What is your favorite opening line?

[K. Riehl]

Have you ever read the first sentence or paragraph of a novel/short-story that immediately resonates with you and you just know it's going to be a great adventure?

This thread is for all of us to share that first entrance into the authors world.
Please give some context to what it meant/means to you and please quote it.

I know this will eventually get hijacked into first lines from non SF/F and that's okay. A great read is a great read no matter the genre.

"The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the towns in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea."

The start of The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin opened up the world of Fantasy novels to me. Before this I had stuck to 40's and 50's Science Fiction. I went on to try Vance, Zelazny, Tolkien, Norton and now I value both genres equally high. 35 years latter it still has the ability to provide that elusive sense of wonder.

 

[Riselka]

"On the night the scarlet horsemen took him away - from all he knew and all he might have known - the moon waxed full in Scorpio, sign of his birth, and as if by the hand of God its incandescence split the alpine valley sheer into that which was dark and that which was light, and the light lit the path of devils to his door."

The first line of Tim Willocks' The Religion.

I'm not sure it has any real meaning to me, other than being one heck of an exquisitely beautiful opening line to a book. It's not like it turned me into an Historical Fiction fan - I was already there. But, it was definitely a harbinger of things to come, in respect to the incredibly fabulous descriptive ability Willocks has with his scenes - his action sequences are almost without equal.

I'm definitely anxious to get my hands on the second volume of the Tannhauser Trilogy though.

 

[Wiggum]

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. is probably my favorite of all time.

Can't say exactly why, but I knew one heck of an adventure was going to follow.

 

[D_Davis]

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

From Stephen King's The Gunslinger

Not only is this the opening line to an epic fantasy, but it is also the opening line to an author's epic quest.

I love the metatextual layers with which King paints his opus, and this line carries with it a lot of significance.

 

[Pyan]

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen

1984, by George Orwell - one of the greatest opening lines ever, IMHO.

 

[Montero]

Lois McMaster Bujold - The Hallowed Hunt

"The Prince was dead.
Since the King was not, no unseemly rejoicing dared show in the faces of the men atop the castle gates."

I like it because it sets the scene really fast, is tightly written, is unexpected and funny. It stuck in my mind - to the point I'd been thinking of starting a thread about good book openings.

 

[K. Riehl]

Here's one from R.A. MacAvoy - The Book of Kells
I give this book my highest recommendation.

"Perhaps the sound of the Uillean pipes was knocking plaster from the ceiling, or perhaps John Thornburn had neglected his household duties, for the ramps of sunlight braced against the floor were sparkling with white motes. Each oblong of light was broken by the shadow of the window mintons, like a Cartesian grid, and each contained a single floating shadow-circle, thrown by the tatted pulls on the window blinds"

This book introduced me to R.A. MacAvoy. I immediately went out and bought every book she ever wrote and have been a fan ever since. Sadly she seems to have stopped writing in the early 90's.

 

[K. Riehl]

Montero- I like that one as well. Ingrey is a great character.

You can always start up the obvious companion thread- Great Ending Lines

 

[steve12553]

"Call me Ishmael." Beginning to a wonderful Fantasy. But this does seem like Deja Vu. I remember another thread not too long ago.

 

[K. Riehl]

steve12553- I did a thread search under, opening line, first line, etc and went back to 2006 without spotting a similar thread. Doesn't mean there isn't one, but I couldn't find it .
If there is one I'm sure it can be merged (-:

 

[MG1962]

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

- William Gibson, Neuromancer

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

H. G . Wells War Of The Worlds​

 

[McMurphy]

It was a pleasure to burn.


The opening line of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 has a punch to it. It proved that the tale of transformation that was to follow was going to be anything but easy for Guy Montag.

I must rattle my literary saber in support for the choice of Stephen King's The Gunslinger: Book One of the Dark Tower Series also. Despite being an uneven series with a rushed final volume, it was an uniquely American addition to the pathos of fantasy, and the opening line is among the best I have had the pleasure of reading.

 

[D_Davis]

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

- William Gibson, Neuromancer
​

Even though I don't care for the book, I've always liked this line. It fits the milieu of the narrative so well.

 

[MG1962]

Even though I don't care for the book, I've always liked this line. It fits the milieu of the narrative so well.

Yeah I am the same, Gibson as a writer never grabbed me - but that line was indeed special

 

[kauldron26]

BEST OPENING EVER:

Once upon a time, we had a love affair with fire...

-Swan Song by Robert McCammon

 

[Reading_fanatic]

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become Legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third age by some, an Age yet to come,an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist.The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."

Robert Jordan-Eye of the World

 

[Hari Seldon]

All this happened, more or less...Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five)

 

[Lioness]

I've gotta agree with the opening line in The Gunslinger, and also the opening line In Fahrenheit 451.

 

[chopper]

i'll second (third/fourth etc) the Gunslinger & 1984 - both classics.

but why hasn't anybody mentioned "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit"?

 

[tangaloomababe]

I have to agree with Pyan, my favorite line is

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." from 1984.

A close second for me though is:

" When a day that you happen to know is a Wednesday starts off by sounding like a Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere" - John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids.