(no subject)
Like most people I'm sure, I often re-read books I particularly loved. Just lately I felt a real need to re-read William Gibson's sprawl trilogy. In doing so I rediscovered how absolutely fantastic the opening sequence of Count Zero is.
I reproduce it here in full:
They set a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street named Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystalized hexogene and flaked TNT.
He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.
Because he had a good agent, he had a good contract. Because he had a good contract, he was in Singapore an hour after the explosion. Most of him, anyway. The Dutch surgeon liked to joke about that, how an unspecified percentage of Turner hadn't made it out of Palam International on that first flight and had to spend the night there in a shed, in a support vat.
It took the Dutchman and his team three months to put Turner together again. They cloned a square meter of skin for him, grew it on slabs of collagen and shark-cartilage polysaccharides. They bought eyes and genitals on the open market. The eyes were green.
To me I think it's the best opening page of any book I have ever read. It grabs you instantly and, in just a few hundred words, paints a strong picture of a world that is like ours but not. The neologism 'slamhound' remains unexplained but is instantly understandable and, for me at least, conjures a powerful image. I can see from this dog-thing's point of view as it scrambles through the crowd towards Turner. It's clearly a world where life, and death, are cheap (they bought eyes and genitals on the open market) but that, for the rich-enough there is very little that can't be overcome. And while it's futuristic it's near future, almost now - the explosive is hexogen (RDX) and TNT which has been in use for around 70 years IIRC, parts are transplanted not regrown, what is regrown sounds, to the layman, realistic - there are no Bacta tanks here.
And of course, I immediately want to read more. I want to know who Turner is, who wants to kill him, and why, how come he has such a fantastic connect?
So, dear Flist, what is your favourite opening sequence to a book and why?
I reproduce it here in full:
They set a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street named Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystalized hexogene and flaked TNT.
He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.
Because he had a good agent, he had a good contract. Because he had a good contract, he was in Singapore an hour after the explosion. Most of him, anyway. The Dutch surgeon liked to joke about that, how an unspecified percentage of Turner hadn't made it out of Palam International on that first flight and had to spend the night there in a shed, in a support vat.
It took the Dutchman and his team three months to put Turner together again. They cloned a square meter of skin for him, grew it on slabs of collagen and shark-cartilage polysaccharides. They bought eyes and genitals on the open market. The eyes were green.
To me I think it's the best opening page of any book I have ever read. It grabs you instantly and, in just a few hundred words, paints a strong picture of a world that is like ours but not. The neologism 'slamhound' remains unexplained but is instantly understandable and, for me at least, conjures a powerful image. I can see from this dog-thing's point of view as it scrambles through the crowd towards Turner. It's clearly a world where life, and death, are cheap (they bought eyes and genitals on the open market) but that, for the rich-enough there is very little that can't be overcome. And while it's futuristic it's near future, almost now - the explosive is hexogen (RDX) and TNT which has been in use for around 70 years IIRC, parts are transplanted not regrown, what is regrown sounds, to the layman, realistic - there are no Bacta tanks here.
And of course, I immediately want to read more. I want to know who Turner is, who wants to kill him, and why, how come he has such a fantastic connect?
So, dear Flist, what is your favourite opening sequence to a book and why?