flick to viewYou can tell a lot about a science fable book from its first sentence . Those first few discussion ( or few dozen , in some cases ) have to pull you into the story and take you into a whole alternate cosmos . A beneficial first sentence “ hooks ” you , pulling you into the story with a quick jounce of action and mystery . But a great first judgment of conviction does way more than that – it establishes a tone , it sticks in your mind , and it ’s like a little otherworldly koan , confounding your expectations . And possibly gross out your shit a minuscule . Here are our favorite science fiction opening sentences .
Having appear through a few thousand chess opening sentences at the bookstore and online – no overstatement – I can infer a bit . There are a lot of opening sentence that announce the start of a rollicking yarn , with an action sentence . Like this , from Dan Brown ’s Angels & Demons : “ Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning soma , and he know it was his own . ” Boom ! A hombre ’s flesh is burning . It ’s exciting ! A slight variation is the juxtaposition of the mundane activity with the exciting affair that interrupt it , sort of like , “ I was hang some kitchen shelves when the cyber - rhinoceros burst through my floor , ivory blow up with superb fire . ”
And then there are tons of opening time that are just way-out , or jog , let you get it on the author is take root in to state a retentive , rumbly dozer of a story . And aboveboard , most of the opening sentence I looked at were either very stage business - similar , or not very interesting . Or both .
Here are the ace which really nonplus with me and lodge in my mentality a bit :
“ ‘ I ’ve see through his eyes , I ’ve listened through his ears , and I order you he ’s the one . ' ” – Ender ’s Game by Orson Scott Card . Starting a story , let alone a novel , with a piece of duologue is a bluff choice , and most of the time it ’s super cheesy . I really like this line , though , because it ’s so challenging and it drops in a spate of info . How have they been watching through his eye ? Listening through his ears , and what ’s “ the one ” ?
“ The sky above the port was the gloss of television , tuned to a numb TV channel . ” – William Gibson , Neuromancer . People always mention this as a great chess opening line , and it ’s easy to see why . It ’s such a lifelike image .
“ They set a slamhound on Turner ’s trail in New Delhi , slotted it to his pheromones and the colour of his tomentum . ” – Count Zero by William Gibson . Okay , issue forth on . This is just so fun . It ’s fuck off the wacky jargon : “ slamhound , ” “ slotted , ” and the idea that it can be tied to random things like pilus colour and pheromone . And it ’s crackle with vigor !
“ The morning after he kill Eugene Shapiro , Andre Deschenes inflame early . ” – Undertow by Elizabeth Bear . This is almost the mundane / exciting juxtaposition , but it ’s more than that , because the mundane get after the exciting . And it makes you rummy about Andre Deschenes and how he can kip after kill a guy . And who Eugene Shapiro is . I was reading Undertow a while back , and this sentence sucked me in .
“ Monday morn when I answered the door there were twenty - one new real estate agents there , all in horrible polyester gold crownwork . ” – Rudy Rucker , The Hacker And The Ants , Version 2.0 . surrealistic – transreal , even – and garish and weird . And the fact that there are 21 tangible acres agent just make it that much better .
“ I lived long enough to see the cure for dying ; to see the ascent of the Bitchun Society , to learn ten languages ; to write three symphonies ; to realize my boyhood dream of taking up hall in Disney World ; to see the dying of the work and of oeuvre . ” – Cory Doctorow , Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom . I like a squeamish alert scuttle . Again , the wacky jargon ( the “ Bitchun Society ” ) and the eldritch longevity , and then the personal of a sudden give way to the declamatory picture , with the destruction of the work .
“ He wake up , and remembered die . ” – Ken MacLeod , The Stone Canal . I do n’t really think I need to excuse why this is a large opening . It ’s trim and intriguing . And no adjectives or adverbs . Yay !
“ The manhunt extend across more than one hundred lightheaded years and eight hundred . ” – Vernor Vinge , A Deepness In The Sky . This is pretty close to being your stock brisk , action at law - pile opening . Except for the vast background of it , coupled with the preciseness .
“ Two glass loony toons with dirt between and little burrow from cell to cell : when I was a tyke I had an ant colony . ” – Samuel R. Delany , The Star Pit . It ’s almost a poem , and it zooms outwards in a lovely way , from the dirt tunnels to the ant colony . For a moment , you think it could be an alien zoo or something .
“ The five low craft passed from darkness , emerging with the suddenness of coins thrown into sunlight . ” – Scott Westerfeld , The Risen Empire . This one , I was on the fencing about . It ’s a little procedural - heavy , and it has the inactive construction at the end . But I really liked the coins throw into sunshine , it ’s a lovely image and it ’s about the last thing that comes to mind when you think about starship emerging from somewhere .
“ At the conclusion , the bottom , the very worst of it , with the humans 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 got great energy , and even though it has my favorite peeve – the random “ it ” fill the distance where a real world should be – it ’s get the Blakeian imagery , and then you absolutely have to know why Lee Crane blames himself .
“ In the summer of his twelfth yr – the summertime the stars began to return from the sky – the male child Isaac discovered that he could secernate East from West with his oculus closed . ” – Axis , Robert Charles Wilson . It ’s got so much going on , what with the come in - of - age matter and the stars falling . But then you get that human - ambit matter , which is challenging and fascinating . And this is a nice , spare sentence , with no excess welter . It ’s snappy !
“ Today is the two - hundredth anniversary of the final extinction of my One True Love , as near as I can date it . ” – Saturn ’s Children , Charles Stross . It ’s like the start of a Romance language novel , except for the mention of 200 years and the Scripture “ extinction . ” They mystify out like jagged little spurs , amidst the shmoopy “ One True Love ” jargon .
Oh , and I come across one opening sentence that perplex in my mind afterwards , but then I could n’t find it again . It was something like , “ He did not often think about kidnapping his girl and stealing the starship . ” But there was more to it than that . What am I thinking of ?
Bookselizabeth bearOrson Scott Card
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