Yet *Another* Quote Game [First line game]

[MidasKnight]

We've been waiting for a year. Post it!

[Zelazny]

____________, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls.

Sorry - work has been really really manic this week. I've still not checked, but I think it's the first of the Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan.

[clong]

that's the one> You are up, Zelazny

[Zelazny]

it's hard work finding a good book that people will know that's not already been done

That said, here is the first line of chapter 1 (I'm not using the prologue, as that gives a little too much away):

Rek was drunk. Not enough to matter but not enough not to matter, he thought, staring at the ruby wine casting blood shadows in the lead crystal glass. A log fire in the hearth warmed his back, the smoke stinging his eyes, the acrid smell of it mixing with the odor of unwashed bodies, forgotten meals, and musty, damp clothing. A lantern flame danced briefly in the icy wind as a shaft of cold air brushed the room. Then it was gone as a newcomer slammed shut the wooden door, muttering his apologies to the crowded inn.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

To date I've read only one single L. E. Modesitt novel.

But your quote reminds me of this author.
Should I buy and read all his books to be able to answer the question?

[Zelazny]

To date I've read only one single L. E. Modesitt novel.

But your quote reminds me of this author.
Should I buy and read all his books to be able to answer the question?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, you should buy and read all of Mr Modesitt's books, but No, they won't help you answer the question.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

To date I've read only one single L. E. Modesitt novel.
But your quote reminds me of this author.
Should I buy and read all his books to be able to answer the question?

Well, yes and no.
Yes, you should buy and read all of Mr Modesitt's books, but No, they won't help you answer the question.

Fair enough. Thanks.

[MidasKnight]

Reminds me more of Feist ... but I know I haven't read it ... it just reminds me of the Feist I have read.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

Reminds me more of Feist ... but I know I haven't read it ... it just reminds me of the Feist I have read.

Oh my ... Aren't you feisty today?

[MidasKnight]

I'm always fiesty.

[Ghost]

It sounds like Legend by Gemmell.

[Zelazny]

It sounds like Legend by Gemmell.

That's it! You're up

[Ghost]

A few months after my twenty-first birthday, a stranger called to give me the news.

[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

A few months after my twenty-first birthday, a stranger called to give me the news.

Glory Road by R. A. Heinlein?

[Ghost]

No, but good guess.

[Ghost]

First and second line:

A few months after my twenty-first birthday, a stranger called to give me the news. I was living in New York at the time, on Ninety-Fourth between Second and First, part of that unnamed, shifting border between East Harlem and the rest of Manhattan.

[laurie]

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama


I've got to look at this game more often... Ghostie's quoting a liberal!


NEW QUOTE

With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter...

[KeE]

I thought Dickens, but then something didn't quite add up so I looked the character up. Nope, not D.

[laurie]

With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter...

Nope, not Dickens - but the right country and time period.

[Zelazny]

Are we allowed to use google? This thread seems to be fairly quiet without it...

[clong]

I think that it might be better to simply declare the previous quote "cold" and dive right in with a new one. In any case, there should never be a case of awarding a sherlock on the basis of a googled response.

[Zelazny]

Makes sense - it really does seem like cheating.

So Laurie to provide another?

[clong]

I think you could go ahead and offer one it you'd like to try to get us restarted

[voralfred]

OK, dormant for a whole year. Time to put some life, here :
New first line :

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category.

[voralfred]

OK, dormant for a whole year. Time to put some life, here :
New first line :

The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category.

Some hints

As the neologism Deliverator indicates, this is SF.
Not just SF, but a specific sub-genre that, when this book was published, was still rather recent. Not so recent that this book could be called a "pioneering work", the sub-genre was well beyond that stage (about 10 years since it began in earnest, let's say). Still it is one of the rather early masterpieces in this sub-genre.