Posts Categorized: First Lines

First Lines: Revival

Revival is another of Stephen King’s more character driven novels. You have your six-year old protagonist, who grows up to be a burned-out, heroin-addicted rhythm guitarist, who keeps running into this guy that keeps changing his life. And this guy–a priest who once lost everything, including his faith in God–is the agent of change, the… Read more »

First Lines: Magic for Beginners

Most of the stories in Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners worked for me. Two didn’t. But the ones that did, mostly, made it work really well. Thing is, probably, that with a title like that, you automatically thing “Oh, she’s doing fantasy!” when actually, it’s a little bit more surrealistic. I mean, a story about… Read more »

First Lines: The Strange Library

Haruki Murakami’s The Strange Library is a strange little book. It tells the story of a lonely boy who went to the city library because he wanted to learn about tax collecting in the Ottoman empire–“Ever since I was little my mother had told me, if you don’t know something, go to the library and… Read more »

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First Lines: The Poison Eaters and Other Stories

Included in the second Humble eBook Bundle, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories is a damn fine collection of stories by Holly Black. I knew that Black had co-written the Spiderwick Chronicles series–and the movie they made out of that was enjoyable enough. Black can turn out a fine tale. There’s vampires, faeries, werewolves, enchanted… Read more »