(pratchett).dark side of the sun

by Terry Pratchett

Book Overview

DOM SALABOS HAD A LOT OF ADVANTAGES As heir to a huge fortune, he had an excellent robot servant (with Man-Friday subcircuitry), a planet (the First Syrian Bank) as godfather, a security chief who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552133264
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Corgi Books
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.6" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Funky and furiously original

This Terry Pratchet novel is a hilarious, coming-of-age romp through a funky and furiously original galaxy populated by 52 intelligent races and beings with endearing quirks. Some of these beings are luckier than others and our hero, Dom Savalos, is one of them. On the eve of his ascension to the chairmanship of his planet, he finds out about something that has preoccupied some of he best minds around - the science of probability maths, which predicts both likely and seemingly inevitable outcomes of individual lives. Dom find himself in the position of being predestined to find the world on which the enigmatic jokers reside - a prehistoric, highly evolved race thought by many to be responsible for most of the other intelligent life in the galaxy. But the story only starts here...

The endless question

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]

S-f but still Prattchet

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.

Hard core Sci-Fi the Pratchett way

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.