Top Ten First Lines

The most important part of a novel is its first line. This is the catch, the hook, what pulls us into the story. I’m always on the lookout for excellent first lines. This is a list of the top ten I’ve found so far.

10. “My mother was the village whore and I loved her very much.”
From: Pigs Don’t Fly by Mary Brown

9. “The air was warm, the summer day flawless, and Darian Firkin was stalling, trying to delay the inevitable, and he knew it.”
From: Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon

8. “Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were highly respected and the number five was fashionable.”
From: Dealing With Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

7. “I bet Hippocrates never stepped one foot into a dump like this, I thought as I peered through the tavern’s narrow entrance.”
From: Stardoc by S. L. Viehl

6. “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.”
From: Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

5. “Doing an underwear ad on a New York rooftop when it’s blowing snow outside can get pretty hairy.”
From: Confessions of a Werewolf Supermodel by Ronda Thompson

4. “At the corner of the window, a waxen spider spun.”
From: Dust by Elizabeth Bear

3. “The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.
From: The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

2. “There was dried chicken blood imbedded under my fingernails.”
From: Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

1. “It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn’t that dumb.”
From: Sunshine by Robin Mckinley