I’m not always a fan of science fiction, but I’ll give Space Cadet a try.
I would totally have kept reading King if *IT *had been my first experience with him. But then, I love long books, love horror, and hate clowns. 
My first King experience was Carrie, which I think was a good one.
I’ll add another one to the list not to start with: The Gunslinger. Gad, that was a slog. They got better as the series went on (for the most part) but it took me three tries to get through that first one, and it took finally listening to it on audiobook to manage it. (I see that was mentioned on the list as part of the whole Dark Tower series, but this one especially.)
I disagree. It really is exactly bad, per se. Completely derivative, what you get when you cross Lord of the Rings with the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. I read all three, and I kept wondering why I wasn’t putting them down. To make amends I’m putting them down now :). None of Kay’s works are exactly great literature, but everything else I’ve read by him has been a damned sight better.
My contribution: China Mieville’s King Rat. I thought Perdido Street Station was a revelation, really enjoyed his other New Crobuzon books, and recommend The City and the City almost wholeheartedly. But King Rat was so clumsy, and ended on such a drearily preachy note, that I would never have given him a second chance had it been my first exposure to him.
Oh–and I’m really glad I read IT as a thirteen-year-old. There’s a scene in it that, read as an adult, would make me feel like I needed to register as a sex offender.
I’m a big fan of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series, but it’s a good thing that I did not start with “A” is for Alibi. After getting hooked on the series by starting from “B”, I found myself very unimpressed with “A”.
Re Stephen King’s It: I had to put it on the list just for that one scene.
I’ve enormously enjoyed a number of books by Larry McMurtry. There are an equal number that bordered on disappointing drivel.
Ditto with Sylvie and Bruno.
That would be my first choice as well. Austen’s other books are romantic comedies. Mansfield Park really isn’t. Its relatively dark and moralizing. I have reread it.
Robert Crais, “The First Rule”, starring his superman Joe Pike. A thoroughly unrealistic and very unpleasant story about the East European mob. Makes me nostalgic for the jolly Mafia. … I loved the earlier Elvis Cole books, they were like a little weekend trip to Los Angeles, and Elvis was personable and funny and interesting. As the series went on, the stories got darker and grimmer. That’s not a bad thing, and people LOVE Joe Pike. But I thought “The First Rule” was not a pleasurable reading experience. (Loved “The Monkey’s Raincoat”, as contrast.)
Agreed on this one. I thought the first Joe Pike novel, The Watchman, was pretty good – not as sharp as the earlier Elvis Cole books, but enjoyable. This one was… just kind of there. I didn’t think it was terrible or anything, but it was pretty much gone from my mind as soon as I turned the last page.
John le Carre became almost unreadable when he switched from Cold War spy story to anti-Imperialism screed. (I wouldn’t have even read his most recent books except each time I find a review that says “Recovered his old form!” – I’m so gullible.) Two of his best novels were his very first two: detective stories with George Smiley.
I agree, I have the original American printings of the first three books with the Kirby covers. I have to say, his American covers suck. It almost makes me want to pay to ship over the Brit versions. I started to , but at $20+ a pperback, it was getting too expensive. Maybe if they were hardcovers, but paperbacks just don’t have life span.
In the US, the first couple books were out of print for a long time. I had most of them from when I was a kid and bought them, but Eric was the only one that was out of print and I didn’t have. I vividly remember the day I saw that his publisher had started to reissue the Discworld books. I remember counting down the months until they were going to get to Eric. I was there as soon as I was done with class to pick it up, and to be fair, I should have just skipped the day because all I was thinking about was I’d finally get to read Eric. An hour later and I was this is it? Did I even get a Pratchett book? It’s the only one I haven’t reread ever.
And to the one who said they didn’t like drunken Vimes, I kind of like him more. He pulled himself together and made something of himself. It makes where he is now all that more special to me. Not many people can just walk away from an addicition like that. And that’s why he’s a hero. He stepped up to the plate when his people really needed him.
I read an NYT book reveiw on the latest one, U Is For Undertow. It was a very positive reveiw, and it said the series on a whole was quirky and fun.
I read A Is For Alibi, went “Huh? This is something special?”, and then said, “Well, she did say Kinsey’s character developes over time. I guess they get better.”
I’m up to, what, I Is For Innocence now?
And I forgot to ask this earlier, but what exactly do you guys mean that Eric doesn’t have a plot? What is “A wannabe demonologist summons Rincewind instead of an actual demon, and hilarity ensues”, if not a plot?
Malleus, Incus, Stapes:
So does that mean that you’re now hooked on Kinsey? Out of curiosity, when did it grab you, at B?
I guess. I ordered A, B, and C at the same time, so by the time I got to C I was interested in Kinsey’s developing personal story.
About Terry Pratchett’s Eric, am I remembering correctly that it was originally written to be a graphic novel? I want to say it actually was first released in that format, although I’ve never seen a copy. If this is true it would explain why Eric the non-graphic novel doesn’t work that well (it was meant to be illustrated) and also why it’s so short.
Seconding this.
Though I would also not recommend starting with The Iron Council as it is so overtly political. Even though CM’s political views resemble mine and probably my friends’ too, I think this might scare people off a bit if that was their first. Perdido is the one to start, then The Scar and by then they’ll be so hungry for New Crobuzon stuff they won’t care about the slightly heavyhanded political stuff anymore.
Have not read that one. Sixth Column was both bad and very racist (apparently mainly because of John W. Campbell’s influence, but Campbell’s name isn’t on the cover).
Yeah, I thought Iron Council was by far the weakest of the three New Crobuzon books; I liked the first two in part because the characters were Leftist revolutionary types thrown against their will into some kind of high fantasy adventury thing that they had to deal with; Iron Council was leftist revolutionaries throwing a revolution, and losing that distance really hurt the story from my perspective.
What one scene?