Nightfall has an interesting premise. What if there was an alien world with intelligent life that had never experienced darkness? What would happen if, after a millennia long cycle, the planet was suddenly experienced the setting of all their suns at once? Unfortunately, the execution is severely flawed. Asimov and Silverberg get away with a lot of lazy writing that science fiction fans would not forgive in a less famed writer.

First of all, this is not an alien race. This is a human race that has by sheer coincidence developed in more or less the same manner, biologically, technologically, culturally, etc. as Earth. A fairly weak justification is given for this in the prologue (the authors did not wish to muddle the book with foreign words, instead we should simply assume their "cars" are not quite the same as ours). This is silly because any race that evolved in a world without night would invariably look, think and act completely different from our own and if they don't you had better have a compelling reason why. The terror at the sudden advent of light feels less real, because the world so closely mirrors our own it does not make sense for simple night to scare them.

Secondly, it is surprisingly difficult to scientifically justify the absence of night. Asimov and Silverberg present an extremely convoluted rotation of about six suns that explain why the planet does not have night. This could easily be overlooked if I did not have the first complaint.

Overall these flaws are hard to ignore. Asimov and Silverberg were trying to explore the psychology of fear and where our primal fears arise from. To a lesser extent, they were trying to discuss the relationship between religion, science and society. But it's a long and difficult journey to get to these explorations. ( )

I read about Nightfall when it was mentioned in passing in New Scientist magazine. Their description interested me, so I borrowed the book from the library. This is the first Isaac Asimov I have read and I can see why he has such a great reputation. Living on a planet with just one sun, we do tend to take darkness and stars for granted. But what if we had never seen either? How would a people, used to eternal light, cope with their first exposure to night? How would someone who had never seen the night sky deal with all those millions of stars? Nightfall is a riveting account of how one society faced just such a challenge and it is an account that is well worth reading. ( )

This is actually one of my favorite Asimov books - and I liked the short story as well. The psychology of mass hysteria and resulting social chaos and destruction is always ripe for sci-fi and this is no exception. I also felt it was an interesting example of world building based around a fundamental question of what life would be like in a solar system dominated by multiple suns and there was no such thing as night. What sorts of things would be different and what would be the same? What sorts of things would folks in this world be afraid of? ( )

Great engaging story. Sci-fi, yet you almost forget that it is since it doesn't concentrate on strange aliens or technology. What would society do if a cataclysmic event was on its way - and both religion and science knew it was coming? ( )

The first half of this novel was absolutely amazing. ( )