF early on so his books were around the house and once I learned to read, I read everything I could get my hands on. So ... I started early. Unfortunately, all his books from before, oh 1949 or so, were burned ... in a house fire - not a book burning, mind you.

Unfortunately, all his books from before, oh 1949 or so, were burned ... in a house fire - not a book burning, mind you.

Oog. That's like a kick in the stomach. But yay early scifi!

I have to actually make up my mind if I'm going to pursue the Perry Rhodan stuff again; when I was a teenager, I found 5 of the later books (in the 140s), and though they're perfectly cheesy opera fluff, it's FUN. (And German, which tickles my Prussian fancy.)

But it's hundreds of books. I don't know if I could tolerate that.

I read a lot of fantasy as a child, but was put off sci-fi because I thought it was a boy thing - the boys in my school were always talking about Transformers and the like. Until, that is, I was twelve, and I saw 'The Search for Spock' on TV. I couldn't stop talking about it for months - I bored my parents silly, until one day I was talking about it as I passed a bookshop with my father. He bought me the first three 'Foundation' books and told me to go and enjoy. The rest is geekdom.

My mother always disapproved of my reading SF - it wasn't ladylike enough for her. I still remember when Analog published "Dune" as a serial - knocked my socks off.