How many posters are not big fantasy fans?

[tijde]

I'm a rabid reader but definitely not a fantasy fan, and especially not medieval fantasy. My mother is a fanatical LOTR fan, so I tried to read the trilogy many times as a kid. Finally got through it by making it the only English book I took when I went to China. It was still a slog. I read a lot of horror, but love good historical fiction (<3 Michener, Gypsy!) and mysteries. I usually stay away from sci fi, romance, chick lit and fantasy, but enough recommendations and I'll try just about anything.

Mostly I just don't care for works that are epic for the sake of being epic. I got hooked on ASOIAF via the HBO series. At the risk of being excommunicated/crow-caged/flayed/beheaded, I confess I'm actually not a huge fan of GRRM's writing style, but the story itself is amazing. The political intrigue and characters in ASOIAF were enough to keep me going when I got frustrated with the epic-ness. That's not to say GRRM isn't a great writer--he absolutely is. It's like the opposite of some of Stephen King's books for me: The story itself might not be anything new or amazing (*ahem* Under the Dome), but I love his writing style so much that I'll happily devour it, usually multiple times. For ASOIAF, I may not love GRRM's "voice," but the story and characters are so good that I'll happily devour it, multiple times.

[Alissa]

I've always liked fantasy, even though it's hard to find a good fantasy novel. Many are just so full of cliches and flat characters, but if you dig long enough you can always find some gem like ASoIaF. But I guess that is true for almost any genre.

[courser]

I loathed LoTR and Hobbit was painful... I found that fantasy didn't have the necessary characters for me... generally interesting females. And the whole magic thing always irritated me (unless it was HP and then...well I loved those). SF was a big draw and mysteries and nonfiction are my main genres.

Then the TV show started and I thought.. 'hey this ain't half bad' and my bf had read the books and said he really enjoyed them and some other friends were all 'oooh winter is coming' so I thought I would give them a go. And holy kittens I'm glad I did. I'm addicted to these books and I'm thinking about reading some of GRRM other work...

tl;dr...no fantasy til these

[Dacie]

I've always had a thing for fantasy, my favorite movie as a child was Willow :)

I've never really read a lot of it though. I read LotR and the Hobbit in high school thought they were ok. Then when the movies came out I re-read them and fell in love.

I put off reading ASoIaF for a long time, mostly because the reviews on Amazon made it seem like something you need a PhD in medieval history to comprehend. I read for pure escape; real life is stressful enough and I didn't really want to get involved with something that was difficult. Then I watched the tv show and thought "Hey! This ain't so bad!"

Five books and countless hours later an I'm completely hooked. I have never in my life even considered joining an Internet forum before this, but boy I'm glad I did :cheers:

[Stark4life]

I don't read a lot. I've read a quite a few Stephen King and James Patterson books. I read the Harry Potter series. I've never read the LOTR but I did read the Hobbit in 7th grade. Once I watched GoT on HBO last year I was hooked. I had all the books done and was waiting on DwD. Now I'm re-reading waiting on WoW. I've never liked fantasy and I really don't think it is the fantasy that I like about ASOIAF. It's just that it is so bad-ass awesome. I'm completely obsessed. I honestly can't see myself reading anything else right now. I constantly am looking for new theories and information that I didn't know. This forum has become almost a second home to me. I don't post much but I love reading everything I can about the books. Thanks to all who here who make ASOIAF that much better for me.

[TyrionFan82]

I agree wthe OP. I'm normally not a big fantasy fan. I read The Chronicles of Narnia years ago, saw the LOTR movies, but never searched out fantasy. I saw the JBO series and got hooked though and had to read the series and am so glad I did. I usually read spy/action novels like Vince Flynn and the crime novels of James Ellroy. I'm not sure I'd read another fantasy series, because I'd compare it to GRRM, we'll see. I also read a lot og current event/history books.

[A...]

I'm not sure about 'fan' but I wouldn't call myself a big fantasy reader. I read Harry Potter like pretty much everybody else in my generation, and loved it (I never really associated it with fantasy per se...) I had The Hobbit read out loud to me three times and The Lord of the Rings twice by my Father before the age of seven or so, and loved that too. I went on my pilgrimage to Tolkien's grave and toyed with the idea of leaving a ring, but decided I liked my all my rings too much to part with them. I re-read the Narnia books aged around ten, but I had them read aloud long before that (if my father ends up losing his voice before the age of sixty I, with my love of bedtime stories, will probably be the one to blame). But aside from those obvious three I mostly spend my time reading classics like Austen, Hardy, Bronte or Dickens, with Mrs Gaskell, Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie in between. I got 'converted' to GRRM by HBO and started reading the books after watching both seasons in about three days. Around the same time I was reading books like Wolf Hall and Katherine though, so I think the ASOIAF love might have been sparked by a general interest in historical fiction, as the books are 'low fantasy' after all and focus for the most part on power plays and political scheming.

[Watcher_inthe_Woods]

I've not typically read fantasy with the exception of Tolkien....most of my book shelf is filled with true crime, King, Rice and I'm a Rowling fan. It was the series that got me hooked to ASOIAF....I had seen one episode of the first season when visiting family in the States and then looked up the series on the net...got the first 3 books for xmas. Read them all within a month and was out buying the other 2 as soon as I could and got the first season of GOT on dvd. I am forever more a Westerosi fan. My partner who is not a reader has been so patient with me explaining the books (she is a fan of the series) that we now have long chats about plot points and possibilities....lol. The political scheming in the series is really intriguing.

[A wilding]

I am a voracious reader (Mrs W is convinced I am the model the Rodrik the Reader) and enjoyed LotR as a kid but had given up on fantasy years before ASOIAF. However I had always vaguely wondered what happened to that guy who wrote those excellent SF short stories, so when I saw a hardback AGoT in a remaindered bookshop in 1997 I gave it a try ...

I have read more fantasy since then, but with a few honourable exceptions I tend to find it too shallow to enjoy much.

[_Oberyn_]

Not a fan at all. Usualy stick to low fantasy book that depict/closely resemble Rome/Medieval era. And no guns ffs.

[Lady Tippy Wolfsbane]

OVER?!! I am still finding nuggets on rereading.

I meant our pre-ASOIAF lives are over, and it will be a while before we get them back. :laugh:

This was basically what got me started on the books:

Bf: That reminds me of something that was on GoT.

Me: What's GoT?

Bf: A new HBO show based on a fantasy series I like. But I don't want to spoil it for you.

Me: Oh whatever, I don't like fantasy and I'm not going to watch it anyway. Just tell me!

Bf: Okay then. [goes on to explain the entire plot of the first book]

Me: Wait, so she wants to kill the king that she's cheating on with her own brother? What the hell? [immediately devours entire series]

I only wish I hadn't gotten the whole first booj spoiled for myself. :(

I ruined all five books for myself, and I sometimes wonder if it would be more amazing if I didn't know what was going to happen. Contrarily, I love reading the books knowing things, because it's easier to find clues on the first read. The Winds of Winter will be epic, since I'm going in blind. :D

This. Between Elder Scrolls and aSoIaF..... I've wasted half my life.

I have wasted the last 7 months of my life on this series...so I fully understand. :cheers:

[Snowborn]

I like fantasy, but I haven't read many fantasy books. I read the first four HP books, and I liked them, but then I found LOTR and they seemed to pale in comparison. How could I get involved again in the adventures of a teenage wizard and his two friends after having followed Frodo and Sam to Mordor, and having met the Elves and the Edain? I read the trilogy around 15 times, and around 20 times the Silmarillion. I read The Hobbit too, but not that many times. I love magical realism (??) though. Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende on my early teenage years, Haruki Murakami... Dostoievski, Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, Julio Cortázar are also writers I like a lot.

Then I found ASOIAF, last February, and my life has been revolving around it since. They combine all the elements I love in a novel, and have such compelling and well written characters it's addictive...