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"it slowly dawned on me that the landscape of science is maybe what interests people a great deal in science fiction."
- Gregory Benford
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| Dark Side | ||
| Referring to the unlit part of a planet's surface. |
As far as I know, the first use of the phrase "dark side" with this meaning in science fiction (if not elsewhere, see below).
| The main telescope on the dark side is almost never turned on to the central observatory. It is the most delicate, the most perfect, of all the instruments on the Power Planet. Its scanning-disk alone took three years to make, with over one hundred thousand apertures to the inch. At its highest amplification, it will magnify something more than ten thousand diameters. |
| Technovelgy from The Power Planet,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
This phrase was also used in The Mercurian Menace (1939) by Nelson Bond.
“The dark side?” Carson stared at the investigator in amazement; then slowly shook his head. “No ma’am! Not Mr. Carson, lady. He stays away from the dark side of Mercury!”
“I’m not sure I understand you,” said the girl slowly. “You mean to say that you’ve made no investigations whatsoever on the dark side?”
“My dear young lady,” said Buzz seriously, “there are some things that even a space scout doesn’t go out of his way to meet..."
I'm sure this phrase was in use in the nineteenth century. I recall a famous quote by Mark Twain, taken from his 1880 travel guide A Tramp Abroad:
Compare to farside from We Have Fed Our Sea (1958) by Poul Anderson.
"...You must have seen plenty of night over on the dark side of Mercury.”
"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."
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'It turns sunlight into electricity, just like any solar power converter - you spray it on.'
'The robot looked up at him and gesticulated...'
'The Padre's weightless voice floated reassuringly back to him.'
'...they moved with the ease of dandelion puffs.'
'...some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre...'
'These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern...'
'...the meteor caught and halted just as a small boy catches a swift ball in his cap.'
