Two Sentence Tuesday: Fantasy Edition (2 June 2009)

I'm still listening to The Lies of Locke Lamora and, as such, it's a bit difficult to pick out a pair of sentences. There are quite a few I like. One is at the 2:44 hour mark in part II. You know that one, don't you? ;-)

The format of Scott Lynch's book is interesting. There's the main story (where Locke is an adult) and then he adds in interludes. The interludes, so far, is the story of how Lamora as a young boy got in with the group called the Gentlemen Bastards. It's very "Lost"-like: they are flashbacks. So far, no flash-forwards. A part of me thinks this is just Lynch's way of adding exposition without going through the motions of an information dump. There was one in particular that was like that. Others were better. When I finish, I'll give my thoughts.

For my two sentences, three actually, I've decided to post the next paragraph to my steampunk book I started in a previous Two Sentence Tuesday post.

The murderer Serkis leaped down from his perch on the wall, his shoes smacking the cold floor and sending curls of dust into the air. He shuffled towards Kionell, who was chained to the floor by the invisible bonds of the trance the murderer had placed upon him, and then past him. The fluttering grew louder until the Serkis held the dying bird in front of Kionell's face. Kionell and the bird held each other's gaze, each knowing that they would die today.

I know the last sentence is a bit melodramatic and I'll probably cut it later but that's where it is now.

I'm not the only one offering up a twofer today. Head on over to Women of Mystery for more.

Two Sentence Tuesday: SF Edition

I'm currently reading John Scalzi's excellent novel Old Man's War. The book begins with one of the best opening lines in recent memory. Since I'm listening to the audiobook, I didn't realize it was actually three sentences but, if you format the text differently, it could have been two.

I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife's grave. Then I joined the army.

Anyone who doesn't want to read more, well, I don't know what to say.

As for some SF-related sentence of my own, my current WIP is this fantasy/steampunk/SF thing I described in the first post of SF Safari. I may end up changing things around but here's a couple of sentences to tease you with:

He didn't know how and he didn't know why but, somehow, in the fifteen years he's been marooned in this strange, foreign city, Captain Gregg Landingham discovered that the buildings were alive and they spoke to him. Now, they were telling him that someone he knew was being murdered.

Over on my crime blog, I posted some pulp-related sentences. Head on over there and let me know what you think.

For more Two Sentence Tuesday fun, head on over to Women of Mystery.