"The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." I think Seveneves was one of Stephenson's weaker novels overall, but you can't deny it has a killer opening line.
What makes a great opening line?
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Re: What makes a great opening line?
#22What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
I don't know, I couldn't get through a chapter of Anna Karenina but it's still a great opening line. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#23What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
LIFE IN this society being, at best, an utter bore
and no aspect of society being at all relevant to
women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible,
thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the
government, eliminate the money system, institute
complete automation and destroy the male sex.
Valerie Solanas' The SCUM Manifesto has a great opening, and tbf sustains the pace and spice for a few pages, but subsequently becomes almost unreadable.Re: What makes a great opening line?
#24"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#25"The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." I think Seveneves was one of Stephenson's weaker novels overall, but you can't deny it has a killer opening line.
I rather liked the first part (2 parts?). But then there was a wildly improbable transition to the last part that I didn't find terribly interesting.
Re: What makes a great opening line?
#26Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny