Opening lines

I posted some opening lines by Joe Lansdale a little while ago.  Here are some more by another of my favourite authors, Terry Pratchett.  I'll probably make this a semi-regular spot.


In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part …
The Colour of Magic (1983)

Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before doing anything about it.
Night Watch (2002)


Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.
Hogfather (1996)

Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell.  Both turtle and elephants are bigger than people might expect, but out between the stars the difference between huge and tiny is, comparatively speaking, very small.
The Last Continent (1998)

The bees of Death are big and black, they buzz low and sombre, they keep their honey in combs of wax as white as altar candles.  The honey is black as night, thick as sin and sweet as treacle.
Eric (1990)

Johnny never knew for certain why he started seeing the dead.
Johnny and the Dead (1993)

This is where the gods play games with the lives of men, on a board which is at one and the same time a simple playing area and the whole world.
Interesting Times (1994)