VinrAlfakyn

"They say the fearsome things don't always work well. It takes three or four chops to sever the head. Sometimes the poor wretches scream horribly, for a full minute, before their agony is ended with a single massive blow."
-Carolly Erickson, The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette.

"I never talk about her except when I'm drinking."
-edited by Denise Little, Hags, Sirens, & Other Bad Girls of Fantasy.

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
-C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

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"Silence is not a natural environment for stories. They need words. Without them they grow pale, sicken and die. And then they haunt you." -Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
Among the Ashes

TinyMachines

I despise this opening line more than any others.

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My solo music: www.myspace.com/constantbullshit

G. Palmer

I always enjoyed the Ian Fleming's openings, especially the blunter ones.

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning" - Casino Royale, Ian Fleming

"It was one of those Septembers when it seemed that the summer would never end" - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ian Fleming

"The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead" - From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming

"Punctually at six o'clock the sun set with a last yellow flash behind the Blue Mountains, a wave of violet shadow poured down Richmond Road, and the crickets and the tree frogs in the fine gardens began to zing and tinkle" - Doctor No, Ian Fleming

"The two eyes behind the wide black rubber goggles were as cold as flint" - From A View To A Kill, Ian Fleming

"I was running away." - The Spy Who Loved Me, Ian Fleming

"The two thirty-eights roared simultaneously" - Moonraker, Ian Fleming

swimfanatic

I've always liked the opening sentence to J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.' I was never sure why. Call me crazy, but I can even recite it by memory, I was so obsessed (lol).

'The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House", even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there.'

Ok, I have to admit that after four years since I last read that first sentence, it's kind of lost it's magic (lol). Well, that's my bad example. Guess I'll have to make up for it with a better one later, but that's going to require a lot of searching. So don't expect this brilliant example anytime soon.

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"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Scarecrow

"It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."

Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve.

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End Times

qwertyman

I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt his shoit.

Dashiell Hammett: Red Harvest

Banzai

"Sing, O goddess, the rage of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans." - Homer's Iliad (translation by Samuel Butler)

I don't know if it can be counted as a novel, but I've always loved it.


"Lessa woke, cold"- Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight

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"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you"
-"The Wasteland" by T.S. Elliot

swimfanatic

Allright, here's one.

"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit."

The Uglies--Scott Westerfeld

And another...

"Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world."

Eragon--Christopher Paolini

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"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Banzai

...is that a joke?

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"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you"
-"The Wasteland" by T.S. Elliot

swimfanatic

Ummm....it's not supposed to be. Unless you find it funny for some reason. Maybe you meant to copy and paste this one:

"The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit."

The Uglies--Scott Westerfeld

To be honest, I just thought that this first sentence was interesting. I mean, who in their right mind would compare the sky to cat vomit? It just seemed a little different to me, which is why I pointed it out.

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"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Shawn

No, you see, Paolini is a plagiarist in a sense. That sentence has been used over and over for centuries. Not to mention Eragon sucked.

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If I'm online, be nice, I'm escaping.

swimfanatic

Ok, well, I disagree on the Eragon sucked thing, but whatever...you're entitled to your own opinion.

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"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Scott Tuplin

"Although it stands to reason that a samurai should be mindful of the Way of the Samurai, it would seem that we are all negligent."
- Tsunetomo Yamamoto, The Book of the Samurai

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Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
- E.L. Doctorow

salad days

If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer... If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire for we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Shel Silverstein - Where the Sidewalk Ends

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Hunted & Tortured

Krim

Pretty stupid attempt at parodying Gibson's opening line in Neuromancer. Doesn't even make sense...vomit is not one color.