{"id":582,"date":"2011-05-17T20:12:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T20:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/?p=582"},"modified":"2011-05-23T02:39:04","modified_gmt":"2011-05-23T02:39:04","slug":"hook-em-with-first-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/17\/hook-em-with-first-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Hook ‘Em With First Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

I picked up (semi-) random assortment of novels from my TO BE READ pile today in a little exercise of curiosity.<\/p>\n

A truism for writing fiction nowadays is that the writer must<\/em> grab the reader\u2019s attention from the beginning.\u00a0 If the reader (or acquisitions editor) isn\u2019t hooked by the end of the first page, she\u2019s likely to put the book down.<\/p>\n

So what I\u2019ve compiled a few first lines that handful of my novels to be read.\u00a0 These range from new authors to old hands and heavy-hitters. So tell me which of these you find the most compelling and why. A list of their books and authors is below.\u00a0 Can you match them up?<\/p>\n

Answers will come in a later post. Feel free to leave your comments!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cNo! I don\u2019t want the mangosteen.\u201d Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing.<\/li>\n
  2. The first thing I can remember in this life is my father driving his white ox, Endurance, to the sky burial platforms.<\/li>\n
  3. Veldt to scrub fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth.<\/li>\n
  4. Call me Dodd.<\/li>\n
  5. I\u2019d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked in the bar.<\/li>\n
  6. The great revelations of my adult life began with the shouts of a lost soul in my neighborhood breakfast joint.<\/li>\n
  7. Manfred\u2019s on the road again, making strangers rich.<\/li>\n
  8. Dammit, he was nearly out of gas.<\/li>\n
  9. \u201cHere they come!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Novels and Authors<\/strong><\/p>\n

    It Came from Del Rio<\/em> \u2013 Steven Graham Jones
    \nPerdido Street Station<\/em> \u2013 China Mieville
    \nGreen<\/em> \u2013 Jay Lake
    \nNight of Demons<\/em> \u2013 Tony Richards
    \nA Dark Matter<\/em> \u2013 Peter Straub
    \nDead in Dixie<\/em> \u2013 Charlaine Harris
    \nFires of Freedom<\/em> \u2013 Jerry Pournelle
    \nThe Windup Girl<\/em> \u2013 Paolo Bacigalupi
    \nAccelerando<\/em> \u2013 Charles Stross<\/p>\n\n\n