Special Post - The Best Eclipse Story

Asimov, Isaac. Nightfall. New York: Smith & Smith 1941. Print.

First Sentences:

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!"  -- Emerson


Description:

Now that the total solar eclipse has traveled through the United States last week, I wanted everyone to know about the best science fiction eclipse short story written: Isaac Asimov's Nightfall. The tale was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America as the best science fiction story ever written

The setting for Nighrtfall is Lagash, a planet with six suns, where at least several are in the sky all the time, making this a world without darkness. The story takes place in the Saro City University observatory, currently full of astronomers and scientists who have predicted an eminent eclipse. 

What is coming, they know, will not be just any old ordinary eclipse. This one, which recurs every 2049 years, will blot out all six suns, plunging the planet into total darkness. For the first time in generations, people will experience a sunless sky. But what will be the reaction to that? As they wait for the few hours before the eclipse, they discuss vehemently what is about to take place and the results.

Scientists feel there will be little difference and life will soon resume. Cultists, on the other hand, in their Book of Revelations have predicted people will be "robbed of their souls and left [as] unreasoning brutes." Add to these opinions is historic evidence that entire civilizations on the planet have been destroyed over the centuries, possibly in reaction to previous eclipses.

Will this eclipse bring destruction, awe, or merely fizzle out into nothingness? The answer only revealed in the very last sentence.

[P.S. Asimov, with Hugo Award-winner Robert Silverberg, later expanded this short story into a novel, also titled Nightfall, with several of the original characters exploring their post-eclipse planet.]

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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          (and an Intro to The First Sentence Reader) 

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles.   

A historical timeline of the exploration and settling of the planet Mars as imagined by one of the best Sci-Fi writers. It's one of my favorite compilation of short stories, one that can be reread multiple times (as I have!) (previously reviewed here)