1. Julie D says:

    There were only four I didn’t recognize, and only one I hadn’t read (which I actually did recognize, title drops are hard to ignore)
    And it might not be the first line, but the prologue for The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, describing the discovery of aliens in another world, ends with
    “The Jesuit scientists went to learn, not to proselytize. They went so that they might come to know and love God’s other children. They went for the reason Jesuits have always gone to the farthest frontiers of human exploration. They went ad majorem Dei glortam: for the greater glory of God.
    They meant no harm.”
    And then the first chapter begins with a press conference stating that only one man returned alive.

    That one sentence “They meant no harm,” is all but shouting ‘HARM WAS DONE.’ So the question is not, ‘what will happen to these men?’ but, ‘what brought about this disastrous conclusion?’ While the first question could sustain interest, the second conclusion increases the stakes. We know these characters will suffer. But we don’t know why or how, which creates a fascinating parallel with the main narrative arc.

  2. Jason Brown says:

    I recognized a few (reading The Gunslinger, how can I not know that line?), Others immediately caught my attention (what? Someone besides God will know when someone will die?), And that strong opening line was a lesson back in 11th grade English, I still remember that 12 years later.

What do you think?