Nightfall - Isaac Asimov

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

This book was originally a short story by Asimov, and then him and Robert Silverberg turned it into a novel. Not sure how much to attribute to Asimov and how much to Silverberg, but I loved it, and it felt very fresh compared to a majority of the other Asimov I have read.

In most of his books, an apocalyptic world changing event is coming, people talk about it, travel through space, and solve the problem. In this one the apocalypse comes and it explores what happens to the people who saw it coming and the people who denied it would happen.

Specifically, it takes place on a world with 6 suns, so it never sees darkness. But an eclipse is coming, and a population that has never not had light will be trapped in darkness and everyone will go crazy, burning everything in sight in the desire for light.

The concept was cool, and I got excited when I realized the event was actually going to happen. The characters we see it through - cultists who predict it, scientists who don't want to admit they are right, journalists who deny it to the public - are all pretty good, much better than I am used to from Asimov. The journalist had me thinking a lot about today, since he is spreading misinformation out of ignorance, and he has to live knowing he probably caused many deaths when darkness actually comes.

So ya, great book, probably benefitted from the dual authors.