#OpeningSentence

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 (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)

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 (The Warden, #1)

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

— A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon (The Roots of Chaos, #0)

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

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

— Revelator by Daryl Gregory

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

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

Onna Gebowa had always liked numbers.

— Unnatural Magic by C. M. Waggoner

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

— Non-Player Character by Veo Corva

That morning, God was complaining again.

— City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky (The Tyrant Philosophers, #1)