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Departments => Books => Topic started by: Sigyn on September 22, 2008, 10:15:54 PM

Title: First Line Game
Post by: Sigyn on September 22, 2008, 10:15:54 PM
I saw this game one Tor.com and I thought it would be fun to start it here (because I don't know any of the lines they are doing over there). I'll start by listing 10 first lines from various sci-fi or fantasy books. If you know the book it is from, then you post giving the quote, book title, and author. You can then offer another first line for someone else to guess. And please, don't look up the lines on the internet unless you absolutely have to because it is more fun this way. Also, try not to be too obscure.

"I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."

"The day war was declared, a rain of telephones fell clattering to the cobblestones from the skies above Novy Petrograd."

"Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity."

"The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened."

" "Lot ninety-seven," the auctioneer announced. "A boy." "

"This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it."

"My father had a face that could stop a clock. I don't mean that he was ugly or anything; it was a phrase the ChronoGuard used to describe someone who had the power to reduce time to an ultraslow trickle."

"Venice, California, in the old days had much to recommend it to people who liked to be sad."

"The worst thing about knowing that Gary Fairchild had been dead for a month was seeing him every day at work."

"When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw."

Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: GreenMonsta on September 22, 2008, 10:54:13 PM
"Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity."

Too easy but I'll bite.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.

How about:
"It was an odd looking vine."
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Nessa on September 23, 2008, 02:00:14 AM
"I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army."

Old Man's War by SCALZI!!!


My submission:

It was a dumb thing to do, but it wasn't that dumb.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on September 23, 2008, 03:03:25 AM
Urgh, Scalzi and Sanderson were the only ones I knew.

"Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinary polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted princesses and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know whom you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case."
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Skar on September 23, 2008, 04:23:30 AM
" "Lot ninety-seven," the auctioneer announced. "A boy." "
Citizen of the Galaxy, Robert Heinlein

Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Sigyn on September 23, 2008, 05:25:44 PM
"Mother taught me to be polite to dragons. Particularly polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinary polite to everyone. Well, it makes sense. Will all the enchanted princesses and disguised wizards and transformed kings and so on wandering around, you never know whom you might be talking to. But dragons are a special case."

Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on September 23, 2008, 07:25:21 PM
I think this is this first time I actually knew more than half on these games.  Terry Pratchett's fansite does them sometimes and they always make me feel stupid.
1. Old Man's War, Scalzi
2. ?
3. Elantris, Sanderson
4. The Wheel of Time, Jordan
5. Citizen of the Galaxy, Heinlein
6. Princess Bride, Goldman
7.The Eyre Affair ? (one of the Tuesday Next books), Fforde
8. Sounds familiar but I can't quite remember
9 & 10. No idea.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Sigyn on September 24, 2008, 12:26:57 AM
Wow, ReaderMom, that was impressive. You should add some more first lines to the game, though.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Miyabi on September 24, 2008, 02:25:24 AM
"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he is the one.  Or at least as close as we're going to get."
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on September 24, 2008, 11:23:20 PM
I know that one too, but I'll keep my trap shut.  My library is upstairs and the computer down, I'll post some tomorrow.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Miyabi on September 25, 2008, 12:44:04 AM
I know that one too, but I'll keep my trap shut.  My library is upstairs and the computer down, I'll post some tomorrow.
I wish I had a library!  My friend has one that is AMAZING!  It's like a loft off to the one side of her house and there are big windows and couches and a fireplace and a TV and nice desk and tons of shelves. :]
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: SarahG on September 25, 2008, 03:38:06 PM
All sounds perfect except the TV.  A TV has no place in a library.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Miyabi on September 25, 2008, 03:49:13 PM
All sounds perfect except the TV.  A TV has no place in a library.
I like to have a movie playing for background noise when I read. ha ha.  I can't read with dead silence.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on September 25, 2008, 09:32:11 PM
By library I mean the four overstuffed bookshelves that my husband had to let me to put in the front room because I'm his wife and I would have stuck them in the bedroom if he had vetoed the front room thing.  I keep telling him I can rearrange the furniture so I can fit another one and he gives me dirty looks.  If I come home with one from a garage sale he'll just have to lump it.  The piano is in there too, but no TV. Also no couch, I think I'd like either a used chuch pew or a bunch of bean bags, but neither are in the budget right now.  I keep spending extra money on books.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: SarahG on September 25, 2008, 09:45:26 PM
You'd fit well in my husband's family.  His parents and aunts and uncles all have bookshelves lining every wall of every room, floor to ceiling, plus stacks filling their basements.

Personally, I don't see much point in owning any books that I'm not sure I'll read frequently.  If I only want to read a book once, I'll get it at the library.  But then again, I spent my childhood moving between continents, so I have an aversion to accumulating possessions - they just make it harder to pack!

As for the TV, I love silence.  If there's anything going on in the background - even classical music - I get distracted.  I like to focus my attention in one place at a time.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on September 26, 2008, 03:22:52 AM
I have a horrible weakness for books.  It got worse when we moved to a small town with a limited library.
Here are some first lines from my collection.  Not all are sci-fi. Several are children's books, and one a play.

1. It was a nice day.

2. 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.

3. Every one has heard people quarrelling.

4. Lessa woke, cold.

5. I see in Lunaya Pravda that Luna City Council has passed on first reading a bill to examine, license, inspect--and tax--public food vendors operating inside municipal pressure.

6. It was night again.

7. It was a dark and stormy night.

8. Captain First Rank Marko Ramius of the Soviet Navy was dressed for the Arctic conditions normal to the Northern Fleet submarine base at Polyarnyy.

9. Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?

10. 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; (I've truncated this sentence, it goes on for a paragraph)

11. "Where's Papa going with that ax?"

12. All children, except one, grow up.

Hints available as needed.  By the way, could we have hints for the original ones no one has gotten yet?
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on September 26, 2008, 03:40:24 AM
4. Dragonflight

7. A Wrinkle in Time

8. The Hunt for Red October

Karen says 11 is either A Day No Pigs would Die or Charlotte's Web. Probably Charlotte's Web now that she thinks more closely.

12. Peter Pan

All sounds perfect except the TV.  A TV has no place in a library.

Like this? (http://picasaweb.google.com/KarenAhlstrom/MobileHome#5250147323691166290)

(No TV on the shelf o'manga (http://picasaweb.google.com/KarenAhlstrom/MobileHome#5227932685862716210) though.)

A) If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.

B) "Too many!" James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.

C) Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

D) The stars, like all man's other ventures, were an obvious impracticality, as rash and improbable an ambition as the first venture of man onto Earth's own great oceans, or into the air, or into space.

E) The first time I ever lifted, I was half-asleep and I nearly broke my neck.

F) She could not remember a time when she had not known the story; she had grown up knowing it.

G) 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.

H) The small boys came early to the hanging.

I) Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

J) I am not a good person.

K) Jack Holloway found himself squinting, the orange sun full in his eyes.

L) A sea of mist drifted through the cloud forest, soft, grey, luminescent.

M) There had been something loose about the station dock all morning, skulking in amongst the gantries and the lines and the canisters which were waiting to be moved, lurking wherever shadows fell among the rampway accesses of the many ships at dock [truncated]

N) A porcelain bowl filled with water steamed on the bedside table. Lady Sybil Ramkin Vimes dipped in a cloth, wrung it out and held it to her nose before pressing it to the forehead of the woman lying in the great four-poster bed.

O) If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane, all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads.

P) These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket.

Q) "Oh, no!" cried Mrs. Barleylove miserably. "Oh, no!"

R) Dua did not have much trouble leaving the others.

S) One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it—it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

T) The sun did not shine.

U) In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.

V) The night Max wore his wolf suit

W) Once upon a time, there were five Chinese brothers, and they all looked exactly alike.

X) This is George.

Y) The tramp steamer Drake plowed away from the coast of India and pushed its blunt prow into the Arabian Sea, homeward bound.

Z) The music-room in the Governor's House at Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli's C major quartet.

There! That's a good stopping point.

"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he is the one.  Or at least as close as we're going to get."
We were going to add another first line, but then when we looked at it, it was this one. Oops.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Pink Bunkadoo on September 26, 2008, 05:06:06 AM
9. Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?-- "The Importance of Being Earnest."
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: dawncawley on September 26, 2008, 07:02:38 AM
V. Where the Wild Things Are

That honestly is all I have, oh, and the Harry Potter quote, that was from the first book if I am not mistaken. But, I haven't re-read in over a year and a half, so I could be very wrong. :)

1.The wolf awoke.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on September 26, 2008, 05:04:37 PM
There's still a 1. that hasn't been answered. :)
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Sigyn on September 26, 2008, 05:57:33 PM
I can give some hints on the ones I've done that haven't been answered yet.

"The day war was declared, a rain of telephones fell clattering to the cobblestones from the skies above Novy Petrograd."

This author is considered by many to be THE big thing in science fiction right now. This line comes from a book that has a sequel. The author was nominated for the Hugo, but Skar thought that book was terrible. It had several viewpoints all in second person. Part of the title of the book this line comes from mentions an idea first brought up by Vernor Vinge. This author is British.

"Venice, California, in the old days had much to recommend it to people who liked to be sad."

This author is famous for his short stories. His novels tend to read like a bunch of short stories stuck together (which they often are). He has been writing since the 1950s. Many of his stories are set on Mars and many others are set in small town in Illinois with brick roads.

"The worst thing about knowing that Gary Fairchild had been dead for a month was seeing him every day at work."

This book is by a woman who is famous for her fantasy though she has also written historical vampire books, a historical novel about Lincoln (or his wife, I wasn't really paying attention), and even a novel based on the tv series "Beauty and the Beast" .

"When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw."

This is from a new urban fantasy. The author has a Chinese name. She was one of the "big ideas" on Scalzi's blog.

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun."

This author is British and was famous for comedic science fiction. He's dead now, but it looks like someone else might write a story set in his universe.  He did most of his early work in radio and television (even Dr. Who).

I hope that's good enough on hints. If not, let me know.  I have to say, giving hints makes me realize how much random information I know about some authors.  Sigh.

And because this post is terribly long anyway, I'll add in which of Ookla's lines I know.

A) A Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
C) Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
G) Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
N) Terry Pratchett, but I can't find which book it is. I looked through a bunch, but I can't find the line.
O) Mary Poppins by Travers
P) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
W) The Five Chinese Brothers---I don't know the author
X) Curious George by Rey
Z) Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on September 26, 2008, 06:03:42 PM
Duh, How could I miss Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
 and from Ookla's
U. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (read it the other night, three times in a row)
S. Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

So many of them sound familiar, like I should know them.  I could be I just read a lot so everything sounds familiar
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on September 26, 2008, 10:23:48 PM
We got the Douglas Adams one but forgot to mention it in the thread. Oops!

I) You got that wrong. :) Check the punctuation.

N) is a bit of a joke... It's not a book per se, and not written by Pratchett. I threw it in there to confuse you. The rest are all legit though...or, well, R) is actually the first line of part 2 of itsbook, since that's the interesting part. But other than that, legit.

The war was delared one—I'm guessing Ian McDonald, since Skar said Brasyl was terrible. I just finished that book myself, and didn't think it was terrible. I'm not sure about the ending though.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Pink Bunkadoo on September 27, 2008, 04:19:31 AM

I) You got that wrong. :) Check the punctuation.

Ah ha!  Mr and Mrs with no periods would be from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  Sneaky.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on September 27, 2008, 06:24:43 AM
Right!

You should be able to get at least one of ours, Pink Bunkadoo.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: firstRainbowRose on September 27, 2008, 08:50:00 AM
H=Alatraz vs the Evil Librarians

1: Always at the heart of my life there has been fire
2: I was the youngest of three daughters.
3: "You've got to be kidding me," The bouncer said, foldig his arms across his massive chest.
4: It was a hard winter that year; not since the day when the old king had succeeded to the throne had the people of Euphrania known such cold.
5: Dr. Morstan's stuff -- Dinah couldn't remember the fancy name for it, though she knew the medication by it's distinct taste of chalk dust -- had been running it course through her ever since he'd arrived to treat her an hour or so earlier.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Pink Bunkadoo on September 27, 2008, 06:02:01 PM
B) The Dark is Rising
E) Lifter, by Crawford Killian
F)The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley (okay, I googled this one, but it did sound awfully familiar.)
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Sigyn on October 02, 2008, 05:23:24 PM
The war was delared one—I'm guessing Ian McDonald, since Skar said Brasyl was terrible. I just finished that book myself, and didn't think it was terrible. I'm not sure about the ending though.
Nope. This is actually Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.

And I'll give some more hints.  Bradbury, Hambly, Liu, but not necessarily in that order.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Peter Ahlstrom on October 02, 2008, 10:20:02 PM
I'm guessing they are in that order, since Bradbury is famous for short stories, Hambly is a woman, and Liu is a Chinese name.

Tricky tricky!

I thought this one was too easy with the last couple words, but maybe not, so I'll un-truncate it.

M) There had been something loose about the station dock all morning, skulking in amongst the gantries and the lines and the canisters which were waiting to be moved, lurking wherever shadows fell among the rampway accesses of the many ships at dock at Meetpoint.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Loud_G on October 03, 2008, 01:35:56 AM
10. War of the Worlds by HG Wells

"It was an odd looking vine." - Wizards First Rule (Terry Goodkind)

I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he is the one.  Or at least as close as we're going to get." - Ender's Game (Card)


----------------------

001: It was a pleasure to burn.

010: It was starting to end, after what seemed most of an eternity to me.

011:  When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?

100:  I am by birth a Genevese and my family is one of the most distinguished of the republic.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: readerMom on October 03, 2008, 05:56:52 PM
Quote
011:  When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain?
Macbeth? It's been a long time.

13. This is the most beautiful place on earth.

Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: CthulhuKefka on October 28, 2008, 11:08:53 AM


001: It was a pleasure to burn.

100:  I am by birth a Genevese and my family is one of the most distinguished of the republic.


001: Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury

100: Frankenstein?



Here's a few.


1)  "It was hot that morning, damnably hot."


2) "The science of martial arts called the Individual School of Two Skies is something that I have spent many years refining."

3) "Kelsey the elf ran his slender fingers through his shoulder-length, pure golden hair many times, his equally golden eyes unblinking as he stared at the empty pedestal in Dilnamarra Keep."

4) "Call them Firstborn."

5) "The house was in an uproar. A very angry Jennifer Wynd was chasing her younger brother, Perry, around the living room. She was terribly quick, but then so was Perry, prompted by the little balls of fire Jennifer was throwing at his heels."

6) "It was the boy, Stiggur, atop his clockwork beast, who first saw the danger."

7) "A small lizard perched on a brown stone."



Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: kevinpii on October 28, 2008, 02:51:40 PM
#1 sounds like dragons of summer flame but its been soo long since i read that book, probably 12 years.

hows this? A million, million changes--- uncountable changes!

Sorry if its too easy its the only one i have in my arsenal right now since it is sitting in front of me on my desk.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: Loud_G on October 28, 2008, 04:18:01 PM
Quote from: readerMummy
Macbeth? It's been a long time. 

It is indeed from the Scottish play. :)


001: Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury

100: Frankenstein?


Very Good. I was betting that no one would get Mary Shelly's Frankenstein.
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: CthulhuKefka on November 02, 2008, 08:16:31 AM
#1 sounds like dragons of summer flame but its been soo long since i read that book, probably 12 years.

hows this? A million, million changes--- uncountable changes!

Sorry if its too easy its the only one i have in my arsenal right now since it is sitting in front of me on my desk.


You are correct, the first one is from Dragons of Summer Flame. I was trying to pick at least one Dragonlance novel to put on there, but the first three open with a characters name (I think, it's been awhile).

Here's a few hints on the other ones.

2. Not exactly a novel per se, written in the 1600's in Japan.

3. Think Salvatore, but not Forgotten Realms.  ;)

4. Opening lines of an epic conclusion to an outstanding sci-fi series.

5. Probably a little too obscure, book is about a family of wizards who discover that Dragons have invaded Massachsetts.

6. Book based off of an old card game.

7. This hint will give away this one. Mundania.  ;)
Title: Re: First Line Game
Post by: MrPaperCamel on November 05, 2008, 01:34:39 AM
Hopefully this isn't cheating too much. Friend was over and recognized one of the quotes while I was wandering through the forum real quick.

2) "The science of martial arts called the Individual School of Two Skies is something that I have spent many years refining."

Go Rin No Sho (The Book of Five Rings) (I was told to put it like that for fear of not being able to go to the movies with everyone...)



A) The First Galactic Empire had endured for tens of thousands of years.

B) When I had journeyed half our life's way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.