Line #43 Literature/TheDarkSideOfTheSun


1	[[quoteright:185:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/185px-darksideofthesun_5008.jpg]]
2	->''You who stand before us\
3	We have held the stars in the hollow\
4	Of our hands, and the stars\
5	Burn. Pray be careful now\
6	As to how you handle them.\
7	We have gone to wait on our new world\
8	There is but one\
9	It lies at [[TitleDrop the dark side of the sun]].''
10
11	One of Creator/TerryPratchett's earliest novels, ''The Dark Side of the Sun'' explores a science fiction setting, although astute readers will note the appearance of several concepts later to appear in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.
12
13	Dom Sabalos is the heir to the throne of the planet Widdershins, a human colony in a galaxy where there are fifty-two intelligent races -- but oddly all of them inside a sphere 200 light-years in diameter, centred on Wolf 429. Besides this, there are also bizarre stellar phenomena and mysterious towers strewn across the region that speak of {{Precursors}}, known as the Jokers. The mystery underlying the setting is where the Jokers went, the only clue being the poem shown above, which was found on one of the towers.
14
15	A secret arm of the human government, using 'probability math' to predict the future, tries repeatedly to assassinate Dom but the universe always conspires to save him for some purpose: which, of course, is to find the truth behind the Jokers' disappearance...
16	----
17	!!Contains examples of:
18	* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: Early in the novel, Dom has two people (a man and [[spoiler: a battered antique Class One robot]]) pointed out to him as [[spoiler: Charles Sub-Lunar, the greatest genius of the age,]] and his manservant. It's not until much later that he finds out that [[spoiler: Charles Sub-Lunar was the robot]].
19	* AffluentAscetic: As Dom puts it, it takes a great amount of wealth to be able to afford to live simply at this point in the future. When he finds himself in a home that is even simpler he realizes they must be even wealthier than his own family.
20	* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Interesting variation--the Creapii are many-tentacled and "galaxy-shaped", and so their mythology viewed the galaxy as being a giant Creap.
21	* AssassinOutclassin: An important element of the plot. Due to probability mathematics (see the ExpendableAlternateUniverse example below) Dom can do this. As a result of this, Ways is pretty much unstoppable, but ''can't quite kill him''.
22	%% * BizarreAlienBiology: Explored quite a bit.
23	* BizarreSexualDimorphism: Sort of. The phnobes have three sexes, so they're presumably sexually trimorphic -- this is mentioned but not explored further. The swamp igs are hermaphrodites, while the drosks are born male but become female 1/3 of the way into their life.
24	* BornLucky: Not exactly; here it is a learned ability. Extreme luck is a side effect of learning probability mathematics. More straight example is the robot assassin Ways: he was made with built-in knowledge of probability math, or, in other words, "Ways had been designed to be lucky".
25	* ChekhovsGunman: Subverted. [[spoiler: Charles Sub-Lunar and his assistant are lurking in the background of a number of scenes, but do very little.]]
26	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Dom's coronation breakfast is supposed to be the same as the simple, austere one that the puritan, anti-waste religious figure Arte Sadhim ate before he became Lord of Earth: A quarter-loaf of brown bread, a strip of salted fish, an apple and a glass of water. However, inevitably each simple item is acquired by some enormously expensive means as he's royal (for example, the glass of water was melted off a comet).
27	* EncyclopediaExposita: Chapter headings feature quotes from in-universe works of non-fiction, mostly the works of Charles Sub-Lunar.
28	* ExpendableAlternateUniverse: After studying probability-math, Dom acquires an ability to sense the {{Alternate Universe}}s where he dies, and take steps not to be in them.
29	* ExpospeakGag: Several involving robots. Particularly neat is the scene where Isaac defeats a gang of other robots, which outnumber him but have less sophisticated electronic brains, by informing them that they're not robots, they're "recumbent waterfowl of the genus ''Anatidae''", and then knocking them out while they're trying to work out what he just said. ("I repeat, you are all [[spoiler:sitting ducks]].")
30	* ExtremophileLifeforms: The Creapi's homeworld saw them evolve in molten phosphorous sulphides. When they spread into space, they simply redesigned themselves to fit the changing situations they encountered. Half a million years of forced evolution has created the middle-degree Creaps, who are happy at a mere 500 degrees C. The divergent High-Degree Creapii live on the outer surfaces of relatively cool stars. Wherever a star pushes the ambient temperature to beyond the melting point of tin, there you will find Creapii. In fact, they bartered with the human race, who were happy to sign over squatters' rights to the planet Mercury in exchange for Creap technology. To interact with humans they wear "spacesuits" that preserve life at habitable temperatures in what to them is a freezingly sub-zero hostile environment.
31	* FantasticCasteSystem: The Creapii are divided by caste depending on their living temperature and their size.
32	* FantasticRacism: Referred to as "shape hatred." Most prominent example is a {{Jerkass}} human character who calls phnobes "[[FantasticSlur gecky frogs]]", ''then'' enters a buruku (phnobic colony) with a gun, [[GunsInChurch which is strictly forbidden]].
33	* FantasyCounterpartCulture: The Whole Erse are rather [[{{Oireland}} negative]] Irish sterotypes. 'Erse' itself is an old fashioned term for Irish Gaelige, a fight is compared to "Whole Erse on Slain Patrick's Eve", they apparently are constantly at war with each other and are backwards rurals who are noted for their dancers and potatoes.
34	* FlashSideways: Travellers in Interspace will get glimpses of alternate universes.
35	* FromASingleCell: The Widdershins googoo (the name is a reference to [[GeniusBonus googols]]) can regenerate someone's entire body working from just a fragment of brain, which is what happens to Dom after an assassination attempt ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill with a black hole]]''.
36	* GeniusLoci: The First Sirian Bank is a sentient planet, Chatogaster is a sentient sea, and there's a brief mention of a sentient sun having been found elsewhere. "We are now looking for an intelligent gas cloud to complete the elemental quartet".
37	* GreenAesop: Sadhim's teachings are based on late-seventies-early-eighties environmentalism, although his followers have largely forgotten the significance of this.
38	* GrewBeyondTheirProgramming: [[spoiler:Class One robots are the lowest grade of android, which can perform basic tasks but don't have anything approaching human-level intelligence. Except for Charles Sub-Lunar, a Class One who somehow ended up as the galaxy's greatest poet and polymath.]]
39	* HappinessInSlavery: When Dom attempts to release Isaac, the robot explains that humans might strive for freedom, but robots know exactly why they exist and don't need to angst about it.
40	* HumansAreSpecial: Dom's grandmother is convinced the Jokers' World was Earth and they bred with humans to uplift them. Others pointedly mention that identical theories are believed by just about every other race about their own homeworld.
41	* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: Interspace contains infinite possibilities, meaning unless your ship is shielded you get constant glimpses of distant universes and timelines. Dom's ship isn't shielded.
42	* ImAHumanitarian: Cannibalism is common practice among the Drosks; the other races tend to avert their eyes when seated at the same table with them.
43	* IncrediblyLamePun: Noted in-universe. The planet Band is so-called not only because it consists of horizontal bands of different kinds of terrain, but also because landing there is banned.
44	* MadeOfIndestructium: The Joker towers are completely unmarked by any weapon, even Creapii superweapons which take out several nearby star systems.
45	* MechanicalInsects: The planet Laoth is deliberately kept sterile, so its inhabitants created an ecosystem of robotic life, including insects.
46	* MillionToOneChance: Fairly often, thanks to the incredible luck of some characters. For example, in order to prove his identity, robot assassin Ways has to throw three six-sided dice and get three sixes - twice in a row. (That's only a 1 to 46656 chance, of course, but the principle stands.)
47	* MorphWeapon: The memory sword, which can completely rearrange its atoms based on a [[ForceField field]]-generator in the hilt. Amongst the forms mentioned are a [[RoyalRapier needle-sword]], a SonicStunner, and a gun that [[BottomlessMagazines creates its own bullets by freezing water vapour from the air]].
48	* NeverBringAGunToAKnifeFight: Never bring a single-shot stun gun into a place where every [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy alpha male]] is armed with a two-foot long knife. Your career will be cut short. Along with some other bits of you.
49	* NeverMessWithGranny: Joan Sabalos, Dom's grandmother, is the family matriarch and a force to be reckoned with.
50	* PlayingCardMotifs: The novel's themes of probability and chance are echoed in the number of sentient races in the setting: 52 plus the Jokers.
51	* ProductionForeshadowing:
52	** The First Sirian Bank speaks in the same block capitals as Death from the later ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series.
53	** A lot of concepts in the Sadhimist religion are identical to those of the [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Disc]] religions, including worshipping Small Gods or celebrating Soul Cake Tuesday and Hogswatch.
54	* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Ways, the Class Five assassin robot, is designed to resemble a human in every particular so that he can mingle undetected when he's out on a job.
55	* SdrawkcabName: A star called 'Rats' with a planet called 'Tenalp' is briefly mentioned - aside from being very strange ([[NoodleIncident and not the sort of thing you mention in mixed company]]), we don't hear exactly why they're so called. There's a brief mention of them having "negative entropy", which could suggest that natural processes work in reverse, hence the names.
56	* SharpenedToASingleAtom: The shamsword, with a blade which is invisible except where the light hits it and "only a few microns thick". Until the blade shatters when used against a villain gifted in luck manipulation.
57	* ShiplessFasterThanLightTravel: The Sundogs are sapient {{Space Whale}}s who possess a natural ability to travel through [[SubspaceOrHyperspace Interspace]]. Some of them will accept payments to carry small spaceships with them.
58	* ShoutOut:
59	** Dom's robot sidekick is named [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Isaac]] and runs on a parody of [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Three Laws of Robotics]].
60	** There are several references to Creator/LarryNiven's work, though more subtle than in ''Literature/{{Strata}}''. For example, a brief description of drosk society sounds like a comically exaggerated version of the Moties from ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye''.[[note]]The drosks are born male and later become female as part of their life cycle, which the Moties do the other way around; the Moties' rapid population growth means their civilization moves in cycles of growth and collapse back to the stone age, which they prepare for, while the drosks are said to 'periodically build up an advanced civilization, and then for reasons known only to themselves, carefully dismantle it and revert to barbarism'.[[/note]]
61	** After an assassination attempt, Dom has a dream where Isaac tries to explain the situation using what appear to be the plot outlines of several well-known series (all of which are shot down by Dom), including ''{{Literature/Dune}}'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.
62	** The satirical play Dom attends features a chorus of robots with a refrain inspired by the chorus of frogs in Creator/{{Aristophanes}}'s ''The Frogs''.
63	* SimpleYetOpulent: Dom's simple coronation breakfast is an insanely expensive simple coronation breakfast. This is generally how Sadhimist ruling families tend to live - Keya, Dom's sister who married the ruler of another planet comments that her new husband flaunts his riches more, despite actually having less than the Sabalos do.
64	* SinglePreceptReligion: The religion of Arte Sadhim has the One Commandment, which is eventually stated to be [[spoiler: "You Will Not Waste"]].
65	* SpaceWhale: The Sundogs, huge intelligent life-forms native to space who can travel naturally through Interspace and will carry non-matrix engine-equipped ships with them for a fee. They lay their eggs on the planet Band and their young grow up on the surface, being only man-sized when born.
66	* {{Sssssnaketalk}}: The reptilian phnobes speak with extended hissing on ssssibilantssss.
67	* StarfishAliens: Dom says most of the alien races are incomprehensible to humans, mentioning the Jovians and the Spooners specifically. The Creapii ''are'' comprehensible but are a more literal example, being many-tentacled in their native form.
68	* StealthPun: The elite robot assassin's name, Ways. [[spoiler: As in, "We have our..."]]
69	* SuperiorSpecies: The Creapii are said to be 'Superhuman', which humans (a term which now includes two other sentient species with similar cultures, and some particularly advanced robots) do not appear to object to.
70	* SwissArmyGun: The Memory Sword can become a wide variety of weapons, from swords to molecular strippers to projectile guns that make ice bullets by freezing atmospheric moisture.
71	* ThreeLawsCompliant: Parodied. Mention is made of the "Eleventh Law of Robotics, Clause C, As Amended", which states that a robot may use necessary force if explicitly instructed to do so by its authorised user.
72	* TooDumbToLive: After the GunsInChurch incident, Hrssh-hggn comments:
73	-->Intelligence is humanity's prime survival trait. Therefore it is well that those who do not possess it do not procreate.
74	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The robot assassin Ways, who was an antagonist for almost all the book, is forgotten near the end, and his fate is unknown.
75	* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Invoked when it's mentioned that "Human" is a legally defined term for a limited subset of intelligent species, including some robots and a planet-sized computer known as the First Sirian Bank. Essentially it's a clear measure of what a Non-Human is. A large number of non-human beings are still considered ''people'', though.

Context Literature / TheDarkSideOfTheSun