Day 18 – Favorite beginning scene in a book

Another impossible question for me to answer, because I really don’t tend to pay that much attention to opening scenes. That is, obviously they’re important, because a bad scene will put me right off. But I still have a niggling sense that starting a book means finishing it, so I probably give books more leeway than perhaps I ought. Pawn of Prophecy, the first book of the Belgariad, starts off in a seriously boring way, but I still kept reading… several times.

That said, when you realise that Jane Austen is actually writing from an ironic point of view, the classic “It is a truth universally acknowledged…” sets the scene of Pride and Prejudice brilliantly. Especially in light of Mrs Bennett. And Tansy Rayner Roberts’ opening scene of Power and Majesty – a young girl waking up to see naked men falling out of the sky – is certainly an attention-grabber.