(no subject)

[derien]

I don't know if it's a meme, but carmarthen listed a few opening lines she likes from certain books, which got me thinking; often it's the opening line that hooks me. Here's the opening line from the book I'm currently reading:

When Dilvish the Damned came down from Portaroy they tried to stop him at Qaran, and again at Tugado, then again at Maestar, Mycar, and Bildesh. ("Dilvish the Damned," Roger Zelazny)

As opening sentances go it's pretty good. But then I got wondering about which Terry Pratchett book it is that starts out with a passage about the bees of Death. It probably wouldn't qualify for the first sentence thing, since he doesn't usually write such that one sentance stands alone, but I wanted to check. It has to be one of the Death books, I imagine, and I was thinking "Reaper Man," and for some reason I was thinking I had picked up a copy on one of our recent second-hand bookstore raids, but I just searched all through my bookshelves and can't find it. *le sigh*

I'm not entirely convinced that the sun bothered to get up, today. It did get lighter some time after 7:30, but it's still not what you'd call bright outside. Is it time already to light the yule log to try to convince the sun to come back to us?

BTW, if any "Dark Is Rising" fans happen to read this - was there something about a yule log in that series? And a symbol of a circle with a squared cross inside it? Someone at work started going on about this book she read in high school that she liked, and that was basically all she could remember about it.

Comments

[tronella.livejournal.com]

"The bees of Death are big and black, they buzz low and sombre, they keep their honey in combs of wax as white as altar candles." From Eric.
I don't remember about the yule log (so long since I've read it) but there's definitely a circle/cross symbol thing in there.

[derien.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thank you on the quote! :) Eric was not where I expected to find that at all. Do you know if it's a take-off on some famous peice of poetry or whatever, since Pratchett does so many take-offs?

[tronella.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. The Annotated Pratchett File doesn't mention anything so far as I can see - it's here if you want to take a look.

[afrai.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, there was a yule log. Um. I don't remember it very well myself, but there was a ule log.

[derien.livejournal.com]

One of you remembers the circle-cross and the other remembers the yule log, so that pretty much clinches it.:) I didn't remember either, but when she talked about the town existing in two different ways that gave me a clue, even though she thought it was a different dimension other than time.