Many people can name their favorite book of all time ... but how many of us can remember the first sentence of that book? Can you?
First sentences from SF books through the years:
1865
From the Earth to the Moon
During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland.
1886
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.
1895
The Time Machine
The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him) was expounding a recondite matter to us.
1901
The First Men in the Moon
As I sit down to write here amidst the shadows of vine-leaves under the blue sky of southern Italy, it comes to me with a certain quality of astonishment that my participation in these amazing adventures of Mr. Cavor was, after all, the outcome of the purest accident.
1912
The Lost World
Mr. Hungerton, her father, really was the most tactless person upon earth—a fluffy, feathery, untidy cockatoo of a man, perfectly good-natured, but absolutely centered upon his own silly self.
1919
The Moon Pool
For two months I had been on the d'Entrecasteaux Islands gathering data for the concluding chapters of my book upon the flora of the volcanic islands of the South Pacific.
1924
We
I am merely copying out here, word for word, what was printed today in the State Gazette:
In 120 days from now the building of the INTEGRAL will be finished.
1932
Brave New World
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.
1939
Lest Darkness Fall
Tancredi took his hands off the wheel again and waved them.
1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
1951
Fahrenheit 451
It was a pleasure to burn.
1957
The City and the Stars
Like a glowing jewel, the city lay upon the breast of the desert.
1961
Dark Universe
Pausing beside the hanging needle of rock, Jared tapped it with his lance.
1966
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
I see in Lunaya Pravda that Luna City Council has passed on first reading a bill to examine, license, inspect—and tax—public food vendors operating inside municipal pressure.
1970
Ringworld
In the nighttime heart of Beirut, in one of a row of general-address transfer booths, Louis Wu flicked into reality.
1975
The Shockwave Rider
The man in the bare steel chair was as naked as the room's white walls.
1981
Lilith: A Snake in the Grass
The little man in the synthetic tweed jacket didn’t look like a bomb.
1985
Neuromancer
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
1992
The Multiplex Man
The flashing signs on both sides of I-94 south into Minneapolis read: POLICE CHECK AHEAD, PREPARE TO STOP.
1994
Mother of Storms
This is the good part.
1997
Blue Limbo
As the copter lost altitude, Mitch Helwig, encased inside the prototype Honda skimmer that hung below it, suspended on steel cables like a spider dangling from some nightmarish hummingbird, donned his night goggles.
2001
American Gods (audio clip)
Shadow had done three years in prison.
2004
40 Signs of Rain
The Earth is bathed in a flood of sunlight.
2007
Brasyl
Marcelina watched them take the car on Rua Sacopã.
2010
Surface Detail
“This one might be trouble.”
Do you have a favorite first sentence?
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