What is the single greatest one-word sentence in all of Sci Fi or Fantasy?

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

Forget the 200-word open. Forget hook me in 50 words or less.

Name the book, and gimme a one-word sentence that knocked your socks off when you first read it.

Here's mine:

"Nom." --- Stephen Donaldson, White Gold Wielder

dpaterso · Dec 29, 2008

I've gone for the paragraph option.

Thufir Hawat, his father's Master of Assassins, had explained it: their mortal enemies, the Harkonnens, had been on Arrakis eighty years, holding the planet in quasi-fief under a CHOAM Company contract to mine the geriatric spice, melange. Now the Harkonnens were leaving to be replaced by House Atreides in fief-complete -- an apparent victory for the Duke Leto. Yet, Hawat had said, this appearance contained the deadliest peril, for the Duke Leto was popular among the Great Houses of the Landsraad.

Frank Herbert's DUNE.

-Derek

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

I'm disappointed Dpat... I was *certain* you'd have gone for

"Khhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!"

dpaterso · Dec 29, 2008

I know, I'm a dirty rotten cheat. No surprises there.

Incredibly, they don't actually say "Khhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!" in the novel.

-Derek

Mr. Chuckletrousers · Dec 29, 2008

dclary said:
Forget the 200-word open. Forget hook me in 50 words or less.

Name the book, and gimme a one-word sentence that knocked your socks off when you first read it.

I doubt this exercise will yield much fruit. Very few great lines stand on their own (the biggest exception is opening sentences) -- they derive much of their greatness from the buildup and mood and context that surrounds them. In other words, if they are great, it is only because they stand on the shoulders of giants.

That said, here is my pick. I don't know if I would consider it the greatest line ever in all of fantasy and scifi, but in terms of creating an impact it was the first that leapt to mind. It's the closing sentence of Steven Brust's Five Hundred Years After:

The greatest evil, the greatest heroism, the greatest disaster, the greatest triumph, the greatest horror, the greatest love -- what could better summarize, and bring to a close, the history we have had the honor to humbly lay before the reader?

As I said, just hanging out there, entirely stripped of context, it seems flaccid and silly-looking. But it packs quite a punch when it caps off five hundred pages of awesome.

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

dpaterso said:
I know, I'm a dirty rotten cheat. No surprises there.

Incredibly, they don't actually say "Khhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!" in the novel.

-Derek

You read the novelization of Star Trek II?

I bow in geekal reverence.

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

Mr. Chuckletrousers said:
As I said, just hanging out there, entirely stripped of context, it seems flaccid and silly-looking. But it packs quite a punch when it caps off five hundred pages of awesome.

This is, actually, exactly the fruit I was looking for.

I'm a huge fan of literary melodrama... when the turns twist, and the screw tightens, and the tension rises, and then there's that moment... that solitary moment when a single word releases all that, and you go "Fucking A." -- or some less vulgar but equally meaningful epitath of sweet satisfaction.

Like River Tam's "My turn." in Serenity, or Heinlein's "His name was Zim." at the end of Starship Troopers.

You're right, there aren't very many instances when you can distill one of those moments down to a single word. And even if you could, without all the words preceding, it's just that one word.

But it's a fun exercise nonetheless.

dpaterso · Dec 29, 2008

dclary said:
You read the novelization of Star Trek II?

I bow in geekal reverence.

Vonda McIntyre. You didn't?? Gasp shock. You've gone down in my estimation, dc.

-Derek

Don · Dec 29, 2008

ETA: I missed the "ONE-WORD" part of the OP. Geesh!

Robert A. Heinlein was a master of one-liners. Here are a few, and I'm not even going to tackle The Notebooks of Lazarus Long. I could easily do another dozen of these.

Doctor Pinero in Life-Line (1939) said:
How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?

Logic of Empire (1941) said:
You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.

Known as Hanlon's Razor.

Beyond This Horizon (1942) said:
An armed society is a polite society.

Revolt in 2100 (1953) said:
The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.

Starship Troopers (1959) said:
Morals — all correct moral laws — derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

Okay, that one was two lines.

And finally, the best definition of love I've ever heard.

Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) said:
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

Mr Flibble · Dec 29, 2008

Duderino there can be only one, no matter the flaws of the book:

Out of doubt out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing
To hope's end I rode and heart's breaking
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

Chokes me . Every . time. Along with Eomer finding Eowyn on the field. *sniff*

Eta: I don't care if it's too long or whatever. The one part that speaks to me emotionally more than all the rest.

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

dpaterso said:
Vonda McIntyre. You didn't?? Gasp shock. You've gone down in my estimation, dc.

-Derek

She really turned me off with The Crystal Star, and I've kinda avoided her since.

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

IdiotsRUs said:
Duderino there can be only one, no matter the flaws of the book:

Out of doubt out of dark to the day's rising
I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing
To hope's end I rode and heart's breaking
Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!

Chokes me . Every . time. Along with Eomer finding Eowyn on the field. *sniff*

Ah, yes. And when Gandalf and the Nazgul confront each other... and the wind shifts... and a rooster crows... Dawn.

I'd include that line if I had it memorized, which alas, I no longer do. Stupid age and the aging process!

Gynn · Dec 29, 2008

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Fenika · Dec 29, 2008

dclary said:
Forget the 200-word open. Forget hook me in 50 words or less.

First a better robot thread, now this.

Deek, pray tell, what are you compensating for? Eh?

dclary · Dec 29, 2008

Bahamutchild said:
First a better robot thread, now this.

Deek, pray tell, what are you compensating for? Eh?

I'm just saying... S EpNeTnEiNsC E size doesn't matter! It's how you use it, dammit!

Zoombie · Dec 29, 2008

"electro-magnet" - Tinker.

You just had to be there, to see exactly how Tinker used said electro-magnet.

Polenth · Dec 29, 2008

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Sophia · Dec 30, 2008

The one I always remember is from a collection of the "World's Best Short Short Stories", published in the 1970s.

The title is "Sign at the End of the Universe", and the entire story is:

This Way Up. (printed upside down on the page).

Stormhawk · Dec 30, 2008

Gynn said:
Shaka, when the walls fell.

"Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra."

dclary · Dec 30, 2008

Can you include the story/book names, too, for those of us who don't get the reference?

williemeikle · Dec 30, 2008

"Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."

The closing line from The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C Clarke

williemeikle · Dec 30, 2008

ElaraSophia said:
The one I always remember is from a collection of the "World's Best Short Short Stories", published in the 1970s.

The title is "Sign at the End of the Universe", and the entire story is:

This Way Up. (printed upside down on the page).

I've got that book... there are some really brilliant short shorts there... required reading for anyone tring to write flash genre fiction.

Mr. Chuckletrousers · Dec 30, 2008

dclary said:
Can you include the story/book names, too, for those of us who don't get the reference?

If you are talking about the "Darmok and Jilad" folks, they are referring to the episode Darmok, from Star Trek the Next Generation. It's one of the few times that the medium of television has ever really tried to explore the idea that alien minds think in alien ways.

Tasmin21 · Dec 31, 2008

I'm not sure about all time greatest, but as opening lines go, this one was always one of my favorites:

The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault. Jim Butcher, Blood Rites

dclary · Dec 31, 2008

I'm going to guess the task was too challenging. My bad. Sorry.

What is the single greatest one-word sentence in all of Sci Fi or Fantasy?

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