EP100: Nightfall

[Russell Nash]

EP100: Nightfall

By Isaac Asimov.
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, September 1941.

“Of the six suns, only Beta is left in the sky. Do you see it?”

The question was rather unnecessary. Beta was almost at zenith, its ruddy light flooding the landscape to an unusual orange as the brilliant rays of setting Gamma died. Beta was at aphelion. It was small; smaller than Theremon had ever seen it before, and for the moment it was undisputed ruler of Lagash’s sky.

Lagash’s own sun, Alpha, the one about which it revolved, was at the antipodes, as were the two distant companion pairs. The red dwarf Beta — Alpha’s immediate companion — was alone, grimly alone.

Aton’s upturned face flushed redly in the sunlight. “In just under four hours,” he said, “civilization, as we know it, comes to an end. It will do so because, as you see, Beta is the only sun in the sky.” He smiled grimly. “Print that! There’ll be no one to read it.”

Rated G. Contains some violence and apocalyptic themes.



Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!

[jrderego]

Beautiful presentation of a real golden age treat to celebrate 100! Great-great-great ep this week!

Huzzah and congratulations. Three cheers for Escape Pod!

Hip hip HOORAY!
Hip hip HOORAY!
Hip hip HOORAY!

[beardiebloke]

I'm an Asimov & EP fan so this was bound to push the right buttons.  Awesome.  It made my day.  Looking forward to EP128, 200, 256,....1000

[Bdoomed]

I'm having trouble downloading the episode... im listening right now on the website but its not gettin into my iTunes, nor does the download link work for me...

[.Morph.]

WOWOWOWOWOW!
I have this story in print format and its one of my most read.
When i clicked onto escapepod and saw it it was a dream come true.
I was wondering when you were gonna run an asimov piece.

[Josh]

I think this is probably my favorite piece run yet! It really hit the Science-To-Fiction-Ration that changes "fiction that has some laser guns in it" to real Science fiction.

[Zathras]

 
Wow, this episode was great!  Great story and very well read by Steve!  Can't say enough how much I liked it.  Just fantastic! 

I thought the heartfelt thanks from Steve preceding the story was neat and nicely expressed.   But I think 99% of the credit should go to the creator.  If you build something great, success and popularity will usually follow.   This is a good example of that.   Looking forward to the next 100 episodes.   

[Swamp]

Very, very good episode!  Fantastic reading by Steve.  The author of the story was a bit obscure though.   Nightfall truly is the definition of classic science fiction.  As I stated on another post, I caught the X-Minus One presentation of Nightfall when it ran on the Spaceship Radio podcast, and thought it was wonderful.  However, the brilliant reading of the actual text in this episode tops it for sure.  Steve has just the right alliteration (I know that's not the right word) to get past some of the stilted dialog.  A classic reading of a classic favorite!

[Thaurismunths]

Aaw man!
EP100 And I forgot my headphones at home!

[Startrekwiki]

Finally! A story be the master! Read, by the master! Great! Long awaited! [If I no longer punctuate my sentences with exclamations, it' because I'm so exited I might break the ! key]

Good job, Mr. Eley!

[Bdoomed]

i had not read this story nor heard it till now, but i must say, it is a VERY good story, and VERY well read!

[Oblio]

In these days of "Hollywood" writings where stories don't get a chance if they are not action packed,  and instead asks the reader/listener to think a bit, it is refreshing to hear Nightfall.  I wonder how it would have done if Asimov were selling it today as an unknown writer.

Great Story from the master!

[Simon]

Well... Mr Eley bagged Nightfall.

I am enough of a Golden Age fan to think its not even worth enthusing about this story, its status is unassailable.  Impressed you managed to get your hands on it.

Well done Steve...  Well done... 

On making it to 100 episodes:

I think its a notable feature of the tone of EP that pretty much every listener I have spoken to about it considers Mr Eley in some way a friend.  I would be amazed if he ever has to buy his own beer in a foreign city.  As a reader who has been honoured with an email, I'd like to say you are welcome to a pint if you ever find yourself in London.

[slic]

Episode Comments:
Clearly a great story.  I actually read it first as the novel (short story is better in my opinion) co-written with Robert Silverberg.  The preface is something that had a significant impact on how I write (when I get around to it - to paraphrase:

The story is on an alien planet, and they will have vehicular transport, and I will call them "cars" instead of "gobats" - not because the aliens call them cars, but because for the purpose of this story "cars" is a good enough descriptor and to name them "gobats" would needlessly confuse the reader.

I've always considered that when "inventing" a civilization, and even naming characters.  It is one of the few annoyances of series such as The Maritian Chronicles (John Carter) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (his martian distances were in radians and the like, and I never could quite get how far away stuff was), and the Lord of the Rings - Sauron and Saruman - man, I can't tell you how many times I would get the white wizard and the giant eyeball mixed up - I've never read through any of the books in the series - snoozefest (sorry) and that didn't help.  Sword of Shannara may be a blatant rip-off but I enjoyed that book.

EscapePod Comments:
Your thanks, Mr. Eley, are reciprocated ten-fold.  The effort and sacrifice you have put into these ventures is clear each week.  As a result EscapePod is now a standard against which others are measured.  How influential/well-known has EscapePod become - well, I wanted to confirm the co-autor for Nightfall, and when I went to Wikipedia, your reading of the story has already been sited:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Isaac_Asimov) "Nightfall - Read by Stephen Eley on the 100th episode of Escape Pod."

And Simon put it well - each of us considers you a friend, though we've never met.  You are one of the very few "celebrities" I've ever thought to get to know better.
 

[Thaurismunths]

Wow.
I think if I'd read this story today I'd have been impressed, but would have said it wasn't too original or very imaginative. That is only because so much of what I've read and heard in my life has been influenced by Mr. Asimov's writings.

To all of slush readers, editors, and technical folk the EP Staff for bringing us these stories each week, and to Mr. Eley's wife and son who put up with Steve's seemingly tireless dedication to the worlds of fiction and podcasting, Thank You!

[jeffwik]

I really enjoyed this episode, but my comment is tangential -- were the intro and outro slowed down slightly?  The rhythm of the speech seemed a little different than usual.

[SFEley]

I really enjoyed this episode, but my comment is tangential -- were the intro and outro slowed down slightly?  The rhythm of the speech seemed a little different than usual.

There were no audio effects.  If I spoke differently, it's because I was in a slightly different mood than I usually am when recording these intros.  (Because of what this episode meant to me, and also because I was finishing up this episode at about 4 AM last Saturday, about two hours before leaving for a cruise.)  >8->

As for considering me a friend: thanks, everyone.  That means a lot to me, and it's fully reciprocal.  I'll take you up on that pint offer, Simon -- but only if I get to buy the second round.  >8->

[Kronikarz]

Wow. Just.... wow. I mean, the... wow. It's just.... wow. Can't... wow.

Best EP episode. Ever. Wow.

[mt house]

I am not worthy! Not only a mind tinglingly delicious story, but five minutes of totally kick it Japanese surf punk! And Steve! I love this podcast!

[Jim]

What truly humbles me in the face of such brilliance is the fact that Asimov wrote Nightfall when he was 21 years old.

At an age when most youngsters are (at least today) fixated on finally being of legal age to drink, Asimov was making science fiction history.

Other than that, I can't think of anything to say about it that hasn't already been said sometime in the last 65 years.

What a terrific way to cap off the first 100 episodes, paying homage to a stroke of genius by a genuine master.

[Dr Frankenshroom]

Nightfall should be renamed Planet of the Morons

A civilisation that destroy's itself because of  a total solar eclipse. LOL
These people are so incredibly dense.
It takes them centuies to come up   with law of gravitation LOL

Though if Asimov was using this story to point out our flaws in scientific theory, then he succeeded
admirably.

[ClintMemo]

Nightfall should be renamed Planet of the Morons

A civilisation that destroy's itself because of  a total solar eclipse. LOL

not when you consider that they've never experienced dark before.
Imagine what would happen on earth if suddenly everyone went deaf.

These people are so incredibly dense.
It takes them centuies to come up   with law of gravitation LOL

It took us at least a few thousand.

Though if Asimov was using this story to point out our flaws in scientific theory, then he succeeded
admirably.

how so?

The astronomer predicts what will happen to the sun - and he turns out to be right.
The psychologist predicts what will happen when it gets dark - and he turns out to be right.

[Josh]

These people are so incredibly dense.
It takes them centuies to come up   with law of gravitation LOL

Before calling a civilization "dense" for doing things four times faster than we did, you might want to consider running a spell check.

[Thaurismunths]

Nightfall should be renamed Planet of the Morons

A civilisation that destroy's itself because of  a total solar eclipse. LOL
These people are so incredibly dense.
It takes them centuies to come up   with law of gravitation LOL

Though if Asimov was using this story to point out our flaws in scientific theory, then he succeeded
admirably.

I'm going to echo Clint on this Frank.

We were toying with "gravity" back in the fourth century BCE, civilization having been started somewhere back about 3500 BCE, and Einstein didn't pin it down 'til 1915. That's more than two millennia! Perhaps you had mistaken century (hundred years) for millennia (thousand years)?

Likewise, I found it a little incredulous that they would destroy a whole world just because it went black, but think Asimov wasn't saying it was the darkness that bothered them: it was the stars. The sudden, crushing realization of their own insignificance in the vastness of the cosmoses. There's also the self-fulfilling profiles and religious furvor stirred up by the religious doomsayers. For 2050 years their people have all heard the stories that the world will go dark, the stars will come out, and men will go stark-raving mad... so that's exactly what happens.

I think, if anything, this story would be a tongue-in-cheek look at man's pride. I'm not sure where scientific principal would fit in.

[Thaurismunths]

These people are so incredibly dense.
It takes them centuies to come up   with law of gravitation LOL

Before calling a civilization "dense" for doing things four times faster than we did, you might want to consider running a spell check.

Easy Josh. That's a rather personal attack.
Though the forum encourages correct English, and appreciates good spelling, there's no call for ridiculing someone else for making a typo.
And although I think Frank's post might be a little heavy handed, even Asimov's work is not beyond ridicule and debate.