Tor.com is reviving a fun game that Jo Walton originally brought to our shores in 2008: The First Line Game!
The rules are a bit different than the first time around. Here’s how it goes:
1.) Post as many unattributed first lines from novels that you want other commenters to identify. This being Tor.com, let’s stick to SFF and its many sub-genres.
2.) First lines should be in italics. Answers not. It’ll also be helpful to your fellow commenters to post “@[comment number]” before you answer. If you’re answering and posting first lines at the same time, list the answers first.
3.) Feel free to let other commenters know they answered correctly! Don’t leave us hangin’.
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“No good!” said Lamont, sharply.
Let’s give you some from books sitting on my desk waiting to be written about:
“What in the name of the cold hells is this?” Sun Wolf held the scrap of unfolded paper between stubby fingers that were still slightly stained with blood.
If it was anywhere possible to be a child in the Family, it was possible at Kethuiy, on Cerdin.
Not many people remember Lamprias now in Athens.
@2 quote #1: Barbara Hambly – The Ladies of Mandrigyn
Not my favorite of hers, but I enjoyed it.
“A curious custom,” said the barbarian, “to cut off your king’s head every five years.”
“My mother claimed to have been on the set of Darkness Visible when Axel Kern fired a revolver into the air, not to goad his actors but out of frustration with a scriptgirl who repeatedly handed him the wrong pages.”
“The rafter goblin spied on the hiding monk, who was spying on the scholar.”
“Each time that any wing ascended in Mounthaven it was a minor pageant.”
@2 I feel like that last one is Renault. The King Must Die?
@@.-@
“A curious custom,” said the barbarian, “to cut off your king’s head every five years.”
The Reluctant King /The Goblin Tower by De Camp.
Larry drove fast; He had to. He was being chased by Lightning
By day, the Nicollet Mall winds through Minneapolis like a paved canal.
WAR FOR THE OAKS
With long strides the swordsman walked across the desert.
IMPLIED SPACES
It was Hitch Paley, rolling up his beat up Daimler motorbike across the packed sand of the beach behind the Haat Thai Dance Pavilion, who invited me to witness the end of an age.
THE CHRONOLITHS
The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor.
@7, 2nd line – is that War for the Oaks?
I don’t see rich text editor controls, and my html-fu is weak, failing me now, can’t make italics work.
“Sometimes, I worry that I’m not the hero everyone thinks I am.”
Ok, here are three:
Mankind consisted of 128 people.
In the last hour of sunlight the Dancer fled through the forest covering the base of the mountains.
I tore down the Continental Shelf off the Bouge Bank while the pogo made periscope hops trying to track me.
@9 – sounds like a Mistborn inscription. Sanderson – Hero of Ages?
When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic options.
@9 Yes. War for the Oaks.
@9, 11: I think it’s actually the first line of Mistborn: the Final Empire. IIRC, the first line of /The Hero of Ages/ is “Unfortunately, I am the hero of ages.” :-)
The letter was in Earth script, unhandily scrawled in blobby blue ballpoint.
10 Mankind consisted of 128 people is William Tenn’s Of Men and Monsters.
Wsean: It’s Renault, but not that book.
New one:
I lived long enough to see the cure for death; to see the rise of the Bitchun society; to learn ten languages; to compose three symphonies; to realise my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World; to see the death of the workplace and of work.
@15: Ah, something I know! Cory Doctorow – Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom?
@8: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman… IIRC
“3.) Feel free to let other commenters know they answered correctly! Don’t leave us hangin’.”
bluejo@15, yes!
Three more:
The universal soil is not uniformly fertile.
It was one of the second generation of shuttles, the kind that were already being called “Roman candles” by the media.
Son, you look like a Texan what got the hormone, but been starved since birth.
#3 of 18: Is that Leiber’s A Spectre is Haunting Texas? It’s been a while.
Here’s one to try:
My first remembered meeting with my Douris
shines with a light stronger than light itself.
@2.3 – The Mask of Apollo?
wsean @8, that’s not a first line. That’s a second line.
Here are three more:
My Father had a face that could stop a clock.
To be born Kurshin or Andurin was a circumstance that mattered little in terms of pride.
Do your neighbors burn one another alive?
Awaris: Yes!
Brightglance: Yes!
New one: “Tonight we’re going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.”
@21: /The Eyre Affair/, Jasper Fforde?
Another one: She scowled at her glass of orange juice.
landofnowhere, yes!
“There are dragons in the twins’ vegetable garden.”
How could I have died and gone to hell without noticing the transition?
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
@25.1 – A Wind in the Door by L’Engle
@25: Third line is from Neuromancer, I believe.
I hope this is an easy one, from a very short novel:
Toward the end of a stormy summer afternoon. with the sun finally breaking out under ragged rain-clouds, Castle Janeil was overwhelmed and its population destroyed.
@23 – that is The Blue Sword – Robin McKinley
@25 – Is that one Neuromancer? Gibson?
CliftonR@19, yes! That is Leiber’s A Spectre Is Haunting Texas.
bluejo@22, I believe that is Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War.
@@.-@, #4: The Miocene Arrow by Sean McMullen
Offered up (possibly obvious ones):
“Please, Tavi,” wheedled the girl in the predawn darkness outside the stead-holt’s kitchen.
I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday.
On a hill surrounded on three sides by forest and on the fourth by the ruins of a fortress stood a ring of stones.
#31, the second one, I want to say that’s Old Man’s War by John Scalzi?
Here’s one from me:
There is a similarity, if I may be permitted an excursion into tenuous metaphor, between the feel of a chilly breeze and the feel of a knife’s blade, as either is laid across the back of the neck.
@31, line 1 is from Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher.
In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.
Unfortunately, lines containing names are somewhat of giveaways. :/
@31 #2 Gotta be Old Mans War….
LinkTheValiant (@33): You’re right, names give books away, but we should all know one of the best science fiction book’s ever written, shouldn’t we? Dune.
Steve @30: Yes!
Probably a bit obvious but..
1. The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten.
2. Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.
3. 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.
@37 #1: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?
Then there’s this:
I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.
@10.2 The Last Dancer, Daniel Keys Moran
I’m on my phone and can’t figure out how to quote or paste copied text!
1. I suppose that if I were going to blame our involvement on anyone (which I see no reason to do), I would be compelled to say that it was all Aunt Charlotte’s fault.
2. The dragons came at dawn, flying low and in formation, their jets so thunderous they shook the ground like the great throbbing heartbeat of the world.
3. She was made after the time of ribs and mud. By papal decree there were to be no more people born of the ground or from the marrow of bones.
4. Lest details be mistaken for clues, note that Mr. Charles Unwin, lifetime resident of this city, rode his bicycle to work every day, even when it was raining.
Very good Silvertip. I figured that one would go fast :)
@38 is Left Hand of Darkness by Leguin I think. Don’t have my copy handy to check.
melita@39:
@10.2 The Last Dancer, Daniel Keys Moran
Yes!
@32: Jhereg by Steven Brust.
New one : I shall clasp my hands together and bow to the corners of the world.
I love this game.
Sorry; I also can’t figure out how to mark the quoted text as italics.
1. I didn’t know how long I had been in the king’s prison.
hapax@93 got it: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.
2. It was nine o’clock at night and Tremaine was trying to find a way to kill herself that would bring in a verdict of natural causes in court when someone banged on the door.
@43: Barry Hughart, BRIDGE OF BIRDS.
@44: Italics may be achieved by selecting the text to be italicized and then clicking on the I in the toolbar (between
abcand U). Also, I know I’ve read your #2 but have no idea what it was.@@@@@ 37. Kyriel #2, “Everything starts somewhere…” Terry Pratchett, Hogfather. Very seasonally appropriate.
I should know that second one at #25, but it’s not coming to me.
@1: The Gods Themselves.
@21: the third one is Anathem.
New one:
The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust.
And I’m curious to know whether this one will jump out at anyone:
The primroses were over.
Anarra@21 – Dear me, you’re right! Shocking carelessness, is all I can say.
@47 – it does jump out, but I can’t for the life of me place it. I want to say one of the Redwall books, but I suspect I’m going to be off again.
@47: /Spindle’s End/, Robin McKinley.
Once there was a child, whose face was like the new moon shining on cypress trees and the feathers of water-birds.
@47: My copy’s in a box, box #16 to be exact, so I can’t double check, but “primroses” says Watership Down (Richard Adams) to me.
zwol@45: Right!
A few more:
It was her scars that made her beautiful.
I always get the shakes before a drop.
The wind came across the bay like something living.
Leaving Paddington Station, the Flying Cornishman seemed little different from any other train.
With long strides the swordsman walked across the desert.(Already done, did not notice)
No shit, there I was…
@45 zwol, if only it were that easy…no toolbar. Possibly it’s because I’m using my phone. I tried html formatting, but the tags were stripped out when I previewed.
Vague hints on 2, start of fantasy trilogy, female author.
…munched…sorry, double post.
Sorry about @51#5, I did not notice it had been posted earlier.
Yes, 47 is Spindle’s End and Watership Down.
@2 line 2 is Serpents Reach by Cherryh
@21 line 2 is Gate of Ivrel also by Cherryh
1. The explosion was utterly silent.
Given in #238
2. Peter Jaynes came from deep sleep into instant alertness.
Given in #238
3. The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. (Solved @@@@@#153)
And this next one is one heck of a run-on.
4. From the top of the wide marbled and mirrored entrance staircase, the mass audience chamber of the Imperial Court at Tara looked vast and incredibly crowded, except for the area covered by the processional carpet – onto which none dared tread until after the Seventh Maeve had done so – and which pointed like a broad, blood-red arrow to the distant golden blob that was the throne.
Given in #238
amitkotwal@51 : #2 is Starship Troopers!
@58 – You just beat me to it! :)
@26 & 27 – Yes and yes.
New ones:
It is possible I already had some presentiment of my future.
Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.
The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane.
An easy one (I think), because it is a lovely morning over here :)
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
@60. Indeed. It’s The Gunslinger, by Steven King
Here’s some more:
1. The storm had broken.
2. It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me.
@7 #1: Walter Jon williams, Implied Spaces
@10 #3: Alfred Bester, The Computer Connection.
Once there was a dead man.
@61: Yes:)
@59.2 Elantris
New ones:
Brother Francis Gerard of Utah might never have discovered the blessed documents, had it not been for the pilgrim with girded loins who appeared during that young novice’s Lenten fast in the desert.
Two tires fly. Two wail.
The air of Kandor held the sharpness of new spring when Lan returned to the lands where he had always known he would die.
Two Fantasy Classics:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
56 EmmaPease: Yes!
66 Meiyas: Brother Francis Gerard of Utah is A Canticle for Leibowitz. and Two tires fly is Cryptonomicon.
New ones:
The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries.
Nicole Gunther-Perrin rolled over to turn off the alarm clock and found herself nose to nose with two Roman gods.
@@@@@ 64 – Yep. :)
Here’s one from another short novel:
Late on a day in 1959, three men sat in a room.
@65 meiyas, 3rd one:
The air of Kandor held the sharpness of new spring when Lan returned to the lands where he had always known he would die.
The original New Spring story by Robert Jordan, from the Legends anthology. (Not the expanded story published separately later on as the prequel to WoT)
@@@@@ 33: Dune
1) “We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them.
2) Once uopn a time, in a land that was called Britain, those things happened.
3) “Lymond is back.”
@62 I think you meant #3 for post #7. That one is indeed Implied Spaces.
@7
Number four is from The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson.
@10 #3: Alfred Bester, The Computer Connection.
Michael_GR@62, yes!
I said “Do your neighbors burn one another alive?”
Vertex @@@@@ 47 said: “@@@@@21: the third one is Anathem.”
I said “To be born Kurshin or Andurin was a circumstance that mattered little in terms of pride.”
Emma Pease @@@@@56 said: “@@@@@21 line 2 is Gate of Ivrel also by Cherryh”
Those are correct!
It was a pleasure to burn.
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”
“The dark waters of time swirled about the archmage’s black robes, carrying him and those with him forward through the years.”
“The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened.”
@77 hewhocomeswiththenoon
number 3 is The Eye of the world
Number 1 is the Hitchhikers guide
im stumped by number 2
@32, 34 – Yes, that’s Old Man’s War.
@33 – Yes, that’s Furies of Calderon.
1. Strong bindings held N’Chaka fast to the flat, hard surface whereon he lay.
2. Ama climbed the path to the cave, as she’d done for many days now, bread and milk in the bag on her back, a heavy puzzlement in her heart.
3. “Lot ninety-seven,” the auctioneer announced.
@76 Fahrenheit 451
@51, #2 – Starship Troopers?
@81 Yes! Fahrenheit 451
hre’s another
One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.
83: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
80.1: I think that’s The God Engines by Scalzi.
Zwol @84 – No, not The God Engines. The quote is from an older book than that.
But The God Engines does have a GREAT first line!
@84 Indeed! zwol takesR.Q & wins
How about
There was Eru, the One, who in Adra is called Iluvatar; and he first made Aiur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before all else was made.
I know a place where there is no smog and no parking problem and no population explosion … no Cold War and no H-bombs and no television commercials … no Summit Conferences, no Foreign Aid, no hidden taxes-no income tax.
@71.1, is that A Game of Thrones?
@80, #3 is Citizen of the Galaxy.
@41 Kyriel — yep! (on the Le Guin at 38)
@80.2 Is that Pullman, The Amber Spyglass?
How about a book I happen to be rereading right now …
You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.
I said: “Lot ninety-seven,” the auctioneer announced.
ddavidso @89 said: “@80, #3 is Citizen of the Galaxy.”
That is correct!
I said: Ama climbed the path to the cave, as she’d done for many days now,bread and milk in the bag on her back, a heavy puzzlement in her heart.
Silvertip @@@@@ 90 said: “@@@@@80.2 Is that Pullman, The Amber Spyglass?”
That is also correct!
@44
1. I didn’t know how long I had been in the king’s prison.
Surely THE THIEF, by Turner?
Here’s an easy one:
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.
@93 is Howl’s Moving Castle.
@93 is Howl’s Moving Castle.
So it is!
How about this, then?
Twenty six months before her second birthday, Maia learned the true difference between winter and summer.
Oh, and @71.3
“Lymond is back.”
I’m pretty sure that’s GAME OF KINGS, by Dunnett. (Are we not counting epigraphs?)
@@@@@ 88 Keita, yes, A Game of Thrones is correct.
@@@@@ 86 – Silmarillion?
@@@@@ 96, Hapax, that’s correct, a Game of Kings by Dunnett.
Lol, I never read epigraphs. Had to go back and look if there is one. ;)
@97 You got it, Simarillion
How about
I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one.
or
It was a dark and stormy night.
Thats kind of a loaded line though.
zwol@40‘s #1: The Grand Tour by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevemer. At first I thought it was Sorcery and Cecelia, the first in the series, but it sounded a bit off for a letter (so I had to look it up).
Since I had the characters right, I’m posting.
trench@99: First is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, second is I Cannot Precisely Remember the Name of the Book, But Nor Can I Be Bothered to Look It Up by Bulwer-Lytton.
Oops: except (as I thought but, um, didn’t look up until after posting) that was merely the first clause in a fairly long sentence, so I’m supposing you meant something else.
Long sentences, we can haz them: :D
From the bridge of the Island Queen, which three times a week made the voyage between Obaig and the outer islands of the Hebrides, Captain Donald MacKechnie gazed across the smooth expanse of grey sea to where the rugged outline of Great Todday stood out dark against a mass of deepening cloud in which a dull red gash showed that the sun was setting behind it.
nabcif: yes indeed.
Since nobody has gotten my other three, I’ll remind folks of them:
2. The dragons came at dawn, flying low and in formation, their jets so thunderous they shook the ground like the great throbbing heartbeat of the world.
3. She was made after the time of ribs and mud. By papal decree there were to be no more people born of the ground or from the marrow of bones.
4. Lest details be mistaken for clues, note that Mr. Charles Unwin, lifetime resident of this city, rode his bicycle to work every day, even when it was raining.
@101
Yup number 1 is Enders Game
and I sure wasn’t going for that on number 2. I was thinking of the first SFF book I ever read “a Wrinkle in Time” but then I saw the first line, I figure a lot of stories open up that way.
as for another long one
The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below.
@@.-@, 2 – this has to be Black Light by Elizabeth Hand.
@@.-@0, 2 – is that The Dragons of Babel, by Michael Swanwick?
@59, 1 – Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe.
From the two fantasy books I’m reading right now:
1) The skywriting in his dream wasn’t a word or phrase; it was five white clouds drifting in a blue sky.
2) Amid the ten thousand noises and the jade-and-gold and the whirling dust of Xinan, he had often stayed awake all night among friends, drinking spiced wine in the North District with the courtesans.
Zwol @104, #2 is Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick.
1) Jack Holloway found himself squinting, the orange sun full in his eyes.
2) He was one hundred and seventy days dying and still not dead.
3) It had begun to snow.
@61, #2 is NINE PRINCES IN AMBER
1) As I approached the front door of the First Bank of Bit O’Heaven, it sensed my presence and swung open with an automatic welcome.
@87 Kevin j marks – Glory Road (RAH)
I can’t believe it’s lasted so long
@107, #2 The Stars My Destination.
@110 yes it is.
There was a man named Lessingham dwelt in an old low house in Wastdale, set in a gray old garden where yew-trees flourished that had seen Vikings in Copeland in their seedling time.
There had been something loose about the station dock all morning.
@113, that’s THE PRIDE OF CHANUR.
1) Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn’t matter, there was a tall, skinny, straggly-bearded old wizard named Prospero, and not the one you are thinking of, either.
@95: Glory Season, by David Brin.
Confirming #106/7’s guess that my second one is DRAGONS OF BABEL.
107.3 appears to be THE UNSTRUNG HARP by Mr Earbrass, but could perhaps have been defictionalized.
116 That is one correct answer. There is at least one other that I’m aware of.
hapax@93 – @44.1 is correct!
@25. Many Waters or the Wind in the Door by L’engle.
@40. #4 Laundry Files book 1 by Stross
@67 #2 Household Gods by Turtledove
@80 #3 Citizen of the Galaxy by Heinlein
1.Fall that year was warm. Heat lay in a blanket over the basin of the River Olorun, where the capital of Tortall covered the banks.
2. Leaning forward, brushing red-gold hair back off his face, he locked eyes with the cowering young woman and smiled, teeth too white within the sardonic curve of his mouth.
@@@@@ 12. Richard K. Morgan- The Steel Remains.
I just read this not too long ago..
@49 – Valente, _The Orphan’s Tales_
@51.1 – Gentle, _Ash_
@67.1 – Vinge, _A Deepness in the Sky_
@114 – Bellairs, _A Face in the Frost_
New:
1. When you get down to the bottom of the bottle, as Momma used to say, this is the story of how I became a mother.
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Fallen Woman of good family must, soon or late, descend to whoredom.
3. I am, you see, a woman plagued by gods.
Everybody has identified all the lines I know, so all that I can do is contribute some new ones.
1. The voices babbled.
2. By the time the air conditioner had come to live in the summer cottage it was already wheezing and whining and going on about being old and useless and out-of-date.
And in honor of the season . . .
3. “Too many!” James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
105- Hyperion by Simmons. Here’s mine.
Two quotes starting off different books in a series.
1. A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest: soft, grey, luminescent.
2. I am afraid.
#112, Lessingham, got to be from the Eddison, Worm Ouroborus.
#106, 2, is GG Kay’s most recent, Under Heaven.
The first one in #106 I ought to know but it won’t come clear.
It was the Friday afternoon before the start of spring break.
@123
Yes indeed Hyperion is correct
@123
1. Shards of Honor?
how about
This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
Here’s one more
The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards was long since over.
@126 trench
That was one of my submissions in #57. I’m surprised that no one has identified that one. Though, you must admit that it seems to be as far away from the title as you can get.
Elaine Thom, @124, Under Heaven is correct.
How about a new one (and not even a full sentence):
Midnight in the golem factory.
@127
I guess it is pretty far from the bulk of the story. Thought it was kind of a gimme myself.
How about
In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part.
@119 Your answer to #40.4 is incorrect.
I wonder if anyone is keeping track of which ones are still outstanding but to add to the pot:
It began with the day when it was almost the Fifth of November, and a doubt arose in some breast–Robert’s I fancy–as to the quality of the fireworks laid in for the Guy Fawkes celebration.
Pinlighting is a hell of a way to earn a living.
@99
It was a dark and stormy night.
That one is Snoopy’s untitled great novel. :)
Trench at 125 is THE PRINCESS BRIDE.
@133 that could fit as well
@134 yes indeed The Princess Bride
@128 The Narrows?
Here’s one that should be a gimme – though I’ve skipped the prologue and went to the first chapter to keep it from being too easy.
1. The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm. Solved @@@@@ #139
and another
2. The day was overcast, the sky a lowering grey.
Given in #238
@@@@@ 44 #2 Wizard Hunters, Martha Wells
@@@@@ 119 #1 Tamora Pierce, I’d have to check which book
New:
No one sends for a niece they’ve never seen before just to annoy her family and ruin her life.
@35 and others who answered Dune to post 34 are correct.
@90, is that not Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
And another one slightly less well-known than last selection:
It was the deep dark, unexplored except for robotic visitors.
Ludon@136 wrote:
1. The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm.
That would be Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, I believe.
##########
EmmaPease@131 wrote: I wonder if anyone is keeping track of which ones are still outstanding…
All three I posted in #10 have been identified (William Tenn’s Of Men and Monsters, Daniel Keys Moran’s The Last Dancer, and Alfred Bester’s The Computer Connection), and the last of the three I posted in #18 (Fritz Leiber’s A Spectre Is Haunting Texas)
The two I posted in #18 as yet unidentified are:
The universal soil is not uniformly fertile.
It was one of the second generation of shuttles, the kind that were already being called “Roman candles” by the media.
and a new third:
If I had cared to live, I would have died.
@@@@@ steveburnett #139
Something Wicked This Way Comes – that is correct.
Lessingham is indeed from Eddison’s Worm Ouroboros.
Another, then–two sentences since they are short:
There was a wall. It did not look important.
@seili–#59.3, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition, and Astrology.
trench@129 is Pratchett, The Colour of Magic.
ddavidso@141 is Le Guin, The Dispossessed.
Okay, published in a short story collection, like H.G. Wells’ The Time Traveller in one of my several copies of the same, so not strictly a novel, but then, not strictly an English writer either:
One evening in autumn, when the deformities of London were veiled in faint blue mist, and its vistas and far-reaching streets seemed splendid, Mr. Charles Salisbury was slowly pacing down Rupert Street, drawing nearer to his favourite restaurant by slow degrees.
Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.
THIS book has two authors, one contemporary with its readers, the other an inhabitant of an age which they would call the distant future.
ONE night when I had tasted bitterness I went out on to the hill. Dark heather checked my feet.
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth
century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
THE YEAR 1866 was marked by a bizarre development, an unexplained and downright inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgotten.Already posed, already guessed! Damn!One afternoon, at low water, Mr. Isbister, a young artist lodging at Boscastle, walked from that place to the picturesque cove of Pentargen, desiring to examine the caves there.
The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse.
@132. longerwaves
Pinlighting is a hell of a way to earn a living.
The Game of Rat and Dragon, by Cordwainer Smith aka Dr. Paul Myron Linebarger.
67. bluejo
The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries.
A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge
@108. matociquala:
@61, #2 is NINE PRINCES IN AMBER ll give the answer here.
61-1 The storm had broken
@125 – your answer of Shards of Honor for @123 is correct. Nice work. Still unanswered is the name of the other book in the series that begins “I am afraid.”
Rob
@145 – Your first one is from the prologue to the same book that line 1 of the first chapter remains unanswered from #57 and #126. Not as easy as we had thought.
Your fourth is from The War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells.
@138 LinkTheValiant: Bingo on Frankenstein (90)!
Abbumaru@58, katenepveu@121 – Right!
@57.3 and @126 – 2001 : A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
New one :
In the land of Ingray, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.
kritikin @@@@@137 is THE PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORD, Ellen Kushner. (I thought about doing SWORDSPOINT earlier, but it was too easy).
katenepveu @@@@@ 121, A FACE IN THE FROST is correct.
Mine still outstanding:
1) Jack Holloway found himself squinting, the orange sun full in his eyes.
2) As I approached the front door of the First Bank of Bit O’Heaven, it sensed my presence and swung open with an automatic welcome.
And this one has a second possible answer, although THE UNSTRUNG HARP by Mr Earbrass (as opposed to THE UNSTRUNG HARP by Edward Gorey, which is a book ABOUT THE UNSTRUNG HARP by Mr Earbrass) is afaik the original source:
3) It had begun to snow.
@73 Correct, it is the Chronoliths.
Only my first line on post 7 remains unidentified.
@139
If I had cared to live, I would have died.
That is from Silverlock.
@83: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
It was years before Christopher told anyone about his dreams.
@83: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.
It was years before Christopher told anyone about his dreams.
Dusk Peterson @122 said: “3. “Too many!” James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.”
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Very seasonal indeed (we just had a blizzard–no candles of the Light to be seen anywhere!)
Abydonian @157 – The Lives of Christopher Chant by the wonderful Diana Wynne Jones
@14: ‘Hexwood’ by Diana Wynne Jones
@159: yes!
“We are aware there is a crisis,” said Father Mihran calmly.
@154.2: ‘The Stainless Steel Rat’ by Harry Harrison
1. The rules of normalcy will be temporarily suspended while new rules are being drawn.
2. Try to imagine.
3. His job, as always, bored him.
This is a dangerous game, lol. I already found several books I’m going to check out because of those first lines.
So far unidentified is mine under 71 / 2
Once upon a time, in a land that was called Britain, those things happened.
EDITED to add a clue: The author is best known for a book series that has been made into a TV series, starring the same actor who’s going to play Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.
And the long monster from 103
From the bridge of the Island Queen, which three times a week made the voyage between Obaig and the outer islands of the Hebrides, Captain Donald MacKechnie gazed across the smooth expanse of grey sea to where the rugged outline of Great Todday stood out dark against a mass of deepening cloud in which a dull red gash showed that the sun was setting behind it.
EDITED to add a clue: The book came out a few years after WW2 and fictionalises an event during the war that involved a certain Scottish beverage. ;)
@@@@@ 149, I’m afraid
Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar
@161, Abydonian, Harry Harrison: correct!
kristikin@137: Correct!
My two @44 have now been answered.
@143 Correct! The Colour of Magic by Terry Prachett
@153 Right! 2001: a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
@157 Yes! Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there by Lewis Carroll
Another,
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen
trench, @135. Indeed, Narrows is correct for my line in @128
I see my earlier post got partly eaten, so here is a retry.
@108. matociquala:
@61, #2 is NINE PRINCES IN AMBER
Correct :)
The other one I posted was probably too general, so I’ll give the answer here:
61-1 The storm had broken
That one was Magician, by Feist.
trench@166 said: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
1984 by George Orwell.
Kim walked slowly through the crowd, slipping in and out of the traffic almost without thinking.
Am I the only one who is starting to think that nested comments might be very useful for this game?
@141: Is this Ursula Le Guin’s The Disposessed?
And an easy one (if you’ve read the book).
It began with my father not wanting to see the Last Rabbit and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.
A less easy one:
I am not a good person.
@120: Sorry it took me so long but of course, you’re right!
@163/149/123 – Barrayar is correct. excellent. Note that since all of Bujold’s Vorkosigan books are available free on line with the exception of Memory, I’m almost surprised that more of her first lines haven’t appeared in the game.
How about “You are reading this for the wrong reason.”
Hint: A quote from a related book by the same author is discussed above.
@@@@@ 169
Correct 1984 by George Orwell
Peter 1742 @171 said “It began with my father not wanting to see the Last Rabbit and ended up with my being eaten by a carnivorous plant.”
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Excellent book!
Jvstin@156, yes! If I had cared to live, I would have died is from John Myers Myers’ Silverlock.
(The other two in #139 still remain unidentified.)
@155 Anara: Yes, indeed, Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising.” I just happen to be reading it right now.
The first two in #122 remain unidentified.
@170 etranger wrote: “Am I the only one who is starting to think that nested comments might be very useful for this game?”
Hear, hear.
Peter1742 @171, I am not a good person–is that Brandon Sanderson’s Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians?
Still waiting a guess:
It was the deep dark, unexplored except for robotic visitors.
And another one, long but amusing:
In the old days, before the Dragon Emperor–sometimes called the Eternal Emperor by those responsible for toadying–had invested the Halls of Law with the laws which governed the Empire, angry Dragons simply ate the idiots who were stupid enough to irritate them.
Both of the lines I posted in @171 are solved.
@175 got Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde
@178 got Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians, by Brandon Sanderson.
Just because it’s what I’m reading right now…
She came out of the store just in time to see her young son playing on the sidewalk directly in the path of the grey, gaunt man who strode down the center of the walk like a mechanical derelict.
Beren@180 is Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson.
Has no one yet answered 142, truly?
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition,and Astrology.
is the opening of TH White’s The Sword in the Stone, or you could consider it the opening of The Once And Future King. Excellent book.
I’ll add one that’s full of clues, and one that isn’t, both from books that are favorites of mine:
The year Janet started at Blackstock College, the Office of Residential Life had spent the summer removing from all the dormitories the old wooden bookcases that, once filled with books, fell over unless wedged.
If I had been armed on horseback, I could have taken them all out.
P.S. It just occurred to me that my “has no one answered this” could be taken as bragging, but I meant it more as “woo, one that everybody hasn’t beaten me to!”
I’m concerned mine at 173 is too obscure. I’ll add the further clue that it and the earlier related work by the same author were inspired by the poems of John Keats.
New one:
The man who was not Terrence O’Grady had come quietly.
25.2 — isn’t that Borders of Infinity by Bujold?
@107.1 Little Fuzzy
@43 “My surname name is Lu and my personal name is Yu, but I am not to be confused with the eminant author of The Classic of Tea.”
Eveyone has aleady got all the ones I know so here are a few new.
1) I am a very old man; how old I do not know.
2)The Unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. @189
3) “This is the stoy of the wrath of Achillies”–begins the Illiad of Homer and its stoy of theirty-four hundred yeas ago.
4) The boy was odd.
5) Morgon of Hed met the High One’s harpest when the trade-ships docked at Tol for the season’s exchange of goods. @192
6) Heat, pain, and blinding light burning through my skin and my eyelids.
7)There were five of us –Caruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr. Spivens and the verger. @197
Here’s a thought. To aid the search for solved and unsolved entries, we could go back and color code our older entries – maybe green for still in play and red for solved. This might make it easier to keep track of the game. I have edited my comment #57 as an example.
Also. Because these entries are more than 24 hours old, I’ll give these clues to the three remaining entries in #57.
1. A TOR Book with a title suggesting it’s a different genre.
2. Has a color in the title.
4. Written by someone known for medical oriented stories.
@187. SteelBlaidd
2)The Unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.
Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn, surely?!
Neither of these have been answered and they occurred so early in the game that they may be overlooked now. Here they are again, with the answers:
@28: Toward the end of a stormy summer afternoon. with the sun finally breaking out under ragged rain-clouds, Castle Janeil was overwhelmed and its population destroyed. (The Last Castle by Jack Vance).
@69: Late on a day in 1959, three men sat in a room. (Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys)
@181 Ngogam Of course it is.
A few more:
1) The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-wracked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.
2) The blaze of sun wrung pops of sweat from the old man’s brow, yet he cupped his hands around the glass of hot sweet tea as if to warm them.
3) One of the few redeeming facets of instructors, I thought, is that occasionally they can be fooled.
Probably fairly easy, but the game is fun!
Aaaargh, Drunes, I literally just logged on and scrolled through the whole thing, and noticed that no one had answered The Last Castle, and was all set to post the answer! [grin]
SteelBlaidd@187 #6: The Riddle Master of Hed, by Patricia A. McKillip?
aedifica@182 #1 : A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer?
One I’ve done before in these things, but I always love it:
1. Say you’re a kid, and one dark night you’re running along the cold sand with this helicopter in your hand, saying very fast witchy-witchy-witchy.
And a couple more:
2. Nine month’s Landsman’s been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered.
3. Athens is a large city situated in the middle part of the counry we call Greece. To the north lies Thebes, Corinth is due west, and Sparta some way to the south. The City is surrounded by the region known as Attica, a miserable rocky district where very little can be persuaded to grow. That is all I have to say, for the moment, about the City of Athens.
Well, almost. …
Beren@191 #1: A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursual K. LeGuin?
atAladdin_Sane @189 Correct The Last Unicorn
2)The Unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone.
ecbatan@192 Yes RIddle master of Hed
5) Morgon of Hed met the High One’s harpest when the trade-ships docked at Tol for the season’s exchange of goods.
I expected These two would go first. The otheres are a bit more obscure.
@191.1 A Wizard of Earthsea
The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-wracked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.
ANd Ninjad by ecbatan@193
@191.3 Another Fine Myth
One of the few redeeming facets of instructors, I thought, is that occasionally they can be fooled.
@@@@@ 178, 2
Michelle Sagara, Cast in Courtlight
Mine from @@@@@ 162 (which go back to even earlier posts) aren’t answered yet, so I added some clues. I had no idea I picked such obscure novels, lol.
ecbatan: I sensed we were nearing the end and felt obligated to give the answers before calling it a day. I was surprised the Last Castle lasted so long. Sorry, I got impatient.
191.7: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
@67, buejo both correct
@70, Fiddler correct
new ones:
A change of seasons was upon the Four Lands as late summer faded slowly into autumn.
His name was Gaal Dornick and he was just a country boy who had never seen Trantor before
Consider the tortoise and the eagle
@@@@@ 197 Consider the tortoise and the eagle.
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods.
Let’s see if this is easier. :)
Lest anyone should suppose that I am a cuckoo’s child, got on the wrong side of the blanket by lusty peasant stock and sold into indenture in a shortfallen season, I may say that I am House-born and reared in the Night Court proper, for all the good it did me.
@197 #2 is of course “The Psychohistorians”, the story Isaac Asimov added at the beginning of the novel version of Foundation.
re: 191
1) ecbatan & SteelBlaidd correct A Wizard of Earthsea
3) SteelBlaidd correct Another Fine Myth
@37: The third one has to be “The Lost World”, the original one?
~lakesidey
@107,@154 #1 Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper.
#1 The tall and dour non-com wore Imperial dress greens and carried his communications panel like a field marshall’s baton.
#2 They started giving me the business as soon as I came through the door into the Secretary’s outer office.
G-Campbell @195, correct.
G-Campbell @198 is Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart. Never did finish it, but the opening line is memorable.
Still waiting is mine originally posted at 138. As a hint, this book tells of a universe whose human protaganists are descendants of a vessel lost while attempting to found a space station.
It was the deep dark, unexplored except for robotic visitors. (@214)
And a new one which ought to be recognizable:
In a sheepfarmer’s low stone house, high in the hills above Three Firs, two swords hang now above the mantelpiece. (@204)
@@@@@ 203, yes, Kushiel’s Dart is correct.
I enjoyed the first trilogy, but couldn’t get into the books about Imriel.
And your new one is the first Paksenarrion book by Elizabeth Moon, if I’m not mistaken.
182, The year Janet started at Blackstock College …
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean.
So …
(a) She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.
(b) It was a dumb thing to do, but it wasn’t that dumb.
(c) (from the Foreword) It’s about sex, and cruelty, and forgiveness.
(d) The young lieutenant-colonel was drunk, apparently, and determined to rush upon disaster.
Hedgehog @@@@@ 206 said: “She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.”
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley.
These two are still unanswered:
From @80:
Strong bindings held N’Chaka fast to the flat, hard surface whereon he lay.
This one is not The God Engines by John Scalzi.
From @169:
Kim walked slowly through the crowd, slipping in and out of the traffic almost without thinking.
Lunastochter @211 got this one right!
Well, I’ve got three right now; I should supply some myself.
a) The problem, as I see it, is an information gap. The People know far more about their enemy than the enemy knows about them.
b) Ani was gathering tender bibbi shoots when a patch of white on the distant forest floor caught her eye.
c) Arthur Hidders, he called himself. He wore Earth-style clothes, and, except for the length of his hair and his mustache rings, he looked the complete Earthman.
(For those who’d like to follow Ludon@188’s colour-coding suggestion, the UBB syntax is e.g.
{color=green}text{/color} (replacing curly {}s with square []s).)
ecbatan@192, my one at 182 is not A College of Magics, it’s Tam Lin, as hedgehog correctly stated at 205. Both are good stories by Minnesota authors, set at small colleges…
My other one at 182 is still up for grabs. I know there’s at least one person who has participated in this thread who knows the answer, but that person may feel disqualified from answering because they’re the author… (that’s a clue!)
@169, repeated @208,
Kim walked slowly through the crowd, slipping in and out of the traffic almost without thinking.
is surely the beginning of Mairelon the Magician, by Patricia Wrede.
One to guess:
From the tower lookout in the royal castle–highest tower in all the kingdom of Nym–Princess Rhis peered down through the misting rain at a messenger on the main road.
She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen?
It was a dumb thing to do, but it wasn’t that dumb.
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
OK, my turn:
1) It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression “as pretty as an airport”.
2) Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself.
3) One of the luckiest accidents in my wife’s life is that she happened to marry a man who was born on the 26th of September.
Tatterbots @@@@@ 212, is your #1 The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams?
@202, #1 is Bujold, Warrior’s Apprentice I believe.
@203, “deep dark” must be Cherryh, I’ll guess Foreigner.
@204, Sheepfarmer’s Daughter is correct
@214, Foreigner is correct.
And two new ones:
Vo Wacune was no more. Twenty-four centuries had passed since the city of the Wacite Arends had been laid waste, and the dark, endless forests of northern Arendia had reclaimed the ruins. (@217)
Lessa woke, cold. Cold with more than the chill of the everlastingly clammy walls. (@216)
Anarra @207 is correct: She could not remember a time… is The Hero and the Crown.
Tatterbots @212 is correct with It was a dumb thing to do … being Sunshine (but wrong about She could not remember a time…).
And LinkTheValiant @215’s Lessa woke, cold. Cold with more than the chill of the everlastingly clammy walls. is Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonquest.
@215
Vo Wacune was no more. Twenty-four centuries had passed since the city of the Wacite Arends had been laid waste, and the dark, endless forests of northern Arendia had reclaimed the ruins.
The Belgariad, probably the second book (I don’t have the books here to check).
aedifica @213 is correct about The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul.
Aladdin_Sane’s one about Mr. Isbister @145 is When The Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells. Sneaky, as Isbister is only in the first couple of chapters.
And aedifica’s If I had been armed on horseback, I could have taken them all out @182 is The King’s Peace by Jo Walton.
It’s odd how many of these seem familiar when they’re not. I’ve been sure a few of them were on the tip of my tongue, only to find out later that they came from books I’d never heard of.
@198 G-Campbell, Small Gods is correct.
@199 ecbatan, also correct.
Still in play:
A change of seasons was upon the Four Lands as late summer faded slowly into autumn.
Clue: One of the greatest non magical fighter is in this novel
@211, A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith
My 2) and 3) @212 are still unguessed.
I have a confession to make about 2). I forgot to count the quotations at the top of each chapter. They are all attributed to people and books that exist within the text, except the one in chapter four, which is attributed to Snare Drum On Mars. Counting the chapter heading quotations, the actual first sentence of 2) is, “I guess somebody up here likes me.” I hope this makes 2) slightly easier.
I’m not providing a clue for 3) yet, because I think it should be guessable without one.
@218. Tatterbots
Correct. I was wanting to find out how many others had read HG Wells. The Time Traveller would’ve been a dead give-away. :)
@221–correct! A Posse of Princesses it is.
@212 Tatterbots
The two unanswered ones are two of my favorite books:
(2) is The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
(3) is The Midwhich Cuckoos by John Wyndham
Fortunately, someone else guessed (1) since I had no idea on that one.
Four of Seven Still Seaking Answers.
1) I am a very old man; how old I do not know.
2)The Unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. The Last Unicorn@189
3) “This is the stoy of the wrath of Achillies”–begins the Illiad of Homer and its stoy of thierty-four hundred years ago.
4) The boy was odd.
5) Morgon of Hed met the High One’s harpest when the trade-ships docked at Tol for the season’s exchange of goods. The Riddle Master of Hed@192
6) Heat, pain, and blinding light burning through my skin and my eyelids.
7)There were five of us –Caruthers and the new recruit and myself, and Mr. Spivens and the verger. To Say Nothing of The Dog@197
I’m sure nobody’s reading this anymore, but I just had fun going through this and here are the ones I know (or have guesses for) that haven’t already been revealed.
At a guess, is @12 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
I believe the last of @121 is Paladin of Souls, by Bujold.
The first of @187 is A Princess of Mars, by Burroughs.
Argh! No it’s not! (@121 that is.)
And it’s not my other guess, Lifelode, either – both guessed based on subject matter. The line itself is really familiar, though, but I just… can’t… place it!
@216, Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonquest is correct.
@217, David Eddings’ Queen of Sorcery is correct.
And a new one, as I (most unfortunately) haven’t read the books associated with the current group of unguessed lines:
The succession oath played over and over in his head like a bad nursey rhyme. He couldn’t get it out of his mind no matter what else he thought about.
MightyMarc @225: Yes, both right. Did you need the clue @222?
JoeNotCharles @227, I don’t know how Pride and Prejudice and Zombies begins, but I bet it’s a lot more like @121 (2) than @12.
I was away for the first week of this game, but if anyone’s still going, I’ll try some. There’s one unsolved one that I know off the bat:
@192: the second one is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon.
And some new ones (in some cases “first line” may ignore epigraphs or other paratext):
1. “You are a kallikanzaros,” she announced suddenly.
2. Robert E. Lee paused to dip his pen once more in the inkwell.
3. It is our intention to preserve in these pages what scant biographical material we have been able to collect concerning Joseph Knecht, or Ludi Magister Josephus III, as he is called in the Archives…
4. It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white.
Since nobody has guessed this one, @191.2 was The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.
The game was fun!
-Beren
relogical@231 — Yes indeed, the second one I listed is The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
And your first one is either This Immortal or “… and Call Me Conrad”, by Roger Zelazny, I think.
At a guess, your second might be Lincoln’s Dreams, by Connie Willis, and your third Magister Ludi, or The Glass Bead Game, by Herman Hesse.
Could your fourth be an Elric novel by Michael Moorcock?
I’ll repost my others, with hints:
This one is a short story, a very well-known story:
1. Say you’re a kid, and one dark night you’re running along
the cold sand with this helicopter in your hand, saying very fast
witchy-witchy-witchy.
And this one really isn’t SF/F, though it’s by a writer well-known and well-loved in our field:
3. Athens is a large city situated in the middle part of the
counry we call Greece. To the north lies Thebes, Corinth is due west, and Sparta some way to the south. The City is surrounded by the region known as Attica, a miserable rocky district where very little can be persuaded to grow. That is all I have to say, for the moment, about the City of Athens.
Well, almost. …
ecbatan@234: Correct on 1, 3, and 4 (it’s Elric of Melniboné, to be specific). The second is not Lincoln’s Dreams.
Your first one seems familiar, but I still can’t place it.
As the game seems to have died down or off, I do not think I hurt anyones’ fun by providing identifications for the two remaining quotes I posted in #18.
The universal soil is not uniformly fertile.
Alexei Panshin, Star Well
It was one of the second generation of shuttles, the kind that were already being called “Roman candles” by the media.
Mick Farren, Vickers
The game does seen to have died off. So here are the answers to the two I posted that have been answered:
This one is a short story, a very well-known story:
1. Say you’re a kid, and one dark night you’re running along the cold sand with this helicopter in your hand, saying very fast witchy-witchy-witchy.
This is “The Man Who Lost the Sea”, by Theodore Sturgeon
And this one really isn’t SF/F, though it’s by a writer well-known and well-loved in our field:
3. Athens is a large city situated in the middle part of the country we call Greece. To the north lies Thebes, Corinth is due west, and Sparta some way to the south. The City is surrounded by the region known as Attica, a miserable rocky district where very little can be persuaded to grow. That is all I have to say, for the moment, about the City of Athens.
Well, almost …
And this one is The Walled Orchard, by Tom Holt, or alternately Goat Song, the first of the diptych now collectively called The Walled Orchard. It’s one of the great historical novels of the past few decades, and I don’t want to miss a chance to urge people to read it.
I’ll go ahead and close-out my remaining entries.
57-1. The explosion was utterly silent.
Privateers by Ben Bova
57-2. Peter Jaynes came from deep sleep into instant alertness.
Gold Star by Zach Hughes
57-4. From the top of the wide marbled and mirrored entrance staircase, the mass audience chamber of the Imperial Court at Tara looked vast and incredibly crowded, except for the area covered by the processional carpet – onto which none dared tread until after the Seventh Maeve had done so – and which pointed like a broad, blood-red arrow to the distant golden blob that was the throne.
The Silent Stars Go By by James White
136-2. The day was overcast, the sky a lowering grey.
Darkchild by Sydney J. Van Scyoc
“No good!” said Lamont, sharply.”
From the first post…I don’t know who said it, but to be assaulted with an adverb so early in a story…eeeuuuww.
Yeah, I’ll give my remaining ones as well:
Once upon a time, in a land that was called Britain, those things happened.
EDITED to add a clue: The author is best known for a book series that has been made into a TV series, starring the same actor who’s going to play Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.
BERNARD CORNWELL, THE WINTER KING (first in the Warlord trilogy)
From the bridge of the Island Queen, which three times a week made the voyage between Obaig and the outer islands of the Hebrides, Captain Donald MacKechnie gazed across the smooth expanse of grey sea to where the rugged outline of Great Todday stood out dark against a mass of deepening cloud in which a dull red gash showed that the sun was setting behind it.
EDITED to add a clue: The book came out a few years after WW2 and fictionalises an event during the war that involved a certain Scottish beverage. ;)
COMPTON MACKENZIE, WHISKY GALORE
@122 – that is to say, my earlier post: Here’s the answers, since this thread seems to have died.
1. The voices babbled.
“The Listeners,” by James E. Gunn. The voices in question are sounds picked up from outer space, which are the subject of that novel.
2. By the time the air conditioner had come to live in the summer cottage it was already wheezing and whining and going on about being old and useless and out-of-date.
“The Brave Little Toaster,” by Thomas M. Disch. If this first line wasn’t recognized by anyone, it’s a sign that not enough people are reading that wonderful novel.
3. “Too many!” James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
“The Dark is Rising,” by Susan Cooper, as correctly guessed by @158, Anarra.
An excellent game! I am, obviously, a late comer but I would like to add a couple of answers:
#80 “The Reavers of Skaith” by Brackett
#209-c “Big Planet” by Vance.