The Sword and Laser discussion

Tom wrote: "Also William Gibson often gets props for the opening of Neuromancer:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Gibson gets props for a good reason. In one sentence he creates a sense of grimy wonder, and his world immediately feels "lived-in." I can't think of any other book where I have seen an author establish his/her "voice"so quickly,"

It was a pretty awesome line in 1984. Nowadays, though, I have to think people born in the digital age (which is everyone under the age of 25) would have a different mental image of that. These days dead channels are bright blue, not steel wool gray.

Trike wrote: "It only works if you're an actor. And stupidstitious"

Well, when Homer Simpson said it things kept falling on Ian Mackellen's head.

Nick wrote: "Not from a real book but written by Billy Crystal's character in "Throw Mama From The Train" ...

"The night was humid."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLli0u...

The thought process leading to ..."

OOOOOWWWWWWEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

"the night was moist" "The night was wet" "The night was....." "The night was......."

SULTRY!!!!!!!!!!!

That was a great movie back in the day. I really wonder if it would hold up at all.

Micah wrote: "That was a great movie back in the day. I really wonder if it would hold up at all. "

It does. It has timeless characters and conflict and is still terrifically funny.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

'If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head.'

Trike wrote: "Tom wrote: "Also William Gibson often gets props for the opening of Neuromancer:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

Gibson gets props for a good reason..."

I dig what you're saying. My brother mentioned the same thing to me a while back. Whether you read the line to mean that the sky is a nasty gray or a dead electric blue, the imagery still works. Gibson wants to put you in a world where the palette of people's perception makes no distinction between the natural and the unnatural, I think. Or that they exist as reference points for people in that world to use one to make sense of the other. Given what follows, it's a perfect opening.

Plus the line just "reads" well. Stick any color you want in there, the line still grabs you.

A new one I encountered today, from Joan Slonczewski's The Highest Frontier:

"The spacelift rose from the Pacific, climbing the cords of anthrax bacteria."

That right there put it on my to-read list.

"Dirk Moeller didn't know if he could really fart his way into a major diplomatic incident. But he was ready to find out."

The Android's Dream By John Scalzi.

"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam."
Lord of Light

"The Gibbelins eat, as is well known, nothing less good than man."

The Hoard of the Gibbelins by Lord Dunsany
Edit: I had to look up his full name... It's worth it! Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany

Rob wrote: "I have to go The Gunslinger "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."

Simple, but memorable. At least to me."

That's one of my favorites, too. But, oddly enough, the man-himself doesnt' mention it.

Ayesha wrote: "Rob wrote: "I have to go The Gunslinger "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."

Simple, but memorable. At least to me."

That's one of my favorites, too. But, oddl..."

Wow, you beat me to posting this link. It's a great read so and it fits in so well with this thread.

Not surprised, someone threw "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed," up front. Great hoook line.

Thanks for the link over here from the other post, Rob.

Sure thing. It seemed silly to start a new thread when there was already a lot of great stuff shared. Just had to do a bit of digging to find it.

"I may have already had some presentiment of my future."

-Gene Wolfe, Book of the New Sun.

(If you've read this story, that is an excellent opening line)

Have always been partial to the way John Irving starts and ends books. Particularly:

“Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater.” - The World According to Garp

“The young Canadian, who could not have been more than fifteen, had hesitated too long.” - Last Night in Twisted River

Harry Potter's makes me smile:

"Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Agreed with the mentions of The Gunslinger, Old Man's War and Slaughterhouse Five as well. Good ones that draw you right in.

Some others that come to mind:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold." - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." - The Graveyard Book

"The story so far: In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Rob wrote: "Sure thing. It seemed silly to start a new thread when there was already a lot of great stuff shared. Just had to do a bit of digging to find it."

I did a search before making that other post and didn't see any similar topics. So, thanks for looking out, Rob.

Yeah, no worries. I had trouble finding it, and I knew it was there.

"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the North Sea." -Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Not sword or laser but I do like the first line of Pride and Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

One of the books I'm currently is A Natural History of Dragons and you really get a feeling of the book in the first sentence, which sets the tone (Austen-like) and then sets the hook at the end:

"Not a day goes by that the post does not bring me at least one letter from a young person (or sometimes one not so young) who wishes to follow in my footsteps and become a dragon naturalist."

I think people have mentioned Tolkien already, but there's something is like to point out

"In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit."
This is literally poetry. It's anapestic! Which is why it sounds so wonderful

Allison wrote, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

It is funny that you mention this one. I can't, stand the way commas are used, in this book. :)

Has anyone (including myself) mentioned Dead Until Dark?

"A vampire walked into a bar."

Sets the tone and introduces the genre, all in 6 words.

I was looking through my books to see if there were any forgotten opening lines.

Here's a good one from Ringworld: "In the nighttime heart of Beirut, in one of a row of general-address transfer booths, Louis Wu flicked into reality."

Here's a good one from Red-Headed Stepchild:

"Digging graves is hell on a manicure, but I was taught good vampires clean up after every meal."

"Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians."
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit."

I'm going to cheat a little bit, the following is not the opening sentence, but instead is an epigram at the start of Scott Bakker's new short story, The Knife of Many Hands.

"Glory drinks blood and vomits history."

The actual first sentence also paints quite the picture.

"Violence hangs from you in sacks when you triumph in the Sranc Pits."

The opening line of The Martian by Andy Weir.

"I'm pretty much fucked."
That's my considered opinion."
Fucked."

Has to be the Gunslinger.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Has to be the Gunslinger.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Saga, page 1.


This is how an idea becomes real.
"Am I shitting? It feels like I'm shitting!"

Jack L. Chalker really had a knack for writing killer opening lines:

"The little man in the tweed jacket didn't look like a bomb." -- Lilith: A Snake in the Grass

"It would have been far easier for Har Barteen to conquer the world if he had had cold." -- The Return of Nathan Brazil

"When the end of the world is near, spend the remaining time in a bar," -- And the Devil Will Drag You Under

"Paul Carleton Savage died for the first time on July 29, 1969, in a bit of characteristic Army brilliance." -- A Jungle of Stars

From my to-read pile, as I try to decide what to read next:

"It's not as easy as it looks to come back from the dead." -- Dying Is My Business, Nicholas Kaufmann

"Jain prided herself on being a person who prepared for everything, but there was only so much you could do to prepare to jump across two thousand miles of open vacuum." -- Outlaw, Edward W. Robinson

Tamahome wrote: "Saga, page 1.


This is how an idea becomes real.
"Am I shitting? It feels like I'm shitting!""

I love Alana :-) She has become my favourite female sci-fi/fantasy character (and that includes books, comics, TV, Movies etc)

She has all the best lines and a lot of them come with an R18+ rating ;-)

"As I left the Kenya Beanstalk station he was right on my heels. He followed me through the door leading to Customs, Health and Immigration. As the door contracted behind him I killed him."

From Friday by Robert Heinlein, one of my favorite Heinlein, perhaps more so than even The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Kevin wrote: "Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert.

The opening line of Kameron Hurley's God's War."

This was the line that came to my mind when I saw this thread

Fresno Bob wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert.

The opening line of Kameron Hurley's God's War."

This was the line that came to my mind when I saw ..."

That is an awesome first line!

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but I've always liked the opening line of Brandon Sanderson's Elantris

"Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity."

"Just outside the expanding light cone of the present a star died, iron bombed."

From Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross.

Rob wrote: "@Jordan what you said is sort of spoilery. You may want to put the bulk of your post in spoiler tags.

Then again people who haven't read it may not realize that until I'm pointing it out. hmm."

Yeah, Jordan's was really not spoiler-y at all. You should put YOUR post in spoiler tags, though. :)

My vote? The opening epigraph to REH's The Phoenix on the Sword:

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars - "

My favorite first line has to be from Jim Butcher's Blood Rites (book 6 the Dresden Files)

"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

It just captures Harry Dresden and the tone of the series *so well*.

Lol, love that one too. Good ole Dresden

Darren wrote: "My vote? The opening epigraph to REH's The Phoenix on the Sword:


"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars -"

I find it impossible to read that without hearing Mako's voice over Basil Poledouris' magnificent score. The movie version is different but just as epic.

http://youtu.be/9oIWi3IK3RI

Fahrenheit 451 It was a pleasure to burn

The first line of a thousand novels, written by a dog. Each one amazing.(But actually written by Charles Schultz.)

Are you claiming Schulz wrote that line? Because he didn't. It was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, at least 120 years before Peanuts was created.

By the way, if anyone is in need of an hour's worth of hearty guffaws, I highly recommend perusing the winners and runners-up of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Trike wrote: "By the way, if anyone is in need of an hour's worth of hearty guffaws, I highly recommend perusing the winners and runners-up of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest."

Damn you, Trike. I'll never get those hours back.