#OpeningSentence

The world roared.

— Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Shea Ashcroft stepped from a carriage into the low-lit alley as a mongrel lifted its door knocker of a head from a garbage pile.

— Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov

Here is what I remember most about the months I spent searching for dark matter: there are some things in the universe you can only find by looking away from them.

— In Universes by Emet North

I’d thought the jungles of the eastern Empire to be oppressively hot, but as I sat in the prow of the little canal boat and felt the sweat slip down my brow, I decided the north was, without question, far worse.

— A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Abe Kalotay died in his front yard in late February, beneath a sky so pale it seemed infected.

— Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

I want to feel everything, the light, the noise, the dark, even the cold and fear.

— Dual Memory by Sue Burke

We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other.

— Bunny: A Novel by Mona Awad

The other day, we’re standing in the repository; it’s evening already, nothing left to do but dump the lab suits, then I can head down to the Borscht for my daily dose of booze.

— Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky, Boris Natanovich Strugatsky, Arkady Strugatsky, and 1 other

The trick is remembering that it’s all a game.

— Atlas Alone by Emma Newman

By all accounts, I should be scared.

— The Dragonfly Gambit by A. D. Sui

The protesters outside are getting louder.

— Ghost Station by S. A. Barnes

He didn't like beating people.

— Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I am not on this beach.

— Before Mars by Emma Newman

It's times like these, when I’m hunkered in a doorway, waiting for a food market of dubious legality to be set up, that I find myself wishing I could eat like everyone else.

— After atlas by Emma Newman

Every time I come down here I think about my mother.

— Planetfall by Emma Newman