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Even though I'm not a great fan of his work, Banks did write one of the most memorable opening lines ever in The Crow Road. Two other great examples: William

Even though I'm not a great fan of his work, Banks did write one of the most memorable opening lines ever in The Crow Road. Two other great examples: William Gibson's Neuromancer: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." Herman Melville's Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael." Neither strictly tells the reader what the books are about, but they're great hooks.

boredguy8 14y ago
If were're doing great first lines, I think you have to include: Shakespeare's Hamlet: "Who's there?" Kafka's Metamorphosis: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."
rhblake 14y ago
Love the Gibson one. Another classic opening line, one of the few that I can still quote verbatim, is from Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
- greatzebu 14y ago
  The Gibson opening line is great, but it's been a long time since it was common to see dull grey static on dead channels. Now, the color of a dead channel is bright electric blue. I wonder if in the future Neuromancer will need footnotes to explain the imagery, like Shakespeare editions that explain that "quick" used to mean "pregnant".
  - qu4z-2 14y ago
    Gibson mentions this in the Foreword of the more recent edition I have. What a different setting it evokes.
notahacker 14y ago
For sheer flippancy, it's hard to beat Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five "All of this happened, more or less." [edit: originally I put Catch-22, which the user below correctly points out was not Vonnegut and had a different opening line]
- nagrom 14y ago
  Joseph Heller Kurt Vonnegut's writing is superior to my mind, but a lot of people may disagree.
mcguire 14y ago
"William Gibson's Neuromancer: 'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.'" That is one of my favorite openers, too, but it has seemed weirdly anachronistic for a while. Does anyone under the age of 30 remember television static? Will anyone in Gibson's future?
- bhaak 14y ago
  Youtube shows static when there's been some kind of error. Which is kind a funny, considering nobody will understand that. :)
  - Florin_Andrei 14y ago
    If it becomes common enough (i.e. a "meme") then suddenly everybody will "understand" it.
- fhars 14y ago
  We do still see static if we accidentally switch to the analog terrestial receiver built into our TV. And given the general quality of Samsung's software and UI engineering, that accident happens quite often.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  >Does anyone under the age of 30 remember television static? I do. In fact I've seen it in the past 24 hours. I want to at some point hook up a microcontroller to an old TV with a coax cable and subtly manipulate the static until a shadow person emerges from the spotty mist. I figure it would make a cool demo. [0] >Will anyone in Gibson's future? Probably not. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people

boredguy8 14y ago

If were're doing great first lines, I think you have to include: Shakespeare's Hamlet: "Who's there?" Kafka's Metamorphosis: "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect."

rhblake 14y ago

Love the Gibson one. Another classic opening line, one of the few that I can still quote verbatim, is from Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

greatzebu 14y ago
The Gibson opening line is great, but it's been a long time since it was common to see dull grey static on dead channels. Now, the color of a dead channel is bright electric blue. I wonder if in the future Neuromancer will need footnotes to explain the imagery, like Shakespeare editions that explain that "quick" used to mean "pregnant".
- qu4z-2 14y ago
  Gibson mentions this in the Foreword of the more recent edition I have. What a different setting it evokes.

notahacker 14y ago

For sheer flippancy, it's hard to beat Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five "All of this happened, more or less." [edit: originally I put Catch-22, which the user below correctly points out was not Vonnegut and had a different opening line]

nagrom 14y ago
Joseph Heller Kurt Vonnegut's writing is superior to my mind, but a lot of people may disagree.

mcguire 14y ago

"William Gibson's Neuromancer: 'The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.'" That is one of my favorite openers, too, but it has seemed weirdly anachronistic for a while. Does anyone under the age of 30 remember television static? Will anyone in Gibson's future?

bhaak 14y ago
Youtube shows static when there's been some kind of error. Which is kind a funny, considering nobody will understand that. :)
- Florin_Andrei 14y ago
  If it becomes common enough (i.e. a "meme") then suddenly everybody will "understand" it.
fhars 14y ago
We do still see static if we accidentally switch to the analog terrestial receiver built into our TV. And given the general quality of Samsung's software and UI engineering, that accident happens quite often.
unimpressive 14y ago
>Does anyone under the age of 30 remember television static? I do. In fact I've seen it in the past 24 hours. I want to at some point hook up a microcontroller to an old TV with a coax cable and subtly manipulate the static until a shadow person emerges from the spotty mist. I figure it would make a cool demo. [0] >Will anyone in Gibson's future? Probably not. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people