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I honestly think that the beginning of the War of the Worlds is the best prose I've yet encountered. It is just so gripping, cold, and hostile; it manages to set the tone to the absolute perfect pitch. Honestly, I was surprised to find prose of such caliber in a sci-fi book. Truely an unexpected surprise.
An astounding book all-in-all, but I still believe the beginning to be the most exceptional portion.
Does anyone else agree?
Yes, it has a brilliant beginning indeed! As a matter of fact a few years ago I memorized a few sentences from the first page:
"In the last years of the nineteenth century no one would have believed that our world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over the globe about their various affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded our earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
Or something like that. I may have messed up on a few parts. Kind of surprised I still remember it, but I guess excellent dialogue stays with you.