8 Opening Lines From The Greats of Sci Fi

Countless hours of creative agony. A months-long artistic marathon full of toil and loneliness. 350 pages of blood, sweat, and tears.

And here I am, about to package it all up as a tidy email attachment. As I prepare to push Send, hoping to catch the fleeting and jaded attention of a that one agent or editor who’ll smile on my work and help usher me into the hallowed Order of The Published, I find myself taking a second look at what they’ll see first.  Five words out of a hundred and five thousand.  

My opening line.

The Opening Line

Everyone will tell you the opening chapter of any book is important. Your first page is even more important, and your first paragraph more important still.  

Your opening line? Well, you get the idea. It’s that first lonely spark that either gets the fire going, or sputters and dies in darkness.

Then I wondered – how might I stack up against the openers from the best-selling classics we know and love? That’s something I can’t answer yet (or maybe I just don't want to), but I thought it might be fun to go through a few and see how well they do the job.  So here they are – the inaugural words from some of the heavyweights of science fiction:

Review - Hunter's Run by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham

There are a number of interesting things going on in this story. I'll try to explain without causing any spoilers.

1. Our hero is a jerk.
2. Interesting, sympathetic aliens who are neither cute nor cuddly.
3. Human civilization in the background is Hispanic/South American, not your standard issue white bread.
4. Interesting identity bending.

Suffice it to say that #2-4 managed to keep me reading in spite of #1.

From a writer's point of view, this story is all about carefully choosing what to explain to the reader, and when to explain it, and how to do it without bogging down the hunting aspect of the plot that's keeping the whole thing moving. At the same time, the hero is coming to grips with things that he never expected to. Can't say much more without spoiling it for you, though.

The ending was a little... soft, in my opinion, but I'm not complaining too much. Still recommending it.

Retro tie-in: The hunting aspect made me fondly remember two anthologies I read many years ago. They probably qualify as "vintage" SF if not "classic" by now... Men Hunting Things and Things Hunting Men. Pulpy, fun, old-school SF.

Behind the Curtain with Rhiannon Ellis

Animal rescuer Jaci Waters has her hands full when a rogue wolf invades her small, backwoods town of Tall Oaks, Alabama. Her goal is to not only protect her neighbors and fellow townsfolk, but to capture and relocate the trouble-making canine who's worn out his welcome. Little does she know, the wolf is more than meets the eye. He's here, in Tall Oaks, for Jaci. But he's not the only one...

Dolton Freye has come to the speck-sized town with one goal in mind: kill the blood-thirsty bastard who's stalking and out to get the woman he's sworn to protect.


BZ:  Thanks for stopping by, Rhiannon! Can you tell us what inspired you to write Dark Wolf Protector?

RE:  I can’t pin down my inspiration to one thing or another, but after reading dozens of paranormal/shifter stories and loving them all, I wanted to write one of my own. Isn’t that how all of us writers start out? We get sucked into a genre or series and can’t let it go, even after we get to the end. The desire to live in that world never goes away, so we continue it in our words, with new characters, and in fresh locations.

BZ:  DWP's heroine, Jaci Waters, is half Cherokee. Did you research shapeshifting in Native American folklore prior to writing DWP, or did you create your own mythology from scratch?

Sure, some research was involved. However, I kept the details of her ancestry simple enough so that her Native American heritage could enrich the story without actually being the story. This wasn’t my initial intention. I’d planned to use a lot of Native American spirituality to enhance the plot but changed my mind after some research. 
 
I learned that Native American “religions” are exclusive to their tribes and dependent on the way of life on each reservation. A person, like you or I, can’t be converted or walk into a church and join. It’s as much about culture as it is about faith. As fascinating as I found the details concerning their spirituality, I quickly realized my character, Jaci, couldn’t be a part of it since she hadn’t been raised on a reservation or deeply immersed in their traditions.
 
BZ:  March marks the release of your debut novel, the contemporary romance Bonded in Brazil, as well as DWP. Two in one month! What advice would you give aspiring authors?

RE:  Read. A lot. Write even more. Be honest with yourself and your work. Brace yourself for the long haul. Establish an online presence early. That way, once your book is available, you’ll hopefully have thousands of contacts.

BZ:  For DWP you worked with Cobblestone Press, a primarily electronic publisher. How did that process differ from your experience with Camel Press, which published Bonded in Brazil?

RE:  Cobblestone’s process was totally different from Camel’s. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with one being primarily electronic or not. From what I hear, each publisher has their own way of doing things, and most authors find themselves adjusting every time they work with a new house. Just look at submission guidelines! Each press has their own, specific set of requirements, and the publishing process is no exception.

I will say the biggest difference is that I worked through an agent with one book and not the other. My agent had worked with Camel Press prior to my signing, so she had a plethora of information on how things worked at that house. This is a great advantage, by the way, because when an author sits around twiddling their thumbs for three or four months before edits begin, they start conjuring up questions and imagining concerns. Having an agent to field those queries prevents said author from pestering their publisher to death and wearing out their welcome. Not that I would know any of this from personal, first-hand experience…
 
BZ:  What are you currently reading?
 
RE:  I’m supposed to be reading this awesome science fiction manuscript for a critique partner, but I’m seriously slacking. Plus, I can’t stop reading stories that promise explicit sex. I have a problem, I think. My husband benefits, though, so he encourages my habit. Enabler!

BZ:  What is your next project? Will we see Jaci, Dolton and Ian again?

RE:  You’ll definitely be seeing Ian Kingsley again. He’s one of the stars in the next installment of Love on the Wild Side, and I’m really excited about him. I’ll quickly sum up the next book: Heavy metal. Fighting. Rough sex. Okay, I got a little excited and made up that last one. There will be sex but not necessarily the rough kind. This interview is taking a turn for the worse. I’ll try to behave for the last question.

BZ:  Okay then, last and most important... what is one thing about you that might surprise your readers?

RE:  I was homeschooled and although I technically “graduated” high school and attended college at sixteen, I don’t have a diploma…or a degree. My first job was sweeping trash and cleaning toilets at an amusement park. I wore something that resembled a pastel-striped, skirted clown suit and made about $4.20 an hour. Now that I think about it, that’s awesome because I still do those things, (minus the costume) only for free.

BZ:  There's a mental image for the ages. Thanks for your time, Rhiannon, and congratulations again!

Dark Wolf Protector is available as an ebook here. Rhiannon's contemporary romance Bonded in Brazil is available on Amazon in paperback or as an ebook.

Rhiannon Ellis lives in Wisconsin with her husband and their two children. She is also the proud stepmom of a preteen. When Rhiannon isn't writing, cleaning house or chasing her kids around, she can most often be found curled up with her e-reader, taking pleasure in one of the many genres she loves. She and her husband enjoy visiting casinos, are avid followers of politics, and are devoted fans of Wisconsin's basketball team--the Milwaukee Bucks.

Visit Rhiannon at http://www.rhiannonellis.com/ or at her blog, Whispers.

Review: Spellbent

Just finished reading Lucy A. Snyder’s first novel, Spellbent. You just have to love that cover. And here is le blurbé:

In the heart of Ohio, Jessie Shimmer is caught up in hot, magic-drenched passion with her roguish lover, Cooper Marron, who is teaching her how to tap her supernatural powers. When they try to break a drought by calling down a rainstorm, a hellish portal opens and Cooper is ripped from this world, leaving Jessie fighting for her life against a vicious demon that's been unleashed.

In the aftermath, Jessie, who knows so little about her own true nature, is branded an outlaw. She must survive by her wits and with the help of her familiar, a ferret named Palimpsest. Stalked by malevolent enemies, Jessie is determined to find out what happened to Cooper. But when she moves heaven and earth to find her man, she'll be shocked by what she discovers—and by what she must ultimately do to save them all.

This book was great. The humour, the action, they were both spot on. You know those times where you don’t know what you’re looking for until you find it? *Points at this book*. Lately I’ve been suffering through some formulaic urban fantasy, most of which is really paranormal romance masquerading as something it’s not. I’m a (straight) guy, and so I start to sulk when I come across books where romance (usually of the his-butt-was-so-tight­-I-wanted-to-slap-it variety) hijacks the storyline. I don’t mind it, but if I’m reading urban fantasy then I want more urban fantasy than hot male bodies and sex. Fortunately, that isn’t an issue in this book. The romancin’ in Spellbent is kept to a minimum, even though Jesse Shimmer’s love for her master-cum-lover Cooper is the driving force behind the story. You get enough to give you a good feel for why she’s so determined to see Cooper out safe, but it doesn’t blow the plot off its rails.

One of the main reasons this book is a winner is that Jesse is a really likeable character. She’s smart, she’s determined, and she doesn’t spend much time wangsting like some main characters are wont to do. Even when she does angst, she has a pretty good reason for it. She isn’t perfect though; she even makes a pretty big mistake around the start of the story… but you never feel she’s been given the Idiot Ball. There’s also Palimpsest, her ferret familiar. Here’s another likeable character if I ever saw one. I found myself looking forward to the parts in his perspective, just to find out titbits about him and his past.

The magic system of ubiquemancy (or ‘Babbling’) was also pretty intriguing, along with the different beings introduced and the idea of personal hells. I won’t give away too much because discovering these things is part of what makes fantasy so interesting ;)

Now, the bad stuff. Where the story falls short for me was the main antagonist. Some of his actions seemed a little over-the-top with regard to his motivations. It’s not a deal breaker, but I felt there could have been something more realistic serving as a propellant. The book also ended quite abruptly, leaving me with a lot of questions, but I suppose it could also be seen as a good thing – it didn’t drag on for longer than it had to.

All in all I’d give this book a 4/5 (that’s 8 out of 10, folks!). While it’s a great read, it isn’t life changing or miles deep. But who says all books have to be? I really, really suggest you give it a try. I’ll definitely be reading the next book in this series, Shotgun Sorceress :)