Tonight, at the Arlington Writers Group, we are doing an exercise on “beginnings”. The idea is for each person to read the opening page or so of a novel and then the group will discuss why it does or does not work. Being a science fiction writer, I am wont to choose a good science fiction novel opening, but my brain isn’t working well this afternoon. One possibility is Joe Haldeman’s Forever War, the opening of which goes something like:
“Tonight we’re going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.” The guy who said that was a sergeant who didn’t look five years older than me. So if he’d ever killed a man, silently or otherwise, he’d done it as an infant.
But I am looking for other possibilities. Another one I was thinking of was Stephen King’s Carrie.
Any suggestions for science fiction novels that have really striking openings? Ones that really grab you as a reading? Help out a fellow having a low brain-power day.
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