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Sep. 4, 2008
Answers to the 'quiz'
But, first, thanks to Miss Laura for my 1001st comment. (Ya'll talk to me too much, yanno that? Man...)
If you weren't here for the first part of this, go check out THIS POST first. Otherwise, this won't make much sense. ;-)
Anyhoo, here are the lines, titles, and what I think.
1. "High, high overhead the horse circled slowly, majestically." - Ariosto, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Thus began a book filled with mostly adjectives and metaphors. And bad punctuation. I couldn't even finish it.
2. "I, Cleopatra, Princess of the Nile, write this in my own hand." Cleopatra VII Daughter of the Nile, Kristina Gregory. The opening is kind of bland, but I loved the book.
3. "Kate O'Malley had been in the dungeon since dawn." The Negotiator, Dee Henderson. Hey, she's got an Irish name and the book's got a dungeon in it. Miss Laura could tell you that I have a thing for dungeons and prisons in books. And this is a modern, FBI novel.
4. "When twelve-year-old Andrea Carter brought her golden palomino mare to a skidding halt near her favorite fishing spot, she expected to find a bubbling, splashing creek full of trout just waiting to be snatched up for supper. Instead, she found a dead man." Family Secret, Susan K. Marlow. That is a book I would definitely read, because how many writers have a 12-year-old find a dead person in the second sentence? It strikes me as daring.
5. "During the night Detjens died and the rest of them were almost glad." The Sands of the Kalahari, William Mulvihill. That line made me buy the book (for 25 cents...). Honestly. The cover is completely tan, there's no summary, I was at a garage sale, and Mom was leaving. I saw that and said, "Woah!" However, most of my blog readers would not want to read it. Ask me about it if you're interested in reading it and want to know why I'm not recommending it.
6. "Shiloh was not an easy place to locate, even with a road map." Shiloh Autumn, Bodie and Brock Thoene. If I'd not been required to read this for school and two of the characters had awesome names (Ellis and Birch), I wouldn't have gotten through it. It was a completely boring and predictable series. Not to mention that Ellis threw hissy fits too much.
7. "Sergeant Eugene Skinner, USMC, ran a baleful eye over his honor guard detachment." Stargate Retaliation, Bill McCay. Something about this hit a nerve, and this book was actually the motivation behind the last post. It's not professional enough for me for something military. First, there's the first name thrown in. Sergeant Skinner would be called Sergeant Skinner through the rest of the novel, and we'd forget the first name, anyway. It's extra information, and it throws off the whole cadence of the sentence. Then... "baleful eye". Meh. I was not impressed. And, no, I did not read any more after that.
So that's it. But I'll steal what Jess said in her comment, because I can't say it any better:
"I want a first sentence to hook me in with conflict or a sense of character. Most of these sentences don't do that. But I won't ever judge a book by one sentence. It could be a one-paragraph whopper, you know? I still want that opening line to perform well, but I give it leeway; it may need help. Not everyone is the next Tolstoy or Austen."
Except that I hate Austen. *ducks and flees from irate Austen fans* |
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Posted by 
Posted by Anonymous 
Sep. 4, 2008 - You'd better duck!
Pride and Prejudice
Sense and Sensibility
Persuasion
Emma
Mansfield Park
She wrote another book, "Northanger Abbey". I never finished it. It was one of the weirdest books I'd ever tried to read. I researched it a bit, and found that it was supposed to be a parody of the then-popular gothic novels of the time. I've never read an 1817, or so, gothic novel, which must be why I didn't understand the book. So for that reason, I can't say as I recommend that particular book by her.
The rest are fantastic. "Emma" should be read after you've gone through some of Austen's other books. It's immensely funny, but rather hard to read if you're not used to the style.
Why are you always bashing Jane Austen? I am all bewilderment...