Customer Reviews

Nightfall

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book expands the original short story "Nightfall" written by Asimov many years ago. Just about every science fiction aficionado agrees that the original story, based on an Emerson quotation, is one of the classics of the genre. The basic premise is a superb leap of the imagination. Picture a planet which is part of a six-sun system. The respective orbits of the planet and the six suns are so defined, that one or more of the suns is always in the sky over any part of the planet. As a result, the people of the planet have only the faintest conception of what the absence of light i.e. darkness can be. With no dark night sky, they have no idea of other stars in the universe (forget radio astronomy as an inconvenient abstraction!). As far as they know, they are the masters of the universe. Now picture an unexpected total eclipse, at a time when only one sun is in the sky: a strange and frightening darkness covers the land, and the night sky now reveals millions of stars looking down on the stunned populace. How does a society deal with so drastic a blow to its fundamental picture of itself? In sheer imagination, in boldness, in vision, this story has few equals. The skillful blending of a religious doomsday cult and its interweave with a psychologist and baffled yet striving physical scientists brings out the roles of superstition and rationalism in society. I still remember the awe that gripped me when I first read this story more than a decade ago. This collaborative book builds upon the story and introduces some interesting ideas. The use of archaeology to derive the cyclical history of the plant is both imaginative and educative. The longer book format also allows the author to develop the characters more fully than in the short story. The weakness of the book however is the ending; to be fair, the cataclysmic end portrayed in the short story cannot possibly be improved upon. All the book does is stretch out the period of rebirth, adding interesting human vignettes along the way. I withhold one star for this reason. Do not miss this book, but do try to read the short story of the same name that started it all.

On a distant planet, a world illuminated by multiple suns basks peacefully in continuous, nurturing light. The society is human, and the technology is similar to our own circa. 1950. When the novel begins, a new funhouse ride opens that promises a trip through a straight, level tunnel in complete darkness. Elsewhere, an archeologist makes a disturbing discovery, and a physicist runs some calculations he knows to be right, but should not be. Although the setting is alien, the characters of this world are human and their many trials and tribulations purposely mirror our own. For all its fantastic elements and unique storyline, "Nightfall" is a study of the modern human condition, with insights very much meant for the Earthborn reader.

At one point, a psychologist asks a colleague if he sleeps with a "godlight" (their equivilent of a mere night light) in the bedroom. The colleague replies "of course", and when the psychologist asks him to turn it off or remove the "godlight", it is an alien and unfathomable idea. "Nightfall" is about the fragility of the human mind, its stubborness toward accepting change, and its inability to overcome monumental change in the face of a sudden epoch thrust upon mankind's collective psyche. The novel touches upon many aspects of this, with moments of scientic and religious backlash reminiscent of Galileo, and deeper delvings into the human mind and how, even in an enlightened age, the most primitive instincts can compel the strongest actions and reactions.

Although the third act of the novel is not as tightly written, "Nightfall" remains an engrossing work of science fiction by one of the great masters of the genre, Isaac Asimov, in turn ably assisted by notable contemporary Robert Silverberg. Recommended for all science fiction fans and for any curious readers with a background/interest in psychology or sociology.

This book is worth reading--for the ideas and themes if not for the story. I've read other Asimov works (The Foundation Trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time), but this one seemed stretched thin, possibly because it was co-authored.

The first third of this book, up until Nightfall, is chilling and thrilling. The second half wanders, and though I don't want to give anything away, has a very anticlimactic ending. After finishing it, I felt the last section 'Daybreak" could have been left off almost completely and the novel would have actually benefitted.

Some of the ideas in the novel should have been further developed, while others, especially a quasi-romance subplot, made the story drag in places.

To sum things up, the first half or so is excellent, true to Asimov-form. The second half is boring, disappointing, and un-Asimov. For a 5 star start and a 1 star finish, I give 3 stars. I would be interested to know who wrote which parts of this book.

Nightfall is a novel about what would happen to a people who have never experienced night once the sun goes down. Asimov came up with the idea of a planet in a 5 sun system. There are almost always 2 or 3 suns in the sky. On rare occasions, there is one sun in the sky, but never are there 0 sun in the sky. However, unbeknownst to the inhabitants of the planet (since it is never night and they do not see stars), the solar system also contains another planet the rotation of which causes an eclipse once in a great while. The eclipse just happens to always occur on a day in which only one sun in the sky. Therefore, during the eclipse, the planet experiences night.

Asimov wrote a short story about this planet and Silverberg and Asimov extended it to a full-length novel. I loved the novel and later found the short story and thought that was extremely well-done too.

In the novel, a group of scientists discover that the eclipse and the nightfall are imminent just at the same time as archeologists discover that societies have risen and fallen on the planet at regular intervals. The only other people who believe night is coming are the priests of a religion with whom the scientists do not get along. Thus, society is unprepared for nightfall despite the warnings of the scientists and the priests. Devastation follows during night as well as during the eternal day following the night.

Asimov and Silverberg do a compelling job setting up the discovery that night is coming. Their description of the actual eclipse and the reaction to it is truly fantastic. I also enjoyed (although a little bit less so) the description of the shambles of society after the day dawned again and, again, a little bit less, the rest of the story, although the characters have been written so well by this point that you really care what happens to them. The end could have been handled a lot better. The book ends abruptly, and, I think, in an unlikely way.

However, the ending is nothing that should stop you from reading this extremely well-done book about a truly creative idea.

Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, is set on a planet that has six suns and perpetual daylight. The plot revolves around an unlikely event: an eclipse that shrouds the world in darkness for several hours. The main characters in the story are all scientists, and they are able to predict the arrival of the eclipse, but not its results. Because people on this world have lived with sunlight for their entire lives, the darkness inflicts severe psychological trauma on the population. The book is divided into thirds, with the first section showing the discovery of the eclipse, the second section is set on the night of the eclipse, and the third shows what happens afterwards.

This is a fairly short novel, just over 300 pages, and the authors' writing is quite good. I think that Asimov does a better job with the characters and dialogue in Nightfall than he did in most of his other novels. Also, there isn't much time wasted on long descriptions or on lecturing about the novel's themes, so the novel keeps moving at a good pace. I would have liked it if a little less time was dedicated to the character's personal lives, especially since some of their actions during and after the eclipse seem a little bit absurd. Overall, the book's strongest component is the originality of the concept. The idea of a world where darkness is a catastrophe is so different from the repetitive and predictable plots of so many other SF novels that I found Nightfall hard to put down, even when reading it for the second time.

Some people have complained that the authors' attitude towards religion is insulting, but I disagree. I don't think that they intended to bash all religions. They were, rather criticizing fanatiscism and cult-like behavior. And while some people might not agree with Asimov's rigid insistance on following science and logic at all costs, that shouldn't prevent anyone from enjoying the book as a good work of science fiction.

A noted classic in science fiction, "Nightfall" by Asimov (the short story first printed in 1941) is a gripping, detailed look at a planet and the nightmare of an eclipse every 2049 years. Silverberg and Asimov (and I'm not sure of the collaborative process here), have taken this story and expanded it. What was once the tale of a planet becomes the tale of several individuals on a planet. The shift in focus does not work well. What was once a skillful examination of a society becomes an almost soap opera of characters without clear focus. The two characters that become the protagonists in the second half of the book are certainly interesting, but their personalities change and the reader is left to wonder why these two characters have been singled out to study. And they are not studied. After nightfall comes, the book is simply drudgery: repetitive, predictable, and with no new light shed on this society. The book essentially shifts from a skillful probe into human nature (okay, on a different planet) into an adventure story whose point has been muddied. If you have not read the short story, you need to. Instantly. This book has been watered down, the focus has been lost, and the purposes of its existence are unclear.

The book from the start was predictable, however, it was the journey to the finish that kept me turning pages long after I should have turned off the light and gone to sleep. The characters are engaging and the coming disaster looming in the distance threatens to overwhelm them all.

While I did very much enjoy this book, there were certain things that pulled me out of the reading, things that didn't seem to fit the culture of the planet. For instance, everyone sleeps with a `godlight' (nightlight) in their room. In a world that never has darkness, why don't they simply build homes with skylights or windows in the bedrooms? It would seem only natural... I'm sure they had homes before electricity, and on a planet where darkness is feared, the architecture would tend toward an open sort with lots of natural light so that there is no danger of darkness in any room.

There was another moment in the book like that when in a meeting curtains were drawn over a room in which the main characters were meeting to discuss the impending doom. The character, while drawing the curtains, reflected that the heavy curtains had never been drawn, not in all his forty-some-odd years at the university meeting-room in which they met. Why, then, would people with such an aversion to darkness make and install curtains that would never be used, that even the thought of using would be distasteful?

It was little things here and there, things I would think a decent editor would notice and omit or request to be changed before publishing, that seemed to clash with the book that made it less enjoyable.

I found myself wishing for a sequel at the end, the book did seem to end too soon, but I can see that the future that is left a the end of this book would encompass an entire lengthy novel, and so it has to end somewhere. Despite the reservations above, this book was an excellent read, one I'm sure any sci-fi fan, or fans of speculative fiction, would enjoy highly.

This very well written book is about people on a planet who have constant sunlight, thanks to their many suns, with atleast one and as many as four up all the time, but once every 2049 years, their suns are eclipsed and they experience total darkness... they experience the stars. While this may seem normal to an earthling who is conditioned to the concept of night, to the people on the planet who have never seen such a thing, this is a very bizarre and stressful experience. The book talks about how they deal with the situation and makes you wonder if we earthings would react in a similar fashion under such circumstances.

The book is divided into three sections - Twilight, Nightfall and Daybreak. The first two sections are very well written, the third, i thought, was a bit of a drag. The sudden ending was a bit disappointing, but after some reflection, it did seem realistic (not all stories in life have interesting climaxes).

Asimov with his great story-telling also delves into human psychology and religion. Interesting weekend read.

Nightfall is a extrememly interesting book with amazing concepts. The storyline and plot keeps your eyes glued to the words, and you don't want to stop turning the pages until the climax. The book itself was written by both two of the most brilliant science fiction writers. Nightfall was only a short story by Isaac Asimov until he teamed up with Robert Silverberg. This book will pull you into the story as things turn dramatic. I read this in a matter of days and for you Sci-fi fans, you will be thinking about this book long after you read it.

This one really should have remained as a short story, thats all there is to it. I didn't find that it read slowly or anything, but it had that co-author feel that I don't like, and it took some time to get going. Briefly, near the middle I found it truely interesting, but that only set me up for disapointment at the end.

The characters are indeed boring, I never found myself really attached to any of them, not much a chance for that is given. The concepts are good, the idea of Nightfall is interesting, but by the end you realize that all the ideas are essentially the same ones as in Asimov's Foundation Series and the Robots Series, just not done or devloped as well. The ending sequence is pretty much ripped from Foundation, and the thing about the dark is very similar to how Earthmen feel about the outside from the Robot Series, with the added twist of mass hysteria.

The ending too, is just not done correctly. During reading, you may notice that something is dreadfully wrong when you get toward the end, and notice that the book is going to end in about 15 pages or so. The closer to the end you get, the more obvious a rough landing is likely to be in store. It is. While somewhat interesting, it is not done terribily well.

You could skip this one if you wanted to. Despite all I said, it wasn't that bad. Really though, go read the Foundation Series or Robot Series instead, you get everything Nightfall should have been.