First Lines is a series of blog articles posted around the first of the month. With examples like these, I hoped to inspire myself and other writers to write the better first lines. I also hoped to inspire and point readers to books they might enjoy.
This Month’s Focus
This month we’re celebrating the announcement of the 2026 Hugo Award Finalists. The lines in this post are from the novel category of awards. Try them. Maybe one of these will hook you. No guarantees. After all, the hookiness of the first lines is in the eye of the beholder.
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
What is The Hugo Award?
Science fiction’s most prestigious award, first presented in 1953, is voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”). It has been presented annually since 1955.
According to The Hugo Awards website, “the Hugo Awards are trade/service marks of Worldcon Intellectual Property (WIP), a California non-profit corporation managed by the Mark Protection Committee (MPC) of the World Science Fiction Society (“WSFS”), an unincorporated literary society which sponsors the annual World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) and the Hugo Awards.”
How are The Hugo Awards Chosen?
Each year members of the Worldcon are allowed to nominate up to five people or works from the previous year. There are three main types of award categories: individual works (book or film), people (Best Professional Artist, Editor, etc), and serial publications (Best Fanzine, etc.) There are a total of fifteen subcategories.
The Hugo Awards are labeled for the year they are presented, not for the year in which the works were published. See the official site of The Hugo Award for the complete rules.
This year it’s reported that there were 1,488 valid nominating ballots received and counted from members of the 2025 and 2026 World Science Fiction Conventions for the 2026 Hugo Awards.
Voting on the final ballot will open during May 2026.
The Finalists (in no particular order):
A Drop of Corruption:
An Ana and Din Mystery, Shadow of the Leviathan
by Robert Jackson Bennett
Before there was memory, before there was history, there were the leviathans: the colossal, monstrous creatures that lumbered ashore, each wet season and went wandering the plains, bringing death and panic with them. For centuries, the folk of the land lived at their whim, and knew only fear and suffering.
Then the people of the valley of Khanum learned the secrets of shaping flesh and root and branch – secrets rendered from the blood of the leviathan.
They altered their bodies. They made themselves brilliant, and strong. And when they emerged so transformed from the shadows of that valley, they began to change all the world before them.
First, they devised methods to bring down the leviathans. Then they conquered the petty tyrants, who ruled the highlands where the leviathan could not venture. And thus, the Empire of Khanum was born.“
The Everlasting
by Alix E. Harrow
It begins where it ends: beneath the yew tree.
The yew stands in the wood, like a great queen, grown old, limbs wrapped with age, head bowed by the weight of her crown. In the gnarled grain of her trunk there is a woman’s face, with weeping canker for eyes, and in her heartwood there is a sword driven so deep that only the hilt is still visible. You already know the name of that sword, I think; who doesn’t?
They say time runs strangely, beneath the yew. They say many things are lost there, among the tangled roots: years, hearts, lives. But they say, two, that some things are found: fates and fortunes, beginnings and endings.
And, once, a child. You know her name, too, or at least one of them.“
The Raven Scholar,
by Antonia Hodgson
Once they made sacrifices here, to appease the Eight. This was many thousands of years ago, but the rock remembers. There was a modest temple on the hill, with views across the island, and worn stone steps leading up to a plain stone slab. Now there is a palace with golden halls and floors of white marble. Lustrous silk tapestries hanging from the walls, telling intricate stories of love and war, and the death of tyrants. The air is lacquered with incense, rich and heady.
This is where my father died.
Yana Valit walked beside her twin brother Ruko, willing herself to stay calm. The emperor had no reason to hurt her; she had done nothing wrong.
Nothing he could know about.“
Death of the Author
by Nnedi Okorafor
What’s the story you want?
Honestly, I don’t see it. Even after everything, Zelu will always be just Zelu to me. What do you think she is – it’s all made up. Life is short. Fortune is fleeting. Fame is just swirling dust. It’s people dreaming and perceiving while they say your name like it’s some tangible object, but it’s not. A name is just a name. A sound.
What matters is family. Without family, you’re nothing. Your debris tumbling through space. Unseen, unconnected, uncollected, unknown, no matter how famous you are.
Zelu will always be part of our family. She will always be my sister. No matter what. Oh, it’s been rough. The fact that is that Zulu never really cared about family. Zelu had to do her own thing.“
Shroud
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Prologue
The couch’s design had been cribbed from those on the Garveneer, which had cushioned everyone’s sleeping forms while the ship accelerated through the interstellar void, so it was considerate enough to wake me up after impact. Conscientious as a servant. Or a doctor. Waking me into pain and darkness. The sour residuum of all the terror and panic I’d been caught in the throes of before I blacked out.
Everything hurt. Out of the chorus, specific pains spoke up. I was a mess of discreet bruises, like I’ve gone three rounds with a pugilism automatic. But beyond that, everything hurt me. The world pressed on me with such universal force I wondered, Are we traveling? Are we still accelerating? As though I was still in the ship.“
The Incandescent
by Emily Tesh
Dr. Walden looked glumly at the form she had to fill in. At the top, it said RISK ASSESSMENT.
She’d designed the form herself, in a burst of optimism. They would have fewer accidents, if people just stopped to think. It was an unfortunate truth that in the Venn diagram of single ‘qualified to teach magic’ and ‘still alive,’ the overlap consisted almost entire entirely of people who had always been much too sensible to accidentally get eaten by a demon. Walden’ colleagues – in particular, those who were her responsibility, the loosely grouped Faculty of Magic here at Chetwood School – possessed, as a body, an admirable and well-judged lack of imagination. In the three years since she took the post as Director of Magic, she had had someone in her office once a term to weep on her shoulder and say, but why would anyone ever –”
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.
Remember Reviews Don’t Have to be 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. If the book is not a genre or type of book you normally enjoy reading, consider saying that in your review. Honest reviews are always appreciated by writer and readers alike.