What makes a great opening line? A great rest-of-the-story. Nobody praises the opening line of a story that they otherwise think is rather boring.
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
That masterpiece took me a long time to digest and did indeed change me.
Stephen King has written about how the Dark Tower was written, and it came from the opening line.
A great opening line is an inspiration for the rest of the story, it sets the scene.
LIFE IN this society being, at best, an utter bore
and no aspect of society being at all relevant to
women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible,
thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the
government, eliminate the money system, institute
complete automation and destroy the male sex.
Actually, I wonder if I could accurately guess my own ratings by how much I liked the first line.
A perfect opening line. Followed by a long paragraph beating the same topic to death. And who remembers the rest-of-the-story.
Unforgettable, brilliant. (Find the original large-format hardback, not the paperback re-issue that can't possibly recapture the exuberant pictures spread across the pages.)
(I guess you may have been thinking of a different book...?)
The opening line and following run-on sentence has acquired a bit of a cult following and inspired a contest for best worst fictional opening: https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
It's possible the author you linked was inspired by this as well.
More than possible; I'm pretty sure it's deliberate. They like to take well-known, even clichéd, elements and re-imagine them in new and creative ways.