The Demons Of Darkside - Leigh Brackett

Short Story

Number of words : 7000
Percent of complex words : 7.8
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 9.9


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 7.1
Flesch : 75.3
Flesch-Kincaid : 5.2


SETTING

Sila

"Town buried on the edge of Venus' eastern swamp belt."

Darkside

Permanent sunless hemisphere of Mercury.


CHARACTERS

Barry Garth

Lover of Alice Webster. Crack pilot.

Alice Webster

Heiress given the death penalty for murdering her uncle.

Wilsey Stevens

Chief prosecution evidence and third-vice president of Mercurian Metals.

Gavin Webster

Mercurian Metals tycoon, dead.

'Black' Sandy MacDougal

The Scot. Owner of said ship. Ex-pilot who crashed on Mercury.

Brent

Friend of MacDougal.

Akal

Brent's Martian henchman.


ORGANISATIONS

Interplanetary Court

Justice may be served.

Mercurian Metals

Corporation run by Gavin Webster, when alive.

Scotia Salvage Co

Wherefrom Garth nicks a ship to go to Mercury.

Interplanetary Mails

Former employer of MacDougal.


TECHNOLOGY

Yttrium

Rare metal, popular for smuggling.


VEHICLES

Hermes

Stevens' ship.

Bruce

Said purloined ship of MacDougal's.


FOOD

Venusian whiskey

Pungent stuff.


RACES

Crystals

Lifeforms on Mercury that unwittingly drive people crazy: "We build up thought impulses by simple oscillation of our facets," the voice explained. "During this exchange of vibrations, energy is liberated in the form of light. When all of us oscillate to the same frequency, we have quite a powerful output. Solar radiations destroy our thoughts by introducing counter-vibrations. That's why we're powerful only in the screening shadow of this planet."

PLOT

Barry Garth is drinking in a dive on Venus when news that his girlfriend's appeal on a murder charge has failed and she will be executed. He decides to make a mad run for Mercury because the chief prosecution witness has crashed there and he smells a rat.

So he steals a ship, hijacks its owner and heads for the planet, where he does find a rat, plus the lifeforms responsible for people going crazy on the Darkside.


4 out of 5