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One of the hardest things to nail when writing any story is the beginning. It’s really important to try and hook your readers as soon as you can, because if your intro is boring, the reader likely isn’t going to find any reason to keep going. For that reason, it’s imperative to not overload the reader with massive info dumps or lore. The best thing to do is to give them enough information to keep them interested, but not enough to spoil the book. On top of that, it’s best to move the story along as quickly as possible.
This is especially important in fantasy, as the genre’s books are known for being hundreds and hundreds of pages long, often spanning multiple series. It’s a lot to digest for some readers, so the beginning really has to make an impression, or the author will lose their audience. Still, plenty of fantasy novels out there hit the ground running, letting the readers know that they’re in for a treat.
‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ (1900)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz begins very differently compared to its famous 1939 movie adaptation. The book doesn’t waste any time, and doesn’t include any of the nonsense about a fortune teller, a disgruntled neighbor, or the local farmhands. The tornado literally sweeps away Dorothy and her farmhouse on page two, and the story really moves along, sucking in the reader to the magical land of Oz far quicker.
It’s important to note that the book is meant primarily for children, who have shorter attention spans than adults, so of course it has to keep them enthralled by taking them to Oz right away. In just the first few pages, L. Frank Baum effortlessly immerses his young audience into the colourful and majestic land of Oz, introducing key characters, the conflict, and the culture without breaking a sweat. Yet, it doesn’t feel rushed at all. On the contrary, it feels perfectly paced.
‘The Eye of the World’ (1990)
The Eye of the World is the first book in the enormous The Wheel of Time saga. Though it is not chronologically the first (there is one prequel novel), it is the book that most fans recommend newcomers start on. Some newer versions contain the short story “Ravens,” which serves as a better introductory chapter or prologue sequence. However, even the prologue that was initially written is perfectly fine as is.
The original prologue begins with the paragraph that opens up every single book in the series, talking about the turning of the Wheel of Time, the wind and the way it blows across the landscape, and the nature of beginnings. It makes the world feel mystical and deep, as well as ancient and secretive. The following pages set up the rural land of the Two Rivers and the intimate culture surrounding the town of Emond’s Field. The Eye of the World is a real masterpiece of fiction, although the series does take a lot of commitment.
‘Lords and Ladies’ (1992)
Lords and Ladies is the 14th novel in Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld series, and the fourth in the subseries about witches. Discworld is known for being a parody series, involving heavily satirized fantasy tropes. For example, the world itself is a flat planet, which sits on the back of four monstrous elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant sea turtle flying through space. Sound ridiculous? It’s supposed to.
The opening paragraph of this book talks about the nature of beginnings and how the universe came to be. However, one line stands out among the rest: “In the beginning, there was nothing, which exploded.” This hilarious sentence lets you know exactly what you’ll be in for in the best way possible. Biting satire and witty dialogue are the bread and butter of Discworld, and this entry wastes no time cutting right to the chase.
‘The Last Wish’ (1993)
The Last Wish is the first short story collection released in The Witcher saga, or at least, the first one released in English. The anthology, like the rest of the series, follows Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter called a Witcher, as he takes on various contracts around the world. The first story follows Geralt as he tackles a Striga, a werewolf-like being from Slavic folklore.
Andrzej Sapkowski does a wonderful job of setting the stage for his dark universe. Geralt’s thought process is examined, and it rapidly becomes apparent that he is cold and unfeeling, a common trait of professional witchers. On top of that, the book does a phenomenal job of exploring the origins of Witchers, how they come to be, and how they fit into society. It makes for a compelling read, as readers generally want to know more about the mysterious Witcher shortly after being introduced to him.
‘The Anvil of the World’ (2003)
The Anvil of the World is another hilarious fantasy book, but it’s not a comedy at heart—it’s just an adventure story that happens to have a lot of comedy woven into it. Kage Baker‘s underrated Lord Ermenwyr trilogy is enjoyable enough, but none of them are as good as the very first entry. The book forgoes the typical chapter format, instead containing three distinct parts featuring the same characters. Each part is its own little sub-story that makes up the broader part of the narrative.
The Anvil of the World begins with Smith, a smuggler, speaking to his cousin at the front door. He has accepted a new contract to take Lord Ermenwyr, a noble’s son, to a portside city via steam-powered caravan. At the loading docks, the book dives into the culture and the people inhabiting this world, which helps make everything feel more alive. The story wastes no time taking off, either, which is always nice to see.
‘The Name of the Wind’ (2007)
The Name of the Wind is the first book in the unfinished The Kingkiller Chronicle series, and opens in a pretty remarkable way. It starts with the narrator and main character, Kvothe, introducing himself. He talks about his monumental deeds, the rumors surrounding him, and all the things he accomplished in his youth, rounding it off with, “You may have heard of me,” implying he is either famous or infamous in this world.
Kvothe, or Kote as he calls himself in the intro, talks about how the world is about to face an apocalyptic event, and how it’s probably all his fault due to the things he did in his adolescence. The book later flips between Kvothe’s adult life, as he recounts his story to a Chronicler, and his adolescence, where his life is more fleshed out. This perfectly written fantasy tells readers exactly what kind of person Kvothe is, but also establishes that they should be wary of him as a narrator, because who’s to say if he’s really telling the truth?
‘Prince of Thorns’ (2011)
Prince of Thorns is set in Europe, centuries after a nuclear apocalypse reverted the remnants of humanity to the Dark Ages. What remains of the world’s governments comes in the form of the Broken Empire, an amalgamation of nations across Europe, Asia, and Africa that are constantly at war with each other, with no real emperor to lead them. In the ruined countryside of the Rhine region, a young prince named Jorg Ancrath leads a misfit band of mercenaries, pillaging towns as they see fit.
Right when the book opens up, the 14-year-old Ancrath commits several atrocities as a means of “celebrating” his birthday. Told from a first-person point of view, the book dives into his psyche straight away. Many fans have speculated that Jorg is a sociopath, which becomes clear over the trilogy. Despite the fact that Jorg is morally despicable, the book makes him a very interesting character to read. The first few pages really establish how bleak this world is, and how much fun it’s going to be to see what Jorg does next.
‘A Game of Thrones’ (1996)
A Game of Thrones is the hit epic fantasy novel that became the HBO series of the same name (sans the “A”), which turned into an immense cultural phenomenon. The story is about nine squabbling royal families who fight over the Iron Throne, completely unaware that a primal threat is gathering strength far to the North. This is where the book opens up. It sets the stage by taking readers beyond the massive Wall that separates Westeros from the far North, where the undead prowl the haunted forests.
Three Rangers from the Night’s Watch go on patrol in this frozen wasteland, discovering horrific sights and realizing that this new threat is returning for the first time in centuries. The prologue sequence does an excellent job of setting the stage, making you feel the icy dread as things get worse and worse. George R. R. Martin keeps the mystery and the tension high, introducing the conflict quickly, but in a very exciting way.
‘The Way of Kings’ (2010)
The Way of Kings is the first novel in Brandon Sanderson‘s The Stormlight Archive series, which is part of his shared literary universe known as the Cosmere. In the Cosmere, each series or stand-alone story is set on its own planet with a unique magic system. Stormlight takes readers to the barren world of Roshar, which has little plant life and is regularly bombarded with highstorms—hurricane-like tempests that sweep across the planet.
After a brief prelude sequence set 4,500 years prior to the main series, the book opens up with the iconic line, “Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king.” The prologue immediately starts with an action sequence and dips its toes into how the magic system of Roshar works. It hooks its readers right off the bat, and it doesn’t let go until the very end, about 1,000 pages later.
‘The Hobbit, or There and Back Again’ (1937)
The Hobbit is the first book in J. R. R. Tolkien‘s Middle-earth legendarium to ever be published. The story of its inception is pretty famous: while grading exam papers during his time as a university professor, Tolkien turned a paper over to find it completely blank. On this blank paper, he wrote the opening line, “In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit.” The rest is history.
Unlike many of the other entries on this list, the book doesn’t establish its world as a dark and unforgiving place. Instead, it alludes to the comforts of home, the quiet lives of hobbits, and the whimsical land that they live in. It’s an opening that feels like a warm hug, written like a father telling his child a bedtime story. This tone is what makes Tolkien’s writing so endearing, and is something the movie adaptations could never hope to copy.
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Dawson Nyffenegger
Almontather Rassoul
