Fandom Snowflake 2: Attack of the Snowflake

[extrapenguin]

It's fandom_snowflake time again!

Day 2

In your own space, share a book/song/movie/tv show/fanwork/etc that changed your life. Something that impacted on your consciousness in a way that left its mark on your soul. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Now tbh not very many individual things have changed my life – it's always more lots of small things than One Big Thing – but let's talk about the first adults' book I read: Isaac Asimov's Robots of Dawn, when I was 10. It was my first exposure to science fiction. (Before that, my reading had been more middle-grade horse novels, Donald Duck comics, and nonfiction on astronomy and horses.) It immediately became my favourite genre, as one can see from ... pretty much everything on my journal lol.

Fandom-wise, I decided I wanted to get into a book that actually had a fandom dammit, and read Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, because it had a chatty fandom on fail_fandomanon at the time. It's also got a chatroom. Now, I have realtime friends over IRC! (link in my masterpost)

Comments

[kiki_eng]

Little things can really add up.

I have been seeing The Goblin Emperor about this challenge and am totally getting intrigued. I love how chatty fannish people can kind of obliviously transform the world around them or good naturedly lure someone into their fandom. :)

[karanguni]

Goodness, this makes me realise how little Asimov I've read - I couldn't quite power through all of Foundation, but I think it was more me than him. Any recommendations outside of Robots of Dawn?

[extrapenguin]

Frankly, Foundation is the worst of the things he's written. Also one of the first – he improved notably.

Robots of Dawn is #3 in a series about an Earth cop and a Spacer robot solving murder mysteries. Chronological order: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, (a short story whose name I don't recall), Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire.

Standalone recs would include Nemesis, Nightfall, and The Gods Themselves. His Susan Calvin short stories (which should all be found in a collection called The Complete Robot) are also good. If you like time travel, then read The End of Eternity; otherwise, skip it. I remain charmed by the short story "Gold". If you like academic nerdery, read the short story on Thiotimoline.

Asimov hated incompetence and also realized that women existed, so his female characters are in general much, much better than those of some of his peers (*cough* Niven *cough*). He was also prolific as hell and I haven't read nearly all of his stuff, not even when I was Asperger's-obsessed with reading All The Asimov.

[extrapenguin]

We're small, but we're enthusiastic! It's a sweet fantasy steampunk story about the disfavored youngest son of the Emperor who gets abruptly made Emperor after his father and brothers die in an airship crash. If you're even a bit intrigued, do check it out – the fandom's nice, and has tastes that run from fluff to whump to porn to worldbuilding.

[kiki_eng]

Okay yes that sounds cool. :)

[hamsterwoman]

Asimov's Robots were some of the first adult books I read, too, maybe even the first. And then the first books I read for pleasure in English. And the Lije Baley and Daneel books remain my favorite Asimovs, partly for those nostalgia reasons, and have probably also given me a lifelong fondness for books mixing mystery and SFF.