Book:The Dark Side of the Sun

The Dark Side of the Sun
Cover by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)	{{{coauthors}}}
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Publisher	Colin Smythe Ltd
Publication date	January 26, 1976
ISBN	0901072206
Pages	158
RRP	{{{rrp}}}
Main characters	Dom Sabalos
Series	[[:Category:|]]
Annotations	View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

Dom Sabalos 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 Sirian Bank) as godfather, a security chief who even ran checks on himself, and on Dom's home world even death was not always fatal. Why, then, in an age when prediction was a science, was his future in doubt? "A continual delight, with its unexpected conceits and original inventions. And if Mr Pratchett's tongue is frequently in his cheek, his parody of the science fiction idiom is always deft, knowledgeable and good humoured" – Oxford Times.

Cover

The earliest cover, drawn by Terry himself, depicts robotic bees on robotic flowers, from the world of Laoth, where the only life aside from humans and their visitors is artificial. The next cover is a painting by Tim White of a robotic insect on a leaf - possibly one of the spy robots employed by Korodore and others throughout the book.

Josh Kirby painted two covers: the first depicts Isaac sitting in the foreground while Dom Sabalos, Hrsh-Hgn and Ways stare up at spacecraft flying around and past a Joker artefact floating in space. His second cover (seen above) shows Dom Sabalos and Sharli mounted on their robot horses, followed by Sharli's Drosk bodyguard (on foot), and further behind Sharli's brother Tarli, also mounted on a robot horse.

Main Characters

• Sabalos Family
  • Dom Sabalos - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Widdershins.
  • Joan Sabalos - Dom's grandmother.
  • Vian Sabalos - Dom's mother, widow of
  • John Sabalos, Dom's father.
• Hrsh-Hgn - Dom's tutor; a Phnobe.
• Isaac - robot with a Class 5 brain.
• Ways - the lucky assassin robot.
• Ig - Dom's "pet" ig.

Minor Characters

• Charles Sub-Lunar - author, historian, poet, scientist, playwright, mathematician.
• First Sirian Bank - an intelligent planet.
• Chatogaster - an intelligent body of water.
• Korodore - the Sabalos security chief.
• Darven Samhedi - the Sabalos security chief after Korodore
• Keja - Dom's sister.
• Emperor Ptarmigan of Laoth - Keja's husband.
• Sharli and Tarli - Keja's step children.
• Asman - Director of the Joker Institute.
• Lady Vain
• Arte Sadhim (Mentioned)

Other Stuff

Use of the terms:
Hogswatch Night,
Eve of Small Gods,
Soul Cake Friday,
Year of the Questing Monkey,
Klatch.

The Jokers admit to rebuilding the crusts of worlds, "down to the fossils", a concept explored in Pratchett's next book, Strata.

• Joker artefacts
  • Joker Testament

Races

There are fifty-two known races of sentient beings in the galaxy. These include:-

• Creapii (super-human)
• Phnobes
• Drosks
• the First Sirian Bank
• Robots
  • Class Five Robots - (may apply for Human status)
  • Class Four Robots - are classed as sub-human
  • Class Three Robots
  • Class Two Robots
  • Class One Robots
• Jovians
• Sun-dogs
• Tarquins
• Spooners

are unclassified under the Humanity Act

See Races in The Dark Side of the Sun for more details.

Planets

Dozens of planets are visited or mention, here is a small sampling:

• Widdershins - Dom's Homeworld
• Third Eye - Heavily forested
• Terra Novae - Metal rich and dynamically technological
• Eggplant - Ferocious vegetation
• Quaducquakucckuaquekekecqac - The drosk's homeworld
• Laoth - Complex electronics

Annotations

The word "klatch" above, in the context of the book (it is used to denote a coven of worshippers in the Sadhimist religion) is most likely to derive from its origins in German: a kaffeeklatsch was a circle of like-minded people, generally though not always politically minded, who met to talk business - some might say, to conspire clandestinely - over coffee. One of those German words, like schadenfreude, Zeitgeist, angst, or weltanschauung, that have created some lebensraum for themselves in the vocabulary of other languages, sometimes as part of the technical vocabulary of philosophy or politics. There is no clear link with TP's later usage of the word to describe a North-African/Arabian-like country on the Discworld, unless it is by subliminal association with coffee!

The Discworld concept of the "million to one chance crops up nine times out of ten" also receives an airing here, as part of a discussion about probability. Although the bater, or multi-universe theory, calls it a billion-to-one chance. Also, one of the most oft mentioned areas of the Discworld (outside Ankh-Morkpork) is called Klatch and is famous for its ridiculously strong coffee (which is written kaffee in German).

Gallery

First Edition Cover by Terry Pratchett

Cover by Tim White

First cover by Josh Kirby

Second cover by Josh Kirby

Audio Cassette/CD