#OpeningSentence

The bells of the Palace of Stars were barely audible outside its walls.

— At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard

In Siberia, the thawing ground was a ceiling on the verge of collapse, sodden with ice melt and the mammoth detritus of prehistory.

— How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

“Eighteen!” bellowed Viv, bringing her saber around in a flat curve that battered the wight’s skull off its spine.

— Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

And so it was that my mother went into labor while sitting astride the donkey that was carrying her from the city to our village.

— Wondrous Journeys In Strange Lands by Sonia Nimr, Marcia Lynx Qualey

A few years back I was running out of money so I volunteered for a research study at the University of Pennsylvania.

— Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

She lived where the railway tracks met the saltpan, on the Ahri side of the shadowline.

— The Border Keeper by Kerstin Hall

While the sisters of the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations argued themselves in circles, the Reverend Mother sat silently in her chair at the head of the chapel as she always did, listening to the arguments twist and double back on themselves.

— Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

The first time Isabel heard a voice in her head, she’d tried to talk back.

— The Colours of Death by Patricia Marques

Dr. Bharadwaj told me once that she thought I hated planets because of the whole thing with being considered expendable and the possibility of being abandoned. I told her it was because planets were boring.

— System Collapse by Martha Wells

There was a grim determination Maritza found, sometimes, when there was nothing to be done about how wrong the world had slid.

— Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Basit Deniau's greatest architectural triumph is the house he died in.

— Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Now, standing in front of the tower, it was far too real.

— The Warden by Daniel M. Ford

Her name was Dumai, from an ancient word for a dream that ends too soon.

— A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

I’m really not supposed to be doing this, but a girl’s gotta get paid.

— The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu

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

— Viscera by Gabriel Squailia