I was about 10 years old when I first picked up Tolkien. From there, my reading tastes eventually migrated toward what I'd consider hard science fiction.
These days, I read a lot of Iain M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons, Peter Watts, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and James S.A. Corey.
That said, I still love the classics and lighter fare. Giants like Asimov, Clarke, and Niven are always in my Kindle. I consider Terry Pratchett (though fantasy) and Philip K. Dick have been two absolutely amazing, unique talents, and Frank Herbert is, of course, a staple.
I’m also a big fan of Michael Moorcock (hence my forum name) and will even go full-on classic-era pulp with Andre Norton - a rare female writer of the era.
When I was a kid, one of my mother’s employees gave me a box of vintage sci-fi and some fantasy paperbacks, (all nicely patinaed) which was an incredible introduction to the genre. PKD, Moorcock, Norton and others came from there.
Being born in '69, I saw Star Wars at just the right age; it became a core obsession throughout my childhood. Around the same time (pre teen, early teen), I got hooked on early Japanese anime, classics like Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer), Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers), and the vintage super robot era: Mazinger Z (Tranzor Z), Getter Robo, Gaiking, and UFO Robot Grendizer (Force Five). I drifted away from anime after the 90s, it just seemed to lose some of that original coolness for me.
The ultimate irony? My first wife was actually the daughter of
Ichiro Mizuki (the legendary "Aniki" of anime theme songs).
Because of that connection, I had the chance to meet a lot of incredibly cool people in the industry after moving to Japan.
He passed a few years ago unfortunately. Now my daugther is picking up the family microphone.
I WANT TO LIKE these things but they are simply creatively Bankrupt cash grabs.
