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More favourite opening lines

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  More favourite opening lines Moriarty <blues95@ivillage.com> - 2018-06-25 17:44 -0700
    Re: More favourite opening lines goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2018-06-26 04:30 +0000
      Re: More favourite opening lines Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> - 2018-06-26 08:58 -0700
      Re: More favourite opening lines Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2018-06-27 16:10 +1200
        Re: More favourite opening lines ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) - 2018-06-27 05:16 +0000
          Re: More favourite opening lines peterwezeman@hotmail.com - 2018-06-27 16:31 -0700
            Re: More favourite opening lines Juho Julkunen <giaotanj@hotmail.com> - 2018-06-28 03:48 +0300
            Re: More favourite opening lines "artyw2@yahoo.com" <artyw2@yahoo.com> - 2018-06-28 09:39 -0700
              Re: More favourite opening lines djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2018-06-28 17:10 +0000
          Re: More favourite opening lines Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-06-27 17:36 -0700
          Re: More favourite opening lines David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2018-06-27 19:45 -0500
            Re: More favourite opening lines ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) - 2018-06-28 03:44 +0000
            Re: More favourite opening lines Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2018-07-01 18:59 -0700
          Re: More favourite opening lines tonynance17@gmail.com - 2018-06-28 05:52 -0700
            Re: More favourite opening lines peterwezeman@hotmail.com - 2018-06-28 10:10 -0700
              Re: More favourite opening lines tonynance17@gmail.com - 2018-07-02 05:51 -0700
                Re: More favourite opening lines Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-07-02 09:36 -0700
            Re: More favourite opening lines David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2018-06-28 16:32 -0500
              Re: More favourite opening lines goldfarb@kithrup.com (David Goldfarb) - 2018-06-29 05:16 +0000
                Re: More favourite opening lines Michael Ikeda <mmikeda@erols.com> - 2018-06-29 11:17 +0000
                  Re: More favourite opening lines Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-06-29 14:16 -0700
                    Re: More favourite opening lines Michael Ikeda <mmikeda@erols.com> - 2018-06-30 12:10 +0000
                      Re: More favourite opening lines Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-06-30 05:56 -0700
                    Re: More favourite opening lines David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2018-07-12 11:05 -0500
                      Re: More favourite opening lines djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2018-07-12 19:23 +0000
                        Re: More favourite opening lines Panthera Tigris Altaica <northerntiger@outlook.com> - 2018-07-12 12:57 -0700
                      Re: More favourite opening lines goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2018-07-13 05:18 +0000
                        Re: More favourite opening lines djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2018-07-14 05:28 +0000
                          Re: More favourite opening lines goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2018-07-16 22:29 +0000
                            Re: More favourite opening lines Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2018-07-16 20:49 -0700
                              Re: More favourite opening lines djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2018-07-17 04:27 +0000
              Re: More favourite opening lines David Mitchell <david.robot.mitchell@gmail.com> - 2018-06-30 10:00 +0100
              Re: More favourite opening lines "Lee Gleason" <lee.gleason@comcast.net> - 2018-07-01 14:31 -0500
                Re: More favourite opening lines peterwezeman@hotmail.com - 2018-07-01 16:04 -0700
                  Re: More favourite opening lines "Lee Gleason" <lee.gleason@comcast.net> - 2018-07-01 18:49 -0500
                Re: More favourite opening lines D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-07-01 23:12 +0000
              Re: More favourite opening lines tonynance17@gmail.com - 2018-07-02 05:52 -0700
            Re: More favourite opening lines goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu (David Goldfarb) - 2018-06-29 05:10 +0000
              Re: More favourite opening lines tonynance17@gmail.com - 2018-07-02 05:55 -0700
            Re: More favourite opening lines Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2018-07-01 19:01 -0700
              Re: More favourite opening lines tonynance17@gmail.com - 2018-07-02 05:56 -0700
          Re: More favourite opening lines Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2018-07-02 05:12 -0700
        Re: More favourite opening lines Moriarty <blues95@ivillage.com> - 2018-06-27 16:40 -0700
          Re: More favourite opening lines Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2018-06-28 15:38 +1200
    Re: More favourite opening lines "Mike Dworetsky" <platinum198@pants.btinternet.com> - 2018-06-26 08:36 +0100
      Re: More favourite opening lines Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2018-06-26 05:39 -0700
    Re: More favourite opening lines Harold Hill <kyle.pellarkosbar@gmail.com> - 2018-06-29 06:23 -0700
      Re: More favourite opening lines Steve Dodds <sdodds@nova-optical.com> - 2018-07-02 07:19 -0600
    Re: More favourite opening lines D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-06-30 16:46 +0000
    Re: More favourite opening lines Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2018-07-01 19:12 -0700
    Re: More favourite opening lines Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-07-12 23:06 -0500

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#494204 — More favourite opening lines

This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):

"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men."

What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to share?

(*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.

-Moriarty

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#494215

In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
>This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
>again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
>
>"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
>of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
>Tacsis brought two hundred men."
>
>What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to share?
>
>(*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.

"There are a number of smells one expects to encounter in a dungeon.
Fresh rosemary generally isn't one of them." -- Ursula Vernon, writing
as "T. Kingfisher", _Clockwork Boys_.

"I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module,
but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment
channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000
hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably,
I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays,
and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure."
-- Martha Wells, "All Systems Red".

"'There were unexpected difficulties,' said the dark gray blur."
-- Ann Leckie, _Provenance.

"Log entry: Sol 6. I'm pretty much fucked. That's my considered opinion."
-- Andy Weir, _The Martian_.

-- 
   David Goldfarb          |"The only thing better than messing with somebody's
goldfarbdj@gmail.com       | sense of reality is messing with a whole LOTTA
goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu  | people's sense of reality...."
                           |              -- J. Michael Straczynski

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#494229

On Tuesday, June 26, 2018 at 1:00:04 AM UTC-4, David Goldfarb wrote:
[snip-snip]
> "I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module,
> but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment
> channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over
> 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but
> probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials,
> books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I
> was a terrible failure."
> -- Martha Wells, "All Systems Red".
[snip]

I remember reading that paragraph and thinking "Ah, so that's the kind
of book this is going to be." Sure enough, it was and it was pretty good
at it.

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#494257

In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
 > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
 > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
 >
 > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
 > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
 > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
 >
 > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
share?
 >
 > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.

Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:

No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......

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#494258

In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
>In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
>Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> >
> > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> >
> > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
>share?
> >
> > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
>
>Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
>
>No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
>platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......

===
Safety devices that do not protect.

===
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; that
as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
and multiply in a drop of water.

===
ON and on Coeurl prowled! 

===
I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 

===
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 

===
Two thousand million or so years ago two galaxies were colliding;
or, rather, were passing through each other.

===
"...THE OCCUPANTS of each floor of the hotel must as usual
during the games form their own protective groups..."

===
"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank
Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the
Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms
lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars -
Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired
women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry,
Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its
shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and
gold.

===
Originally the robot was intended to be a can opener.

-- 
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

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#494276

On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 12:16:27 AM UTC-5, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
> >Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> > >
> > > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> > >
> > > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
> >share?
> > >
> > > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
> >
> >Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
> >
> >No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
> >platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......
> 
> ===
> Safety devices that do not protect.
> 
> ===
> 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; that
> as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
> scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
> a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
> and multiply in a drop of water.

_War of the Worlds_
> ===
> ON and on Coeurl prowled! 
> 

_The Black Destroyer_ by A. E. van Vogt

> I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 
> 
> ===
> The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 

"There was a knock on the door."
_The Last Man_ by Frederick Brown 


> Two thousand million or so years ago two galaxies were colliding;
> or, rather, were passing through each other.
> 

Common prologue to any of final book editions of the _Lensman_ series, except
for some editions of _Galactic Patrol_

> "...THE OCCUPANTS of each floor of the hotel must as usual
> during the games form their own protective groups..."
> 

_The World of Null-A_ by A. E. van Vogt

> "Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank
> Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the
> Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms
> lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars -
> Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired
> women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry,
> Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its
> shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and
> gold.

One of the Conan stories by Robert Howard

> Originally the robot was intended to be a can opener.
> 

_The Proud Robot_ by Henry Kuttner

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

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#494285

In article <40d5a2ad-112a-4107-aa61-683a692d0cb4@googlegroups.com>, 
peterwezeman@hotmail.com says...
> 
> On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 12:16:27 AM UTC-5, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

> 
> > "Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank
> > Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the
> > Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms
> > lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars -
> > Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired
> > women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry,
> > Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its
> > shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and
> > gold.
> 
> One of the Conan stories by Robert Howard

The very first published Conan story, "The Phoenix on the Sword".

(A rewrite of an unpublished Kull story, "By This Axe I Rule!")

-- 
Juho Julkunen

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#494292

On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 7:31:10 PM UTC-4, peterw...@hotmail.com wrote:
Ted Nolan <tednolan>
> > The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 
> 
> "There was a knock on the door."

"Come in, dear"

> _The Last Man_ by Frederick Brown 

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#494294

In article <9f691c5f-499b-4577-b018-4b7d9611fe88@googlegroups.com>,
artyw2@yahoo.com <artyw2@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 7:31:10 PM UTC-4, peterw...@hotmail.com wrote:
>Ted Nolan <tednolan>
>> > The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 
>> 
>> "There was a knock on the door."
>
>"Come in, dear"

There's the other version, too, by I forget whom.  "The last man
on earth sat alone in a room.  There was a lock on the door."

-- 
Dorothy J. Heydt
Vallejo, California
djheydt at gmail dot com

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#494282

On Wednesday, 27 June 2018 06:16:27 UTC+1, Ted Nolan <tednolan>  wrote:
> In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
> >Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> > >
> > > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> > >
> > > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
> >share?
> > >
> > > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
> >
> >Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
> >
> >No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
> >platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......
> 
> ===
> Safety devices that do not protect.
> 
> ===
> 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; that
> as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
> scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
> a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
> and multiply in a drop of water.
> 
> ===
> ON and on Coeurl prowled! 
> 
> ===
> I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 
> 
> ===
> The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. 
> 
> ===
> Two thousand million or so years ago two galaxies were colliding;
> or, rather, were passing through each other.
> 
> ===
> "...THE OCCUPANTS of each floor of the hotel must as usual
> during the games form their own protective groups..."
> 
> ===
> "Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank
> Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the
> Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms
> lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars -
> Nemedia, Ophir, Brythunia, Hyperborea, Zamora with its dark-haired
> women and towers of spider-haunted mystery, Zingara with its chivalry,
> Koth that bordered on the pastoral lands of Shem, Stygia with its
> shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkania whose riders wore steel and silk and
> gold.
> 
> ===
> Originally the robot was intended to be a can opener.

I think you overlooked the words "recent examples".  
("Two thousand million or so years ago"?)

Ben Aaronovitch's _Rivers of London_ or _Midnight Riot_
doesn't have a zinging first line, but does build nicely
with the escalating attention of central London police
when one evening a body is discovered in the street, 
and then, nearby and shortly afterwards, its head.

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#494284

On 2018-06-27, Ted Nolan <tednolan> <ted@loft.tnolan.com> wrote:
>===
> Safety devices that do not protect.

The Vortex Blaster, Smith's nonLensman Lensman story/novel.

>===
> I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 

I should know this one but I don't?

Dave, it was a dark and cosmic-stormy galactic long night
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
my gatekeeper archives are no longer accessible	:( / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

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#494289

In article <OqCdnUcqX6kLsqnGnZ2dnUU7-fednZ2d@earthlink.com>,
David DeLaney  <dbdatvic@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 2018-06-27, Ted Nolan <tednolan> <ted@loft.tnolan.com> wrote:
>>===
>> Safety devices that do not protect.
>
>The Vortex Blaster, Smith's nonLensman Lensman story/novel.
>
>>===
>> I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 
>
>I should know this one but I don't?

_A Princess Of Mars_

(It's a bit of a cheat because I skipped the prolog by "Burroughs"
about how Uncle Jack was real and all, but I figure everybody does).
-- 
------
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

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#494381

On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 6:45:17 PM UTC-6, David DeLaney wrote:
> On 2018-06-27, Ted Nolan <tednolan> <ted@loft.tnolan.com> wrote:

> > I am a very old man; how old I do not know. 
> 
> I should know this one but I don't?

A Princess of Mars.

John Savard

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#494290

On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 1:16:27 AM UTC-4, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
> >Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> > >
> > > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> > >
> > > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
> >share?
> > >
> > > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
> >
> >Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
> >
> >No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
> >platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......
> 
> ===
> Safety devices that do not protect.
> 
> ===
> 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; that
> as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
> scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
> a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
> and multiply in a drop of water.
> 
> ===
> ON and on Coeurl prowled! 
> 

That's probably my favorite! Here are some others that have come to mind over the last few days:

The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries.

===
The bureaucrat fell from the sky.

===
Tonight, we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.

===
It was a pleasure to burn.

===
Do not read this story. Turn the page quickly.

===
The room stank of demons.

===
She was a girlygirl and they were true men, the Lords of Creation, but 
she pitted her wits against them and she won.

===
He doesn't know which one of us I am these days, but they know one truth.

===
Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.

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


Tony

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#494293

On Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 7:52:34 AM UTC-5, tonyn...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 1:16:27 AM UTC-4, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> > In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> > >In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
> > >Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > > > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > > > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> > > >
> > > > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > > > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > > > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> > > >
> > > > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
> > >share?
> > > >
> > > > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
> > >
> > >Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
> > >
> > >No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
> > >platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......
> > 
> > ===
> > Safety devices that do not protect.
> > 
> > ===
> > 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; that
> > as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
> > scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
> > a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
> > and multiply in a drop of water.
> > 
> > ===
> > ON and on Coeurl prowled! 
> > 
> 
> That's probably my favorite! Here are some others that have come to mind over the last few days:
> 
> The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries.
> 
> ===
> The bureaucrat fell from the sky.
> 
> ===

> Tonight, we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.

_Hero_. the first segment of _The Forever War_ by Joe Haldeman

> It was a pleasure to burn.
> 
> ===
> Do not read this story. Turn the page quickly.
> 
> ===

> The room stank of demons.

_The Broken Lands_ by Fred Saberhagen, also collected as _The Empire of
the East_ 

> ===
> She was a girlygirl and they were true men, the Lords of Creation, but 
she pitted her wits against them and she won.

_The Ballad of Lost C'Mell_

> He doesn't know which one of us I am these days, but they know one truth.
> 
> ===
> Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.

_And He Built a Crooked House_

> ===
> This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
 
Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist

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#494386

On Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 1:10:36 PM UTC-4, peterw...@hotmail.com wrote:
> On Thursday, June 28, 2018 at 7:52:34 AM UTC-5, tonyn...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 1:16:27 AM UTC-4, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
> > > In article <pgv2nt$nh$3@dont-email.me>, Titus G  <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> > > >In article <1c035105-9ba7-4fc8-95a8-aa9d60928054@googlegroups.com>,
> > > >Moriarty  <blues95@ivillage.com> wrote:
> > > > > This topic has been done periodically over the years. I bring it up
> > > > > again because last week I read this opening paragraph(*):
> > > > >
> > > > > "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army
> > > > > of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Lano
> > > > > Tacsis brought two hundred men."
> > > > >
> > > > > What a hook! Another other recent examples that people would care to 
> > > >share?
> > > > >
> > > > > (*) Mark Lawrence "Red Sister". Highly recommended.
> > > >
> > > >Today.The opening line of Chapter 1 (*) (after the Prologue), read:
> > > >
> > > >No child truly believes they will be hanged. Even on the gallows 
> > > >platform with the rope scratching at their wrists.......
> > > 
> > > ===
> > > Safety devices that do not protect.
> > > 
> > > ===
> > > 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; that
> > > as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were
> > > scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with
> > > a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm
> > > and multiply in a drop of water.
> > > 
> > > ===
> > > ON and on Coeurl prowled! 
> > > 
> > 
> > That's probably my favorite! Here are some others that have come to mind over the last few days:
> > 
> > The manhunt extended across more than one hundred light-years and eight centuries.
> > 
> > ===
> > The bureaucrat fell from the sky.
> > 
> > ===
> 
> > Tonight, we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.
> 
> _Hero_. the first segment of _The Forever War_ by Joe Haldeman

Yep!


> 
> > It was a pleasure to burn.
> > 
> > ===
> > Do not read this story. Turn the page quickly.
> > 
> > ===
> 
> > The room stank of demons.
> 
> _The Broken Lands_ by Fred Saberhagen, also collected as _The Empire of
> the East_ 
> 

Oh - maybe. I know it from "Black Easter" by Blish.


> > ===
> > She was a girlygirl and they were true men, the Lords of Creation, but 
she pitted her wits against them and she won.
> 
> _The Ballad of Lost C'Mell_


Yep!

> 
> > He doesn't know which one of us I am these days, but they know one truth.
> > 
> > ===
> > Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.
> 
> _And He Built a Crooked House_
> 

Yep! Nicely done.
- Tony


> > ===
> > This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
>  
> Peter Wezeman
> anti-social Darwinist

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#494391

On Monday, July 2, 2018 at 8:51:11 AM UTC-4, tonyn...@gmail.com wrote:
> > > She was a girlygirl and they were true men, the Lords of Creation, but 
she pitted her wits against them and she won.
> > 
> > _The Ballad of Lost C'Mell_
> 
> 
> Yep!

When I was in my 20s, and living in Milwaukee, I dated a
young lady who lived in the Bay View neighborhood.  The
Linebargers were from MKE, and a street was named after
them: S Linebarger Terrace.  "Our" Paul Linebarger's father
helped develop the neighborhood.

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9933933,-87.8890951,17z

I passed by it every time I took the Rte 15 bus to her home,
or later, drove there.

I was a C Smith fan from my high school days, and the company
of the pretty young thing was worth the trip!

An appreciation of Smith and the Linebarger family was excerpted
in THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL last year:

https://preview.tinyurl.com/MJS-Smith-Linebarger  OR

https://tinyurl.com/MJS-Smith-Linebarger

https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2017/07/08/milwaukee-native-cordwainer-smith-surprising-distinctive-voice-science-fiction/436681001/   *

Kevin R

* written by Jim Higgins

https://www.jimhigginswi.com/books

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#494298

On 2018-06-28, tonynance17@gmail.com <tonynance17@gmail.com> wrote:
>===
> She was a girlygirl and they were true men, the Lords of Creation, but ???she
> pitted her wits against them and she won.

EVERYONE should know this one by heart. (I know they don't.) Cordwainer Smith,
Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, you are not forgotten.

>===
> He doesn't know which one of us I am these days, but they know one truth.

Fondly Fahrenheit! All reet the heat.

>===
> Americans are considered crazy anywhere in the world.

There's good reasons for that, actually. I'm not sure _any_ of us are sane, and
culture and upbringing has a lot to do with it. Oh, And He Built A Crooked
House And Senate.

This one's technically cheating, but it IS part of the first sentence, which is
also the first paragraph:
===
'and what is the use of a book [...] without pictures or conversation?'

and of course
===
One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it: --
it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

===
James Quincy Holden was five years old.

===
"TheyÆre sending us a Rust, somebody who goes by Blossom, and Halt."

===
APPEARANCES are deceiving. A polished chunk of metal that shines like a
Christmas-tree ornament may hold ù and release ù energy to destroy a city.

===
"Then you mean to say there is no such thing as the _smallest_ particle
of matter?" asked the Doctor.

===
_The universe is steeped in voices._

(... needed to install DeDRM in my Calibre first. I paid for the book, this is
MY copy, not yours. Folding, spindling, and/or mutilating it is Allowed.)

===
Praxcelis dreamed. 

===
Aánote from the author: The following is compiled from a number of sources,
including humans. It may therefore be inaccurate in a number of details.

===
Outside her dream it was winter, and night. But Sirronde wandered beyond the
gates of dream, straying a long while among the golden landscapes of long-dead
summers, until at last she came to the forges of evening.

===
I remember what it was like, being bathed in the radiance of the swan.
I remember being good.

===
All children, except one, grow up.

===
Perion afterward remembered the two weeks spent at Bellegarde as in recovery
from illness a person might remember some long fever dream which was all of an
intolerable elvish brightness and of incessant laughter everywhere.

===
Her hair was a brilliant green. So was her spectacularly filled halter. So were
her tight short-shorts, her lipstick, and the lacquer on her finger- and
toe-nails.

===
The one-man clopter was zipping over New Mexico when Kent Lindstrom's left hand
dropped its side of the book of Beethoven sonatas. Kent stared with annoyance
as the hand reached forward to fool with the manual control wheel.

===
One night when I had tasted bitterness I went out on to the hill.


Dave, some of these are admittedly more obscure than I'd like
-- 
\/David	DeLaney	posting	thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that	grows the flower
It's not the clock that	slows the hour 	The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is	all it takes to	make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE	HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
my gatekeeper archives are no longer accessible	:( / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

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#494316

In article <6LydneaGaZVrzqjGnZ2dnUU7-cPNnZ2d@earthlink.com>,
David DeLaney  <dbdatvic@gmail.com> wrote:
>'and what is the use of a book [...] without pictures or conversation?'

_Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_, of course.

>One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it: --
>it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

And _Through the Looking-Glass_.

>"TheyÆre sending us a Rust, somebody who goes by Blossom, and Halt."

Graydon Saunders, _The March North_.

>Outside her dream it was winter, and night. But Sirronde wandered beyond the
>gates of dream, straying a long while among the golden landscapes of long-dead
>summers, until at last she came to the forges of evening.

One of Diane Duane's Sirronde stories, but I haven't looked up which one.

>I remember what it was like, being bathed in the radiance of the swan.
>I remember being good.

Jenna Moran, _The Fable of the Swan_.

>All children, except one, grow up.

J.M. Barrie, _Peter Pan_.

-- 
   David Goldfarb          |"I've always had a hard time getting up when 
goldfarbdj@gmail.com       | it's dark outside."
goldfarb@ocf.berkeley.edu  |	    "But in space, it's always dark."
                           |"I know. I know..."       -- Babylon 5

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#494319

goldfarb@kithrup.com (David Goldfarb) wrote in
news:pB2Jyz.rCv@kithrup.com: 

> In article <6LydneaGaZVrzqjGnZ2dnUU7-cPNnZ2d@earthlink.com>,
> David DeLaney  <dbdatvic@gmail.com> wrote:

> 
>>Outside her dream it was winter, and night. But Sirronde
>>wandered beyond the gates of dream, straying a long while among
>>the golden landscapes of long-dead summers, until at last she
>>came to the forges of evening. 
> 
> One of Diane Duane's Sirronde stories, but I haven't looked up
> which one. 
> 

Parting Gifts.

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