you could tell a lot about a science fiction Word from its first conviction . A truly not bad first sentence plant a tone , sticks in your creative thinker , and serves as a little otherworldly koan , discombobulate your first moment . And maybe gross out your shit a little . Here are our favorite science fiction hatchway sentence of all time .
Having looked through a few thousand opening move sentences at the bookstore and on-line – no exaggeration – I can generalize a bit . There are a peck of opening sentences that annunciate the beginning of a rollicking thread , with an action prison term .
Like this , from Dan Brown ’s Angels & Demons : “ Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning pulp , and he knew it was his own . ” Boom ! A guy ’s flesh is burn . It ’s exciting ! A slight variation is the apposition of the terrene natural process with the exciting matter that disrupt it , sort of like , “ I was hanging some kitchen ledge when the cyber - rhinoceros burst through my floor , tusks irrupt with brainy fire . ”
And then there are wads of opening sentences that are just quirky , or rambling , let you bed the generator is settle in to secern a long , rumbly bulldozer of a story . And aboveboard , most of the opening judgment of conviction I look at were either very business - comparable , or not very interesting . Or both .
Here are the ones which actually stay put with me and lodged in my mastermind a bit :
“ ‘ I ’ve watched through his eyes , I ’ve listened through his ears , and I differentiate you he ’s the one . ' ” – Ender ’s Game by Orson Scott Card . Starting a story , allow alone a novel , with a piece of dialog is a sheer alternative , and most of the time it ’s first-rate cheesy . I really care this line , though , because it ’s so intriguing and it omit in a lot of info . How have they been find out through his eye ? mind through his ears , and what ’s “ the one ” ?
“ The sky above the port was the color of television , tuned to a dead groove . ” – William Gibson , Neuromancer . People always cite this as a great opening line , and it ’s easy to see why . It ’s such a brilliant ikon .
“ They set a slamhound on Turner ’s track in New Delhi , slot it to his pheromones and the gloss of his hair . ” – Count Zero by William Gibson . Okay , come on . This is just so fun . It ’s got the bats jargon : “ slamhound , ” “ slotted , ” and the idea that it can be tied to random things like hair colour and pheromones . And it ’s scranch with energy !
“ The morning after he kill Eugene Shapiro , Andre Deschenes woke early . ” – Undertow by Elizabeth Bear . This is almost the mundane / exciting juxtaposition , but it ’s more than that , because the mundane comes after the exciting . And it makes you curious about Andre Deschenes and how he can slumber after stamp out a guy . And who Eugene Shapiro is . I was reading Undertow a while back , and this prison term sucked me in .
“ Monday morning when I answered the doorway there were twenty - one newfangled real demesne agents there , all in horrible polyester gold jackets . ” – Rudy Rucker , The Hacker And The Ants , Version 2.0 . Surreal – transreal , even – and garish and weird . And the fact that there are 21 real estate agents just makes it that much better .
“ I lived long enough to see the cure for expiry ; to see the ascent of the Bitchun Society , to ascertain ten languages ; to compose three symphonies ; to realise my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World ; to see the death of the workplace and of work . ” – Cory Doctorow , Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom . I like a nice brisk orifice . Again , the wacky jargon ( the “ Bitchun Society ” ) and the weird length of service , and then the personal suddenly open way to the larger motion picture , with the death of the workplace .
“ He woke , and recall dying . ” – Ken MacLeod , The Stone Canal . I do n’t really think I involve to explicate why this is a enceinte opening . It ’s spare and challenging . And no adjectives or adverb . Yay !
“ The manhunt extend across more than one hundred light years and eight centuries . ” – Vernor Vinge , A Deepness In The Sky . This is reasonably stuffy to being your standard brisk , action - packed chess opening . Except for the immense orbit of it , pair with the preciseness .
“ Two field glass panes with grease between and little burrow from cell to cell : when I was a small fry I had an ant dependency . ” – Samuel R. Delany , The Star Pit . It ’s almost a poem , and it surge outwards in a lovely way , from the filth burrow to the ant dependency . For a moment , you remember it could be an foreign zoological garden or something .
“ The five small foxiness pass from shadow , emerging with the suddenness of coin thrown into sun . ” – Scott Westerfeld , The Risen Empire . This one , I was on the fence about . It ’s a little adjective - operose , and it has the peaceful construction at the end . But I really like the coins thrown into sunlight , it ’s a lovely range and it ’s about the last thing that comes to thinker when you reckon about spaceship emerging from somewhere .
“ At the end , the bottom , the very sorry of it , with the public afire and hell ’s flamewinged angels calling him by name , Lee Crane blamed himself . ” – Theodore Sturgeon , Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea . Again , it ’s grow peachy energy , and even though it has my favorite peeve – the random “ it ” occupy the space where a real world should be – it ’s got the Blakeian imagery , and then you absolutely have to know why Lee Crane pick himself .
“ In the summer of his 12th year – the summertime the stars get to fall from the sky – the boy Isaac discovered that he could tell East from West with his eyes close . ” – Axis , Robert Charles Wilson . It ’s got so much kick the bucket on , what with the come - of - age thing and the champion falling . But then you get that human - compass thing , which is intriguing and fascinating . And this is a nice , spare sentence , with no excess clutter . It ’s snappy !
“ Today is the two - 100th anniversary of the last extinction of my One True Love , as nigh as I can date it . ” – Saturn ’s Children , Charles Stross . It ’s like the kickoff of a romance novel , except for the mention of 200 years and the word “ extermination . ” They stick by out like jag niggling spurs , amidst the shmoopy “ One True Love ” jargon .
Oh , and I came across one initiative sentence that stupefy in my judgement afterwards , but then I could n’t rule it again . It was something like , “ He did not often think about kidnapping his daughter and stealing the spaceship . ” But there was more to it than that . What am I retrieve of ?
This io9 flashback originally appeared in 2008 . What capital opening time have appeared in scientific discipline fabrication novels bring out since then ?
BooksNeuromancerOrson Scott CardVernor Vinge
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