Famous First Lines
io9 has posted a piece on some of the most famous opening sentences in SF novels. Usually, I don’t notice the first line until it really jumps off the page with an unusual opener that really sets the scene for the rest of the story. This was the case with Neuromancer, the first real SF novel I ever read:
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” — William Gibson, Neuromancer
So, what about you, what are some of the greatest opening lines you’ve ever read, SF or otherwise? Why did they work for you?
July 31st, 2008 at 2:27 am
I’m surprised there was no mention of the intriguingly sf-nal first line from Chris Priest’s ‘The Inverted World’:
“I had reached the age of six hundred and fifty miles.”
July 31st, 2008 at 6:49 am
Robert J. Sawyer is fond of pointing out that the famous William Gibson line mentioned above has completely reversed its meaning since it was written. Rather than dead channels being gray and full of snow, they are now a beautiful sunny blue.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:02 am
A personal favourite has always been the opener from Bruce Sterling’s début novel, Involution Ocean:
July 31st, 2008 at 8:18 am
Varley’s “Steel Beach” (from memory, w/apologies for mangling):
“In five years, the penis will be obsolete.”
BTW, The Inverted World is a under-rated great.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Edward @ 2:
When I first read Neuromancer, I’d vividly imagined the former image you mentioned as opposed to the blue color.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Can there be a more famous first line than “In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit”?
I’m also fond of the first line of C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
July 31st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
July 31st, 2008 at 10:08 pm
m1k3y @ 7, I’m guessing that’s Accelerando.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
gee, you guys have NO good ones
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
“A screaming comes across the sky.” (Gravity’s Rainbow)
Too easy, I know.