December is a month full of religious and secular holidays. No matter which holiday you observe, these are first lines from speculative fiction books you might enjoy.
What is a First Lines Post?
First Lines is a series of blog articles posted on around the first of the month. Inspired by a friend’s suggestion that I write a post on how to write the first line of your story, I started this series. My idea was to inspire my writing with these examples. I also hoped to inspire other writers and point readers to books they might enjoy.
As writers, we’re often told that the first line of a story must hook the reader (particularly if that reader is an editor.) Implied is that the editor will not buy the book if the first line isn’t great. But the hooky-ness of a first line is in the eyes of the beholder. Tell me, do any of these hook you?
The Best Christmas Ever by James Patrick Kelly
Aunty Em’s man was not doing well at all. He had been droopy and gray ever since the neighbor Mr. Kimura had died, shuffling around the house in nothing but socks and bathrobe. He had even lost interest in the model train layout that he and the neighbor were building in the garage.”
Season of Wonder
Paula Guran (Editor)
Contributing authors: Orson Scott Card, Harlan Ellison, Connie Willis, Gene Wolfe, and more.
Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.
But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder aloud how the snowplow driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spellings of the words. Yet there is the constant desire to find some point in the twisting, knotting, raveling nets of spacetime on which a metaphorical finger can be put to indicate that here, here, is the point where it all began…”
Hogfather, Terry Pratchett
Gift Wrap by Charlaine Harris
It was Christmas Eve, I was all by myself.
Does that sound sad and pathetic enough to make you say, “poor Sookie Stackhouse!”? You don’t need to. I was feeling plenty sorry for myself, and the more I thought about my solitude at this time of the year, the more my eyes welled and my chin quivered.”
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe,
edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner
Author Contributors: Charlaine Harris, Donna Andrews, Simon R. Green, Dana Cameron, Kat Richardson, and more.
If there’s one thing I’ve never been able to do, it’s blend in.
Take my stint playing Christmas Tree #7 in my fourth-grade pageant. Prior to this tragic bit of casting, I was positively elated at the very idea of a holiday pageant. I am one of those people who unabashedly loves the many festive markers of winger: gingerbread and cozy sweaters, mulled cider and mistletoe, jaunty snow people and jingle bells.”
Heroine Complex. Book 6, Holiday Heroine, by Sarah Kuhn
It was the night of 12/24/07, though sensors woven through the very fabric of the house had thus far registered a complete absence of sentient bio-activity, I found myself abruptly summoned from a rare, genuine, and very expensively induced example of that most priceless of states, sleep.
Even as I hurriedly dressed, I knew that dozens of telepresent armed-response drones would already be sweeping in from the District, skimming mere inches above the chill surface of the Potomac.“
A Yuletide Universe: Sixteen Fantastical Tales
edited by Brian M. Thomsen
Contributing Authors: Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Richaard Christian Matheson, Donald E. Westlake, and more.
A Sci-Fi Christmas Romantic Novella
Laurel Winston tugged the collar of her woolen coat up around her chin to shield the winding, snow-covered path to the cabin she’d recently rented. The trees surrounding it seemed as tall as skyscrapers, blocking out most of the late-afternoon sunlight.
Her eyes darted about, taking in the landscape of the unfamiliar area that would be her home for the next month.
Inadvertently, she shivered. Someone is watching me. I can feel it.“
Christmas, a Cabin and a Stranger by Sally A. Breslin
It’s not the life I planned for, telling fortunes during the end of days, but clients are plentiful. They believe there’s magic in my rare divination deck. The cards are bigger than my hands, gilt-edged with an embossed pattern that emerges in the proper light, like a layer of snowflakes. The drawings beneath are lush, peacocks and queens and church windows, all glowing like trapped candle flame.“
Saturnalia, by Stephanie Feldman
The Arctic air stung like shards of glass against his skin. Nicholas heard voice. He was certain of it. Jessica didn’t hear anything. She insisted it was just the ice cracking, the creaks and groans of the frozen world around them. Nicholas knew better. The voices were real.
They’re looking for us!“
Claus: Legend of the Fat Man (Claus Universe) by Tony Bertauski
When Josey woke up and saw the feathery frost on her windowpane, she smiled. Finally, it was cold enough to wear long coats and tights. It was cold enough for scarves and shirts worn in layers, like camouflage. It was cold enough for her lucky red cardigan, which she swore had a power of its own. She loved this time of year. Summer was tedious with the light dresses she pretended to be comfortable in while secretly share she looked like a loaf of white bread wearing a belt. The cold was such a relief.
The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen
Clarification
There are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. Usually I pull these titles at random. They are from Amazon, my personal library, my area public library, or other online booksellers.
Do You Want to Read More?
Do these first lines hook you? Do you want to read more? They are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to buy more books. Let me know which ones sparked your interest.
Reviews Aren’t Difficult
No matter what book you’re reading, leave a a few words on the site where you bought it, a readers site, or the author’s site. Just say the kind of thing you would tell a friend about it. Reviews are always appreciated by writer and readers alike.
Like this post?
Check out my other holiday-themed first lines post called First Lines for the Holidays.