Beginnings Of Novels

I prefer a novel that comes straight to the point.

"'Earth is dead."

-After Doomsday, 1, p. 5 -

- comes straight to the point. 

In Poul Anderson's World Without Stars, Chapter I is narrated in the third person from the point of view of an inhabitant of a planetary system between galaxies before the human first person narrator comes on-stage in the opening sentence of Chapter II. We must read on in order to understand much of what we have read in I: God rising in the West, downdevils from the sea depths etc.

In the unentitled opening passage of Anderson's The Rebel Worlds, Didonian Feet, Wings and Hands make oneness before the human action begins in CHAPTER ONE. That opening passage is incomprehensible on first reading.

In the italicized and unentitled opening passage of Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, an unidentified Dennitzan wonders how to tell the tale of Bodin's raid which will not occur until the climax of the novel.

On rereading, we can skip past these introductory passages.