Customer Reviews

The Dark Side of the Sun

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Young Dom Sabalos is about to become Chairman of an entire planet. That means giving up countless adolescent pleasures. He won't be able to make exploratory journeys into the marshes or ponder the mysteries of the Joker Towers. Of Old Earth ancestry, Dom's home is Widdershins, a planet producing a special pharmaceutical - pilac. The demand for this drug has made the Sabalos family powerful and rich beyond calculation. It says much that Dom's godfather is a bank. IS a bank - one that takes up an entire planet.

Being rich and powerful evokes enemies, even when your wealth is gratefully contributed to by all who take pilac. Which is nearly all sentient creatures. There are other species scattered about the universe, but they all appear to be approximately the same duration - four or five million years. Before that, there seem to have been The Jokers. As Dom flees Widdershins to thwart assassination, he seeks answers to the Joker mystery. The quest leads to endless adventures and opens many questions in the reader's mind. The main one being: "Who are we, and where did we come from?"

In today's world, "Dark Side" can occupy only a special niche. Older - sorry! "established" - Pratchett readers may look upon this book as an historical curiosity. The really established SF reader will see the obvious reliance on Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series. In "Dark Side", the very intelligent robot is named "Isaac". Douglas Adams' "probability math" is given place and complex problems are solved by a team of a poet and a "mad computer". The book's themes and characters are very "1970s SciFi". Yet the sparks of the later Discworld books shine brightly here. Beyond the carryovers of such ideas as Hogswatch Night, Small Gods and Widdershins itself, there are the usual touches of Pratchettean irony and insight. There is also the underlying foundation of Pratchett's capacity for bringing remote facts and ideas into his stories. There are Gypsy terms, ancient Philistine goddesses and touches of Classical Greek theatre.

These literary arabesques are what makes Pratchett a repeatable read, no matter what genre critics try to cram him into. Although nearly thirty years have passed since this was written, it remains worthy of a place on your bookshelf. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book throws up a lot of funny and intresting ideas. I especially liked the First Syrian Bank, a Planet/Computer/ Sentient Being, who is the main character's Godfather. As in most Prattchet books there are wordplays and unexplored directions, but here we see Prattchet in a different light. This is definitley a s-f book, so some of his Fantasy readers won't want to read it.But anyone who realy enjoys Prattchet's style should feel right at home.

As a long time fan of the Discworld series it was great to come across a traditional Sci-Fi book by Patchett.

The inter-planet environment does not provide the funny earth related background that the Discworld enjoys but the book is still very entertaining and fun to read. If you like Sci-Fi this book is great but, it is not a Fantasy book.

This work was firt published in 1976, and lacks the polish and sly wit that make Pratchett's later works so entertaining. After reading numerous Discworld books I was astonished at the effort required to wade through this early effort.

The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) is a standalone SF novel. It is set in a timeline when 52 intelligent species have developed in known space within the last five million years. Previously, only the Jokers existed as sentient creatures. The existence of the Jokers is hard to refute when they have left towers and other exotic signs throughout known space.

In this novel, Dom Sabalos is a human, the second child of John III and Vian. He is scheduled to become Chairman of the Planetary Board on the following day.

John Sabalos III was the father of Dom. He was one of the most talented probability mathematicians of his time. He predicted that his son would die on the day that he became Chairman of the Planetary Board of Widdershins.

Hrsh-Hgn is a phnobe. He is Dom's tutor and an amateur student of probability math.

Korodore is an Earth-born human. He is the director of security for the Sabalos family.

Isaac is a Class Five robot. As such, he is considered a living being despite his mechanical nature.

In this story, Dom captures a windsail and takes it to the nearby Joker tower. He approaches the tower and touches it briefly. The walls suck body heat from his fingers. Then he walks around the tower.

A beam passes his face and hits the tower. He dives to the ground and rolls, then runs for the water. Another beam hits the ground ahead of him. As he dives into the water, a beam grazes his chest and he sinks into the water.

Dom come to consciousness on a floating island forty miles from the tower. A phnobe has pulled him from the water and contemplates cutting his throat. Instead, it gives Dom a swamp ig and drops him off near his flyer.

Dom returns to the main Sabalos dome. He passes the class three sentry and goes to ask Hrsh-Hgn about probability math and his father. Then he goes to face Korodore and his grandmother.

The next day, Dom inherits the title of Chairman. He also receives presents, for it is his birthday. One present is Isaac. Dom feels foolish owning a class five robot and tries to free Isaac, but is refused.

The affair is attended by a crowd of people. Korodore is watching everybody. He notices a man in a blue cloak and tracks him. The man stands on one leg and raises his arm. While Korodore wonders at the strange stance, his sensor is destroyed by a beam.

Dom hears the explosion. Korodore jumps on top of him and takes him down. Then both are hit with a high energy weapon.

Dom finally awakes after bad dreams to find himself with light green coloring. His body has been regrown from a small piece of his former body. He has been dead and resurrected.

This tale takes Dom offworld in a quest for the Joker homeworld. This is said to be on the dark side of the sun. But which sun? And how could it have a dark side?

Dom travels with Hrsh-Hgn, Isaac and his swamp ig. He meets a sentient planet and a sapient lake in addition to all the other types of life that can communicate with mankind. Then word gets around about his quest and ships gather.

This is the second novel by the author, following The Carpet People. Both are relatively hard to find. But his third novel -- The Color of Magic -- is still in print. Yet some hints of the Discworld series can be seen within this novel. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Pratchett fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of advanced technology, strange lifeforms, and a fated quest.

-Arthur W. Jordin

One of Pterry's earliest books, The Dark Side of the Sun is a forerunner of his Discworld series, and is unrealated.

Not quite as good as the Discworld books, reading this book shows the evolution of his writing style as it progressed towards the best-selling greatness of today.

I am a huge Terry Pratchett fan and have all of the Discworld books up to this point. I had to go backwards in time to get something new, so I did. This book is a great piece of science fiction that really helps highlight the changes of Pratchett's writing style as he matured. It is great to see the possible seedlings of themes we see expanded on in later books. In this day of mind numbing reality shows and tv programs designed to increase stupidity (granted not all of them, just the majority) when even many books seem to be a mindless reading activity for general entertainment it is great to find something that encourages gaining knowledge and thinking in different ways as well as entertainment. It is definitely not a modern pice, but very much worth a read, and perhaps even a re-read.

The biggest problem of this novel is that it's about a universe instead of being about people. The lead character and his quest never become more than a reason to explore a reasonably inventive worlds that Pratchett created. The search for The Joker's World is nothing more than a Mcguffin and the ultimate reveal comes across as a Grand Finally, not a Grand Finale.

Beneath the surface, you can see the emerging charm of Pratchett's writing, but mostly you're wading through disjointed and often confusing encounters with various alien races.

Give it a pass,unless you're compelled to read everything Pratchett has written.

If you've never read Pratchett, DO NOT START HERE.

This was written many years before he found his niche doing Discworld novels. Unlike Discworld, which is sarcastic fantasy, this is straight science fiction with the occasional quip or one-liner tossed in.

This novel actually has some potential, in that there are a few ideas scattered throughout which --had they actually been developed-- might have been interesting. Unfortunately, he chose to stick to a conventional, linear plot and not go off exploring any of the hinted tangents.

DSOTS didn't work for me on a number of levels: too many alien races which are too hard to tell apart, ***WAY TOO MANY*** plot contrivances, and an ending that was as forced as it was unsatisfying.

Admittedly, I did get a couple of chuckles out of it, and it was fun to catch the occasional Discworld-before-he-wrote-Discworld reference (Hogswatchnight, Soul Cake Friday, etc.)

Clearly, Pratchett was still struggling to find his voice and his medium when he wrote this. If you're a completionist or just curious to see his evolution as an author, then keep your expectations at the low end of reasonable, and check it out. Otherwise, stick to Discworld.

A nice little sci fi outing, and quite enjoyable. If you aren't familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and you like sci-fi with a faint fantasy tinge (or fantasy with a sci-fi tinge), this will probably fit your needs quite nicely. It's got his endless invention and gift with words -- just don't expect the manic satire of his other work or you'll be disappointed.