#OpeningSentence

Raindrops slapped the cowl of Rafe’s cloak as he followed Jassa through the trees.

— Viscera Gabriel Squailia

Stella Wallace met her family’s god when she was nine years old.

— Revelator Daryl Gregory

The war had begun long before we arrived because war was their way of life.

— Semiosis Sue Burke, Sue Burke (Semiosis Duology, #1)

Onna Gebowa had always liked numbers.

— Unnatural Magic C. M. Waggoner

I was standing on a stranger’s doorstep and wishing my feet were nailed to the ground.

— Non-Player Character Veo Corva

I was seven years old the first time my uncle poisoned me.

— City of Lies Sam Hawke

That morning, God was complaining again.

— City of Last Chances Adrian Tchaikovsky

In the course of a single life, a man can be many things: a beloved child in a brightly embroidered gown, a street tough with a band of knifemen walking at his side, lover to a beautiful girl, husband to an honest woman, father to a child, grain sweeper in a brewery, widower, musician, and mendicant coughing his lungs up outside the city walls. The only thing they have in common is that they are the same man.

— Age of Ash Daniel Abraham (Kithamar, #1)