Nightfall

Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I spent a lot of time wondering when this story was written. I wondered about the ambiguity of the foreword and the necessity that some parts of this alien world have been translated for our convenience. Had it been set in today’s time I’m sure our scientists would have sent something up there to see this impending catastrophe. But now that I’ve discovered that this was written before the space race, my respect has increased for the authors. They’ve created a great concept of a world without darkness but it does focus too much on the academic world. this is convenient for the reader when the event occurs as it gives the professors the instant ability to document the after-effects, but a little more Kalgashian knowledge before the incident wouldn’t go amiss. The characters all seem to be quite isolated beings (though protagonists usually are) and only come into being when presented in the plot. But after a brief conflict, the novel comes to an interesting and convenient conclusion which may be too short for a full novel but perfect for the publication for which it suited.

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