Every great fantasy novel is a journeying into mystery and wonder . And the proficient fantasy writers set the feeling of discovery with the very first sentence . peculiarly in these twenty-four hours of online book excerpts and Amazon.com previews , the porta prison term of a book can cast a trance — or cast readers out of the Holy Scripture , everlastingly .
Here are 39 of the greatest opening sentence from phantasy novels !
Top image : Smaug and his Treasure byShockbolt on DeviantArt
This is sort of a Comic Con tradition — every Thursday of Comic Con , we always do a post that celebrates with child books . In previous years , we didgreat opening lines from skill fabrication , great last blood line from scientific discipline fiction novels , great reference description from SF & fantasy books , andgreat advice to populate by from SF and illusion volume .
https://gizmodo.com/great-opening-sentences-from-science-fiction-5027128
https://gizmodo.com/our-favorite-last-lines-from-science-fiction-novels-5326797
https://gizmodo.com/great-character-descriptions-from-science-fiction-and-f-5823291
https://gizmodo.com/words-to-live-by-advice-from-34-science-fiction-fantas-5579212
“ Diaries are keep by men : potent brushstrokes on quiet mulberry newspaper , gather into sheaves and tied with ribbon and place in a lacquered loge . ”
— The Fox Woman , Kij Johnson
A beautiful image that specify a tone of elegance and also give indirectly that this is n’t a acculturation where diaries are compose in hardcover blank books . Plus you ’re left hanging to find out what women do .
“ permit me say you why I wished to bribe a mierkat at Quin ’s Shanghai Circus . ”
— Veniss Underground , Jeff Vandermeer
The conversational opening move prison term is always a great belief — the narrator speaking directly to the reader . And the word “ meerkat ” just sort of pops out at you . Apparently there ’s a retentive story about this meerkat ? At the carnival ? Curiosity : engaged .
“ Because she was Chalice she support at the front room access with the Grand Seneschal , the Overlord ’s agent and the Prelate , all of whom were carefully discount her . ”
— Chalice , Robin McKinley
Starting your first sentence with a dependent article is always a hazardous move , but this sets up our curiosity about what it means that “ she was Chalice ” … and then we wait through the telling list of titles to bump out that this means that everyone brush aside her . We instantly require to know more .
“ Taran wanted to make a brand ; but Coll , charged with the practical side of his education , decide on horseshoes . ”
— The Book of Three , Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander is one of the with child underappreciated phantasy writer , and this is a terrific opening . It sets a humourous tone , but also establishes a struggle in the very first sentence . That semicolon turn off like a sword in itself .
“ Everything depart somewhere , although many physicists disagree . ”
— Hogfather , Terry Pratchett
As we ’ll see further down the list , setting up a generalisation and then overturning it is always a brainy agency to launch a story . Plus this is just such a peculiar , sharp scuttle .
“ They said later that he ride into the small town on a horse the color of buttermilk , but I see him walk out of the wood . ”
— Winter Rose , Patricia McKillip
Also great : contrast the myth with the realness . And we can totally see the buttermilk - colored gymnastic horse in our heads , only to retrieve out there ’s no such horse .
“ The year that Buttercup was born , the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette . ”
— The Princess Bride , William Goldman
And here ’s another funny porta sentence that completely defuses the mythologic flavor by telling you the most beautiful womanhood in the world is some other person , not the fib ’s heroine .
“ There are plenty would call her a slut for it . ”
— Tender Morsels , Margo Lanagan
Lovely rhythm method here , plus you at once want to know what “ she ” would be called a slut for , and why there ’s apparently debate over this .
“ ‘ A burning map . Every epic , ’ my admirer Jack used to say , ‘ should get with a burning map . ' ”
Vellum : The Book of All hour , Hal Duncan
Why is this map burning ? Wait , is there actually a combustion single-valued function , or is this just a rule of quarter round that we may or may not be following this sentence around ? Is the tale we ’re reading an epic ? So many burning questions .
“ If I could tell you this in a single posing , then you might conceive all of it , even the strangest part . ”
— The Limits of Enchantments , Graham Joyce
Again , the narrator address the lector , and lets us know this is a long , unearthly story — that will contain us along , if we get swept up in it . Also puts you on notice that you ’re going to be up all nighttime read this Quran in one go .
“ When a traveller in north central Massachusetts take the incorrect fork at the junction of Aylesbury Pike just beyond Dean ’s corner he follow upon a lonely and curious country . ”
— The Dunwich Horror , H.P. Lovecraft
This is a heavy example of setting a mood . Lovecraft is known for his adjective , but these in particular are sparse and evocative : “ incorrect , ” “ lonely ” and “ curious . ”
“ A tendril of the strange fragrance spiraled up from the neat Isidor Feinstein Stone cylinder block . Kenton felt it fondle his face like a inveigle paw . ”
— Ship of Ishtar , A. Merrit
Okay , so this is two sentence . There ’s a couple more like that below . In any causa , a “ tendril ” of fragrance is a arrant descriptive term — no need for adjectives or embellishment , you feel the fragrance caress you .
“ When a man you cognize to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased female parent has just tried to climb in his sleeping accommodation window and eat him , you only have two basic options . ”
— The Steel Remains , Richard K. Morgan
Another rule of quarter round , another all bugshit circumstance — inaugurate , this clip , in a very matter - of - fact tone . You know instantly that the principal character fancies himself a evaluator of character , too .
“ The edifice was on fire , and it was n’t my fault . ”
— bloodline religious rite : A Novel of the Dresden Files , Jim Butcher
Again with the burn — thing on flak is always a great scratch line to a story . And this advance the strong possibility that it could have been Dresden ’s fault , which is always interesting .
“ The man in black take flight across the desert , and the hired gun followed . ”
— The Gunslinger , Stephen King
This is the classic of all classic . I retrieve we might have included this under science fiction openings too , but it endure retell . It pay you action and mood — and a theatrical role who ’s badass enough to wear black in the hot desert .
“ Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians . ”
— Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell , Susanna Clarke
Nice mount of a nineteenth C , fairytale - ish tone of voice , without say “ once upon a clip ” or anything . And you instantly want to cognize more about this magician gild .
“ All children , except one , develop up . ”
— Peter Pan , J. M. Barrie
formula of quarter round , demoralize . This is like one of those “ six parole stories , ” except you desire to see where it goes after this .
“ Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank , and of have nothing to do : once or double she had peeped into the book her sister was reading , but it had no pictures or conversation in it , ‘ and what is the manipulation of a Holy Scripture , ’ thought Alice ‘ without word-painting or conversations ? ” ‘
— Alice ’s Adventures in Wonderland , Lewis Carroll .
As with the burning map affair , this is a expectant opening that talk about Bible and story by way of life of launch the floor — and now you jazz that this book will have both pictures and conversation , and that Alice is a ungratified nestling .
“ The circus arrives without warning . ”
— The Night Circus , Erin Morgenstern
Another short , prehensile conviction — what variety of circus is it , that you do n’t see coming from a long way off , or that does n’t show up with sight of fanfare ?
“ Locke Lamora ’s rule of thumb was this : a good self-confidence plot took three month to plan , three weeks to rehearse , and three seconds to deliver the goods or lose the victim ’s reliance forever . ”
— The Lies of Locke Lamora , Scott Lynch
You instantly sense like you know a mickle about Locke Lamora , master con artist , and his tricksy tricks . You are study the ways of Locke , right from the first judgment of conviction .
“ One can not raise walls against what has been forgotten . ”
— The swarthiness That Comes Before , R. Scott Bakker
Another rule of ovolo , but this one sounds ominous — you hear it in a sonorous , stentorian tone . You already sleep with that whatever has been forgotten , it ca n’t be salutary .
“ Prince Raoden of Arelon come alive ahead of time that morning , entirely unaware that he had been imprecate for all infinity . ”
— Elantris , Brandon Sanderson
Once again , this is an opening that establishes struggle instantly , and you want to make out why this prince is bedamn .
“ His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god . ”
— Lord of Light , Roger Zelazny
Like a few of the others here , this put up the plot of ground in just a handful of word of honor , plus the elaborate name instantly conjures a whole image of fancy robe and ceremonies .
“ With my hand on the doorjamb , some buried - alive instinct thumps within my chest : this is going to hurt . ”
— Heroes Die , Matthew Woodring Stover
Present tense ! The tenseness is instantly there , because this scary darn is happen right now . Plus the phrase “ buried awake ” is instant terror . And then you find out there ’s pain in the immediate future .
“ I am not as I once was . ”
— The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms , N.K. Jemisin
Another pure , unsubdivided opening sentence that make you wonder . What take place ? What was this mortal once like ?
“ The unicorn lived in a lilac Sir Henry Joseph Wood , and she go all alone . ”
— The Last Unicorn , Peter S. Beagle
Instant cock-and-bull story gold — the phrase “ lilac wood ” conjures a whole circle of images without a train of adjectives . And then the sad “ all alone . ”
“ Once upon a time – for that is how all stories should start – there was a son who lost his mother . ”
— The Book of Lost Things , John Connolly
And here ’s one that actually does the “ once upon the time ” thing — but make it work , by being pixilated and a bit meta , and then hooking us totally with the “ boy who lost his female parent ” thing .
“ Lest anyone should suppose that I am a goose ’s child , got on the untimely side of the mantle by lusty tike stock and sold into indentation in a shortfallen season , I may say that I am House - born and reared in the Night Court proper , for all the good it did me . ”
— Kushiel ’s Dart , Jacqueline Carey
This is more luxuriant , and by all odds sets the classic Jacqueline Carey tone , with the mock - Elizabethan language like “ jackass ’s child ” and “ incorrect side of the blanket ” — but it also dribble you along and makes you want to know what “ House - born ” substance and what exactly the “ Night Court ” is . And then there ’s the sinister , sparky “ for all the proficient it did me . ” This is someone who ’s had serious mischance .
“ Kaiku was twenty harvest of long time the first clip she died . ”
— The Weavers of Saramyr , Chris Wooding
We ’re figure sentence in “ harvest home ” instead of “ days ” — that ’s instant strangeness — and then you have to know why Kaiku died more than once . And how that ’s not the end of the story , alternatively of the source .
“ Matt Black conform to the moss man on Christmas Eve . ”
— A Red Heart of Memories , Nina Kiriki Hoffman
gracious enjoyment of head rhyme , and the “ moss humanity ” sounds outright fascinating .
“ The irreducible strangeness of the universe of discourse was first made manifest to Anthony Van Horne on his fiftieth birthday , when a despondent angel nominate Raphael , a being with luminous white wings and a halo that blinked on and off like a atomic number 10 quoit , appear and told him of the days to occur . ”
— Towing Jehovah , James Morrow
“ Despondent angel ” is a great turn of phrase , which also bechance to be the opposition of what you expect angels to be like . Plus there ’s the grand wholesale question of the “ irreducible strangeness ” of the universe .
“ The island of Gont , a unmarried mountain that lift its crown a mile above the tempest - racked Northeast Sea , is a soil celebrated for wizards . ”
— A Wizard of Earthsea , Ursula K. Le Guin
awe-inspiring mental imagery — this both sets the scene and launch the story into motion , with a single vaulting sentence .
“ There was a male child called Eustace Clarence Scrubb , and he almost deserved it . ”
— The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , C.S. Lewis
Who could be so uncollectible as to come near to deserve that name ? Lovely wry humour , with a boot to it .
“ I ’ve heard it say girls ca n’t keep secrets . ”
— Wildwood Dancing , Juliet Marillier
Another linguistic rule of ovolo , that carries the seeds of its own subversion . It ’s been say — but is it lawful ? And what sort of secrets are we going to be learn here ?
“ In the spaces of calmness almost lost in what followed , the question of why tended to surface . ”
— The Summer Tree , Guy Gavriel Kay
You have to re - say this sentence a couple sentence to really get the sensation of it , but you immediately get the sentience that something major has befall , and there ’s — almost — no time to require why . The interrogatively odd phrasing is provocative as well as a spot poetical .
— Aura , Carlos Fuentes
The exercise of second someone is daring , but then you ’re draw in by the impression of a rare offer , and the conversational , fabulist tone .
“ There were presage and portents enough , One - Eye says . We must blame ourselves for misconceive them . One - Eye ’s hinderance in no elbow room spoil his marvelous hindsight . ”
— history of the Black Company by Glen Cook
This is more than one sentence , but it ’s too heavy not to include . Wry and cunning , this grant us a sense of eavesdropping on a whole conversation — and once again , people are doing some soul - look for after a terrible outcome . Oh , and One - Eye is instantaneously a memorable quality .
“ In a mess in the basis there subsist a hobbit . Not a nasty , dirty , wet hole , satiate with the ends of dirt ball and an oozy odour , nor yet a dry , unfinished , sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or use up : it was a hobbit - gob , and that entail comfort . ”
— The Hobbit , J.R.R. Tolkien
And in the end , the classic opening — two sentence rather than one , but it ’s packed with image . Tolkien spend so much time telling us what the hole is n’t , before eventually get us get it on that it “ mean comfort . ” And we ’re left to find out just what that entail .
extra coverage by David Reinecke .
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