Top 10 Best Last Lines from Science Fiction Novels

The Top Ten
1 Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere "And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind them. Not even the doorway."
2 Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games "I take his hand, holding tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go."

"Sometimes it even gets a little repetitive. It's a horrible game. But there are much worse games to play."

3 Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow "Unaware of his own movement, schooled by old habit, Vincenzo Giuliani rose and went to the windows, and stood looking, for how long he had no idea, across a grassy open courtyard to a complex panorama of medieval masonry and jumbled rock, formal garden and gnarled trees: a scene of great and beautiful antiquity."
4 Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 "When we reach the city."
5 Cory Doctorow, Little Brother "She kissed me then, and I kissed her back, and it was some time before we went out for that burrito."
6 George Orwell, 1984 "He loved Big Brother."
7 Charles Stross, Saturn's Children "And none of them need fear being eaten by memories of Rhea."
8 Larry Niven and Edward M Lerner, Juggler of Worlds "In the skies over Atlantis, two suns were gone."
9 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein "He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance."
10 Roger Zelazny, The Guns of Avalon "We moved on through the cavern to the stairs where the dead men lay and went round and round above him in the dark."
The Contenders
11 Frank Herbert, Dune "Think on it, Chani: the princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine - never to know the moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of the concubine - history will call us wives."
12 Vernor Vinge, Rainbow's End "Then he was down the elevator and back on the sunny plaza. And hovering immanent all around him were the worlds of art and science that humankind was busy building. What if I can have it all?"
13 Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly "Stooping down, Bruce picked one of the stubbled blue plants, then placed it in his right shoe, slipping it down out of sight. A present for my friends, he thought, and looked forward inside his mind, where no one could see, to Thanksgiving."
14 Matthew De Abaitua, Red Men "She moved on to the question of what she would dream about if she could decide on a good dream before going to sleep, and if the dream would obey her wishes and stay good all through the night."
15 Iain M. Banks, Against A Dark Background "A little later, the monowheel vehicle spun backward out of the sewer outfall, pirouetted vertically like a saluting mount, swung down across the greasy slope of stones at the base of the House's walls, dodged uncoordinated gunfire from a nearby tower, and accelerated quickly across the tide-flooding sands."
16 William Barton, When Heaven Fell "Then the pipers piped, and the drummers drummed, and we all marched away into the sky."
17 William Gibson, Pattern Recognition "She kisses his sleeping back, and he falls asleep."
18 Brian Francis Slattery, Liberation "The Vibe doesn't say a word, for it's been done with him for years. But in his daughter's breathing, the calls of birds from the vines draped over branches, the thickening sky talking about the rain, the insects landing with rustles and whispers on their faces and hands, and the ruts in the road that connect La Paz with his wife sleeping on the warping porch at the edge of the ravine, he thinks he hears the answer."
19 Alastair Reynolds, The Prefect "'Dreams,' Demikhov said. 'Beautiful human dreams.'"
20 Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time "But they never learned what it was that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which had to do, for there was a gust of wind, and they were gone."
21 Arthur C Clarke, Childhood's End "No one dared disturb him or interrupt his thoughts, and presently he turned his back upon the dwindling sun."
22 Ken MacLeod, The Sky Road "Whatever the truth about the Deliverer, she will remain in my mind as she was shown on that statue, and all the other statues and murals, songs and stories: riding at the head of her own swift cavalry, with a growing migration behind her and a decadent, vulnerable, defenseless, and rich continent ahead. Floating bravely above her head and above her army, the black flag on which nothing is written."
23 Suzette Haden Elgin, Native Tongue "One of the things he planned to do before he left this fancy hell was figure out how to get into the Interface and go for a swim with those whales in that beautiful blue water. Round and round and round, in a lovely endless loop."
24 Frederik Pohl, Gateway
25 David Weber, Ashes of Victory

So now what? " Saint-Just demanded. "A big show trial before the execution? Proof of my 'crimes' for the Proles and the newsies? "

"No," the citizen admiral said softly. "I think we've had enough of those sorts of trials."

His hand rose with Saint-Just's pulser, and the Citizen Chairman's eyes widened as the muzzle aligned with his forehead at a meter's range.

"Good-bye, Citizen Chairman."

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