Isaac Asimov is the master of Science Fiction. Sure, Frank Herbert is a better writer, but Asimov is more lighthearted (usually), older, less melodramatic, and more diverse. And he's responsible for possibly the best science fiction short story ever - Nightfall.
Nightfall is like no other story. Ever. The reason for this becomes apparent as soon as one reads it - to copy this plot would be blatantly obvious - there's no disguising it or adding a new twist. It's so unique and well-loved that no one would allow it.
But someone had to try. Two someones - and one of them was Mr. Asimov himself. During the last ten or twenty years of his long and productive life, Isaac Asimov began digging up his older works and adding to them - sequels, prequels, and expanded versions.
One of these was The Ugly Little Boy, a time-travel tale that fit well into a complete novel. Nightfall, however, doesn't do as well. The complete text of the original is still there, which prevented the authors from changing anything, but it appears not at the end where it should be, but in the middle, separating the book into two halves.
The first half leads up to the catastrophe that is the plot of the original story. It's about what can be expected, and it does little to detract from the tale, leading into the original, though not as smoothly as could have been done.
The second half is the problem. It deals with the aftermath of said catastrophe and how it is dealt with by the characters - some familiar, some new. What comes to mind is the way that Stephen King completely cheapened the gripping story in his popular book, The Stand, by writing the awful second half. The difference here is that Asimov is stomping on half a century's worth of sacred ground, whereas King wrote his book all at once. Had Asimov done this, Nightfall may never have been remembered as the classic it has become.
Not that the novel isn't worth a read. It's written in true Asimov style, and Silverberg is as capable of anyone as copying it so that his part blends smoothly in with the rest. Even the second half is still worth a read. Asimov deals with the results of his catastrophe much better than King did with his (there's no hand of god here to come in and fix everything) and the characters are genuinely likeable.
It's sad that Asimov is no longer with us, but there are literally hundreds of books penned by him to choose from. I recommend saving this until after you've read the original Nightfall. You can find it in a number of his short story collections.
These two renowned writers have invented a world not unlike our own--a world on the edge of chaos, torn between the madness of religious fanaticism an...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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