I almost cannot bear to write this post, but here goes ... I am a massive fan of Terry Pratchett, and have read much of his work. It usually makes me laugh out loud and fills me with joy. However, The Dark Side of the Sun failed to do either of those things. Instead, it filled me with irritation and confusion. This is an early work, and sits in the science fiction rather than fantasy fiction camp. Our hero, Dom Sabalos is about to come of age, and become the chairman of an entire planet. However, he feels compelled to find the "Jokers World", the home world of the creators of the Universe. It seems that not everyone is happy with this quest and numerous attempts are made on his life. He miraculously escapes death time and again, and it becomes obvious that something extraordinary is going on. Is it fate, probability maths or the gods? The basic plot is sound, but the execution is too complex - yes, I know discussing the origin of the Universe is not exactly simple, but the characters and ideas are too plentiful and come so thick and fast that it is hard to keep up. There were odd flashes of the incredible writer Pratchett was to become when he hit his stride in the Discworld novels, but this foray felt unfocused and disconnected. I loved Isaac, one of the robots, but apart from that, it was a bit of a slog. A real disappointment for me, but maybe some will find it useful to read this work, with the view that it is interesting to see how the writer developed from this book to produce the great things that were to come.
My STAR rating: TWO.
Length: 235 print pages.
Price I paid: £1.00 charity shop.
Formats available: print; MP3 CD; ebook.
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