# Awesome First Chapters?



## Darkfantasy (Aug 26, 2016)

It can be adult or young adult but what was the best first chapter of a Fantasy you have read. What first chapter nailed it for you.Which one hooked you and stayed in your memory (You can name more than one)

For me it will always be LOTR's because it was the first fantasy book I ever read. But what's yours?


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## skip.knox (Aug 26, 2016)

Well, I recently finished _The Last Unicorn_. I picked it up out of a sense of duty--read the classics--but it captured me from the start. It wasn't the plot, and it certainly wasn't the character. Nor even the setting, much. It was purely the writing. Captivating.

There have been others. First chapter of The Hobbit was more captivating (best word I can come up with for prose that grabs you) than was the first chapter of LOTR, mainly because of the voice. I'm not sure I would nominate too many other works of fantasy. Plenty in other genres, but all the great (to me) fantasy has been more a matter of building over time rather than grabbing at the outset.


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## Darkfantasy (Aug 26, 2016)

I forgot the Last Unicorn! Read that as a kid


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## skip.knox (Aug 26, 2016)

It's better as an adult. Nothing super-sophisticated, but the narrator is aware it's a fairy tale and there are many lovely turns of phrases.


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## Reaver (Aug 27, 2016)

Certainly The Hobbit and LOTR for me as they too were among the first fantasy books I read. The Gunslinger, Stephen King's incredible urban fantasy which is the first of seven in his Dark Tower series really hooked me. 

The first chapter of Dune by Frank Herbert drew me in with the rich tapestry of history and culture so expertly woven by whom I call the Tolkien of science fiction.


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## Heliotrope (Aug 27, 2016)

The Hobbit

Wizards First Rule

The Princess Bride is hilarious in the first chapter.


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## Reaver (Aug 27, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> Wizards First Rule



The only good book in the entire series.


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## Steerpike (Aug 27, 2016)

I agree with The Last Unicorn, and also Tolkien. Dianna Wynne Jones has good openings. I like those by Caitlin Kiernan as well. Most of the best openings that grab me from the start seem to come from outside of the genre - writers like Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.


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## Heliotrope (Aug 27, 2016)

@ Reaver - Totally agree. I remember picking it up in the bookstore, I was perhaps 12 or 13? I opened up that first page and was instantly hooked. I still read it every few years. I did read the rest in the series, my mom usually buying them for me as she saw them on the bookshelves, but #1 was absolutely the best. 

Knowing what I know now about writing I would say he is not a brilliant writer by any stretch, but the story was captivating. 

_It was an odd-looking vine.

Dusky variegated leaves hunkered against a stem that wound in a stranglehold around the smooth trunk of a balsam fir. Sap drooled down the wounded bark, and dry limbs slumped, making it look as if the tree were trying to voice a moan into the cool, damp morning air. Pods stuck out from the vine here and there along its length, almost seeming to look warily about for witnesses. 

It was the smell that first caught his attention, a smell like the decomposition of something that had been wholly unsavory even in life. Richard combed his fingers through his thick hair as his mind lifted out of the fog of despair, coming into focus upon seeing the vine. He scanned for others but saw none. Everything else looked normal. The maples of the upper Ven forest were already tinged with crimson, proudly showing off their new mantle in the light breeze. With nights getting colder, it wouldn't be long before their cousins down in the Hartland Woods joined them. The oaks, being the last to surrender to the season, still stoically wore their dark green coats._

I still love it, actually.


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## Reaver (Aug 27, 2016)

Heliotrope said:


> @ Reaver - Totally agree. I remember picking it up in the bookstore, I was perhaps 12 or 13? I opened up that first page and was instantly hooked. I still read it every few years. I did read the rest in the series, my mom usually buying them for me as she saw them on the bookshelves, but #1 was absolutely the best.
> 
> Knowing what I know now about writing I would say he is not a brilliant writer by any stretch, but the story was captivating.
> 
> ...



I agree that the story is a good one and I like the relationship between Richard and Kahlan. I like their story arcs too.

 My issue with it is that about halfway through the second book, the author starts to get preachy and gets progressively worse as the series goes on.  I hate when writers do that.


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## Darkfantasy (Aug 27, 2016)

beatrix potter anyone?


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## AElisabet (Sep 4, 2016)

The opening chapter (Bran POV) of Game of Thrones.  It's evocative, it sets the scene and tone, it hints at the larger story arc with the first line, and it puts the reader right into the action and the lives of the central major characters.

I think overall the first 50 pages of GOT is a great example of how to balance action/scene and exposition in the opening of an epic fantasy.  Martin doesn't over-do the info dumping but I never felt disoriented as a reader, never felt like I didn't know what was going on, and never lost interest.

I also love the opening to LOTR - Tolkien's change in voice from warm and folksy in the chapters in the Shire to his more measured and epic tone as the Hobbits set out into Middle Earth is one of the things that makes the book so evocative.


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## mrsmig (Sep 4, 2016)

I love the prologue of Guy Gavriel Kay's _Tigana_.  The mood is so wistful and the characters endearing.  But IMO it sets the bar too high. The first chapter was such a letdown - seems like it contains all the stereotypical fantasy tropes - that I was never able to get past it.  I still have the book and will finish it someday, but I know I'll have to steel myself to get through that first chapter.


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## SaltyDog (Sep 4, 2016)

Wheel of time.  Some might disagree but it drew me in.  Also Emperor's blade.


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## Ronald T. (Jan 14, 2017)

I agree with so many of the references to the older novels, both SF&F.  I loved most of those, as well.  

But I will include a couple of novels which are a bit more current:

Patrick Rothfuss'...NAME OF THE WIND.

Brent Weeks'...NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY.

Both of these authors drew me in and didn't let me go.


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## TheCrystallineEntity (Jan 14, 2017)

> My issue with it is that about halfway through the second book, the author starts to get preachy and gets progressively worse as the series goes on. I hate when writers do that.



That's one of the many reasons why I dislike the Narnia books. Of course, my own books are a bit preachy, but I guess I have the excuse that the characters themselves believe what they believe, and the spiritual stuff in my books are a vital part of the characters' world. 

As for opening chapters:
Fire and Hemlock
Dogsobdy
Alcatraz VS The Evil Librarians [Book I]

I'll think of more eventually.


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## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 14, 2017)

I typically don't remember how stories start. The only one that I can recall any details of how it starts is _The Eternal Champion_ by Michael Moorcock. John Daker dreams, and hears the name Erekose.


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