** Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall" (novelette, science fiction)

My not so good reaction to this original is probably because I'd read & loved its novelization years back. This shorter version mercifully kills the later half of the novel that was utter bore. What we are left with is great stuff, but I prefer corresponding novel version that is better developed (first half of novel).

Story is about a world with many suns & where there is always at least one sun in the sky. Local beings are so unfamiliar with the idea of darkness that it drives them physically mad. This is the reason the civilization is destroyed every 2,000 years or so - that's when the sole sun in the sky on that occasion is eclipsed by a sister world long enough to bring out a night all over this world. This short story follows the last hours of current civilization - for the eclipse is only a few hours away.

Collected in.

1. Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964".
2. Raymond J Healy & J Francis McComas (Eds)' "Adventures in Time and Space".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, September 1941.
Rating: A

Note: Why is this post so short?