Both of those openings fail for me. But then, I'm so picky about epic fantasy that I don't think a single epic fantasy has lasted on my bookshelf through all the book-culls. (Secondary-world fantasy, yes; nothing that is primarily about saving the world, though.)
#1 doesn't give me anything interesting, straight-off. A book doesn't have to give me action straight-off, but I want something odd or charming or startling, even if it's just in the voice or the style. The narrative throughline is solid. Just in terms of the style, it's good enough at pulling you from A to B to C. But when you're done you just have two people riding ponies. I want this to get interesting fast.
#2 gives you a compelling situation right away, but something about it felt off to me, and it clicked into place when I learned that the protagonist is the woman's orphaned child. The narrative is scattershot, and it's scattershot because it's trying to throw stuff at you to make you feel sorry for this person, who isn't a human being in her own right, but just a device to evoke a feeling of pity, and a womb for the real protagonist. I have a real distaste for openings that try to provoke you into unearned emotions; it's like the blind date who wants to tell you all about their ex and their terrible family. And I do think there's a bit of whiplash in going so quickly from grounded sensory stuff to abstract thinking about the past.
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#1 doesn't give me anything interesting, straight-off. A book doesn't have to give me action straight-off, but I want something odd or charming or startling, even if it's just in the voice or the style. The narrative throughline is solid. Just in terms of the style, it's good enough at pulling you from A to B to C. But when you're done you just have two people riding ponies. I want this to get interesting fast.
#2 gives you a compelling situation right away, but something about it felt off to me, and it clicked into place when I learned that the protagonist is the woman's orphaned child. The narrative is scattershot, and it's scattershot because it's trying to throw stuff at you to make you feel sorry for this person, who isn't a human being in her own right, but just a device to evoke a feeling of pity, and a womb for the real protagonist. I have a real distaste for openings that try to provoke you into unearned emotions; it's like the blind date who wants to tell you all about their ex and their terrible family. And I do think there's a bit of whiplash in going so quickly from grounded sensory stuff to abstract thinking about the past.
Openings are hard.