Well Begun is Half Done

Like most avid readers, I usually pick up the latest from my favorite author with hardly a glance at the blurb on the back, much less cracking it open and checking the opening lines. But I've picked up a few new authors this year, and part of the process of picking new books and authors involves reading the first few paragraphs. So I thought I'd analyze a couple of beginnings and try to figure out what made me decide to buy each book.

First is the opening paragraph from Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet: Dauntless. I picked this one up initially because I liked the cover, and I was sort of in the mood for military sf. Without further ado, the opening: "The cold air blowing in through the vents still carried a faint tang of overheated metal and burned equipment. Faint echoes of a blast reached into his stateroom as the ship shuddered. Voices outside the hatch were raised in fright and feet rushed past. But he didn't move, knowing that if the enemy had resumed the attack there'd be alarms sounding and many more than just one blow struck to the ship. And, attack or not, he had no assignment to run to, no job to fulfill."

I think several things work for this opening. First, several sensory details are given to firmly place the reader in the story: cold air, the faint tang of overheated metal and burned equipment, voices raised in fright, etc. Second, there's a sense that things are happening, that the story is starting en media res, or in the middle of the action; people are running around doing things immediately following some sort of attack. Third, it aroused my curiosity about this one person who is sitting (presumably alone) in a room while all heck breaks out. And finally, there's something ominous about the line "…if the enemy had resumed the attack there'd be alarms sound and many more than just one blow struck to the ship." This opening conveys a ton of information in just a few lines.

Next is a completely different sort of book. Maureen Johnson's The Name of the Star is part ghost story, part police procedural, and a new twist on Jack the Ripper. That, and the fact that the main character grew up in Louisiana but is now going to boarding school in London, drew me initially to read the first few paragraphs. It opens with: "The eyes of London were watching Claire Jenkins. She didn't notice them, of course. It was an accepted fact that London has one of the most extensive CCTV systems in the world." There's more about the cameras, but I'll leave the rest out.

I like the first line. It's creepy, and it fits with both the ghost story aspect and the Jack the Ripper aspect of the novel. The bit about the cameras is not only a nice juxtaposition to the idea of Jack the Ripper, but the cameras are important throughout the story. It's a completely different sort of beginning when compared to Dauntless, but it works. It sets us in a time and place, and it gives us someone to focus on immediately. Unfortunately for poor Claire Jenkins, she doesn't last more than a couple of pages. It's a story about Jack the Ripper, after all.

What are some of your favorite beginnings?

Some Classic Military SF for Your Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day, and that puts me in mind of many things, including military sf, and how different authors have such wildly different views on war. I realize that Starship Troopers is a classic, but (confession time here), I've tried reading Heinlein, and I just can't get into his stuff. I've seen the movie, which I'm sure is only somewhat like the book, and so I offer no opinion on the theme of war in that particular story.

I have, however, read The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, who, incidentally, served in the military during the Vietnam War. I found this book to be a criticism of the Vietnam War, the poor reception the troops received when they returned home, and how difficult it can be for a soldier to assimilate to non-military society once their service is over.

Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game is finally coming out as a movie later this year. I've read this one twice, and enjoyed it. If you haven't read it, do so before the movie comes out, just in case the movie screws up the ending. In this novel, the enemy is completely and utterly alien, which I read as a metaphor for how people often view the enemy. They look different. They have strange customs. They're non-human, other. These are the sort of messages people often encourage in order to make it easier to kill the enemy. This novel is more of a commentary on the lens through which we view the enemy.

Most recently I read Old Man's War by John Scalzi. As the title suggests, the elderly are sent to a faraway front line in order to fight the enemy. Soldiers are often seen as expendable, and so are the elderly. I found it an interesting line to draw between the two groups, and the premise certainly held my attention. My only quibble with this novel was that I never felt all that drawn to the main character. He often came across as cold and aloof, even though I know he wasn't, and so I don't plan to read the rest in this series.

Military sf shows the effects of war through the lens of something new and different. It's a subgenre worth reading.