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To expand on #3: the "present" in the sentence isn't even taking place before the firing squad, that's "many years later". It places the reader in a timeless moment.

I think another opener that's at least as good is "Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know" (even though this is misleading w/o the whole context..)

Camus? The Outsider?

As much as I like Camus's The Stranger, and am not familiar with Marquez, I still agree with coldtea. In a single opening line (when you know nothing of the rest of the book), Marquez places a beginning (seeing ice) an ending (the firing squad), and makes you want to read more to see what happens in between.

I was being provocative. I agree with you :) I wonder is there an anthology of first-lines?

There's a nice (not very literature heavy) first line I remember from the great late science fiction writer Frederic Brown.

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door...".