Has anybody else read "the Dark Side of The Sun"?

bob k. mando · Post by **bob k. mando** » Thu Sep 18, 2003 5:04 pm

according to FantasticFiction pratchett's first book was actually The Carpet People published in 1971. The Dark Side of the Sun didn't come out until 76.

[bob scratches head]
man, it looks like i've got a lot of stuff to read there...

Superenigmatix · Post by **Superenigmatix** » Sat Sep 20, 2003 6:28 am

Ah yes forgot about that one

Although the Carpet People you can get now is not the one originally published as he 'polished' it a great deal before the re-release many years later when he was famous for Discworld. That's probably why I overlooked (he says to save embarrasment!)

and yep BKM it's worth reading

bob k. mando · Post by **bob k. mando** » Tue Sep 23, 2003 4:45 pm

and yep BKM it's worth reading

gah, as if i didn't have enough to do, what with having to work for a living again and all.....

Post by **Kvetch** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 4:21 am

I think DSotS and Strata are great, but some of his short stories are better (you can find several on the lspace web http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/index.html )

If you can find a copy of the Turntables of Night or Troll Bridge you should treat them as gold dust. I have been looking for years.

The best is the sea and little fishes

bob k. mando · Post by **bob k. mando** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 4:43 pm

The Green Man from Widdershins

since no one else has taken a shot at it i'll give it a go but if i did read this book it was when i was ~12 or so.

widdershins is a term meaning to go around something in a counter-clockwise fashion, commonly used to describe the ceremonial practises of witches.

'The Green Man', eh? i seem to remember a book that had to do with the (olde?) english countryside in which the giant figure of a man was inscribed in the side of a hill and which was brought to life (awakened) by the protagonist. what the protagonist intended or what the 'Green Man' actually did, i forget.

Post by **KiltanneN** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:38 pm

bob k. mando wrote:since no one else has taken a shot at it i'll give it a go but if i did read this book it was when i was ~12 or so.

widdershins is a term meaning to go around something in a counter-clockwise fashion, commonly used to describe the ceremonial practises of witches.

'The Green Man', eh? i seem to remember a book that had to do with the (olde?) english countryside in which the giant figure of a man was inscribed in the side of a hill and which was brought to life (awakened) by the protagonist. what the protagonist intended or what the 'Green Man' actually did, i forget.

I'll give a sherlock for the correct answer here - There are 2 parts to the answer - and sorry BKM you have not got either one...

kilt

jweb · Post by **jweb** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 9:48 pm

bob k. mando wrote:'The Green Man', eh? i seem to remember a book that had to do with the (olde?) english countryside in which the giant figure of a man was inscribed in the side of a hill and which was brought to life (awakened) by the protagonist. what the protagonist intended or what the 'Green Man' actually did, i forget.

That occurred in the story "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (found in The Sandman: Dream Country, by Neil Gaiman). He opened a doorway to Fairyland in the hillside.

bob k. mando · Post by **bob k. mando** » Wed Apr 28, 2004 10:04 pm

no, i may not be on kilty's track but neil gaiman's 'Sandman' is definitely not what i was thinking about. the book i'm talking about was a text juvenile(?) that i read somewhere about or even before 1980.

there may well have been a 'green man' in 'dream country' that wasn't the Swamp Thing but i don't remember all of the issues. yes, i do have the entire run from the first issue to the last.

kilty
and sorry BKM you have not got either one...
yeah, if it's something written by pratchett i'm virtually certain that i've not seen it.

Post by **Kvetch** » Fri May 14, 2004 4:42 pm

wasn't the green man from widdershins the protagonist (his body had been reconstructed with green stuff, and he lived on the planet widdershins)

Or have I totally misinterpreted the question? - I'm off to read it now

Post by **KiltanneN** » Fri May 14, 2004 9:29 pm

Kvetch wrote:wasn't the green man from widdershins the protagonist (his body had been reconstructed with green stuff, and he lived on the planet widdershins)

Or have I totally misinterpreted the question? - I'm off to read it now

1 out of 2 parts here is pretty good.

The Green Man from Widdershins refers to a person from Widdershins and his body is green because it has been reconstructed in some kind of green soup stuff.

The Protagonist had this done - his body was almost totally destroyed by an artificial gravitic anomoly. [A somewhat esotoric form of assasination] However he was not from Widdershins himself - he was just lucky enough to be shot at with a black hole on the one planet which he had some chance of recovering...

At one point our hero makes a side comment to the effect that most people assume that a Green Man is from Widdershins - it's not always the case but they would mostly be right.

So - I will duly bump your Sherlock score by one

kilt

Post by **Kvetch** » Sat May 15, 2004 6:34 am

I reread it last night, and noted the passage:

Now the sinistrals of widdershins had night-black skin, no body hair, a resistance to skin cancers and UV tolerant eyes. By mere chance, too, half of them were lefthanded.

Was this what you were looking for ? I noted it because of my lefthandness list - I didn't even consider a connection untill just now.

you are wrong you know - Dom Sabalos WAS a widdershine - he was part of the ruling family.

It was widdershins that developed googoo (the green stuff)

Jenevieve · Post by **Jenevieve** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 5:43 pm

I believe that it was the only book by Terry Pratchett that I have ever been unable to finish.

Post by **Kvetch** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:34 pm

I know what you mean, I think, - it gets quite metaphysical, in a way the rest of his books don't.