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Nightfall series
Nightfall Two
192 pages
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
7 people are currently reading
370 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,336 books27.6k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 8, 2015
This book really is a continuation of the first one - Nightfall One (creatively titled) - since in some versions they are treated as one, and so do I. My comments and views really are tied in with that volume rather than differentiated with the separate book. I would reiterate that really this is a great collection of his work that go from the early 40s through to the late 60s and as such show a remarkable forethought and timeless storytelling many authors in these times either missed or go totally wrong. Yes some of them are dated (language I think is the easiest give away of when a story was written)
February 6, 2013
The best part of this anthology is the interjections Asimov writes before each short story. They give fascinating insights into the brain of this bizarre and neurotic author, discussing his own feelings about the stories and what sparked each one off. I found those preludes more interesting than the stories themselves - although those are of course top quality, this being Asimov's favourites among Asimov's works. I mean, it's Asimov. It's not going to be crap.
January 31, 2013
Oldsk00l is, in this case, goodsk00l, and Asimov kicks all kinds of butt. The stories are of good quality, and are selected by Asimov himself covering the 1950s to the 1960s. Not least delightful are his accounts of how the stories came to be. I especially like how he basically described an important part of TCP/IP in 1962 in "My son, the physicist". 4 stars.
January 14, 2013
Found this in my school library when I was twelve. I don't think it was even supposed to be there. Filled my head with stars and opened me up to the whole world of scifi and especially Asimov's brilliant ideas. This is definitely one compilation that changed my life.
October 24, 2024
Wow! Just Wow! What can I say?
I've read this before, about 30 years ago, or more. I enjoyed it then, and at that time, around 40 years after Asimov wrote most of the stories in this collection, some of the future he predicted had happened. Now, nearly 70 years after Nightfall Two was originally published, still his genius shines through. Nothing has dated and much has come to pass in some shape or form.
We find self-driving cars (but not as we know them), computers that don't need whole rooms full of valves (but also not quite as we know them), teleporting (unfortunately, still not available here yet) and much more.
Each story is prefixed with a detailed note explaining the circumstances which lead to its creation. I loved reading those too. There's "Segregationist", the one that wrote itself, as Asimov was trying to compose an "I'm sorry I don’t have the time to contribute to your anthology on this occasion" letter. And a real 1930s magazine with a "spicy science fiction" theme that lead to "What is this thing called love?", a story about aliens who try (unsuccessfully) to learn about human reproduction from that very magazine. And, one of my favourites, "Insert knob A in hole B", poking fun at the standard of technical writing (I'm a retired technical writer), and written in a half-hour time slot with television cameras watching. And many others.
Every single story here is brilliant, but as well as "Insert knob A in hole B", I particularly enjoyed "Sally", about the fleet of self-driving cars, and "Segregationist", the last story in the anthology, and the story Asimov didn't intend to write, but he wrote anyway, with a stunning ending that just wraps up the story beautifully, and the anthology.
There was just one story I didn't re-read this time, "Strikebreaker". For some reason, it made such an impression on me the first time, and distressed me so much, that I just couldn't face revisiting it. It's the story in this collection that had stayed vivid in my memory from 30 years ago. I've periodically thought about it and the way the events panned out, as it sometimes comes to mind when reading about various world events. All I'll say is that man can be so unkind to his fellow creatures. But read it anyway!
I've read this before, about 30 years ago, or more. I enjoyed it then, and at that time, around 40 years after Asimov wrote most of the stories in this collection, some of the future he predicted had happened. Now, nearly 70 years after Nightfall Two was originally published, still his genius shines through. Nothing has dated and much has come to pass in some shape or form.
We find self-driving cars (but not as we know them), computers that don't need whole rooms full of valves (but also not quite as we know them), teleporting (unfortunately, still not available here yet) and much more.
Each story is prefixed with a detailed note explaining the circumstances which lead to its creation. I loved reading those too. There's "Segregationist", the one that wrote itself, as Asimov was trying to compose an "I'm sorry I don’t have the time to contribute to your anthology on this occasion" letter. And a real 1930s magazine with a "spicy science fiction" theme that lead to "What is this thing called love?", a story about aliens who try (unsuccessfully) to learn about human reproduction from that very magazine. And, one of my favourites, "Insert knob A in hole B", poking fun at the standard of technical writing (I'm a retired technical writer), and written in a half-hour time slot with television cameras watching. And many others.
Every single story here is brilliant, but as well as "Insert knob A in hole B", I particularly enjoyed "Sally", about the fleet of self-driving cars, and "Segregationist", the last story in the anthology, and the story Asimov didn't intend to write, but he wrote anyway, with a stunning ending that just wraps up the story beautifully, and the anthology.
There was just one story I didn't re-read this time, "Strikebreaker". For some reason, it made such an impression on me the first time, and distressed me so much, that I just couldn't face revisiting it. It's the story in this collection that had stayed vivid in my memory from 30 years ago. I've periodically thought about it and the way the events panned out, as it sometimes comes to mind when reading about various world events. All I'll say is that man can be so unkind to his fellow creatures. But read it anyway!
June 18, 2020
I didn’t realise until I started reading this that it’s essentially the second of two paperbacks that were published because for whatever reason, it was too difficult to publish as a single paperback. The gist here is that after writing a pretty well-received short story towards the start of his career, Asimov worried that he was becoming mostly known for a single story, so he brought together twenty of his best in this collection.
Nightfall #2 contains ten of those twenty stories, along with little introductions by Asimov that go into detail on what inspired the stories and how they came about. The ideas in the stories, along with the fascinating introductions that Asimov supplies, make for cracking reading, even when the stories themselves aren’t great.
It’s funny, really, because Asimov specifically went out of his way to try to bring his best short stories together, but I think that I, Robot is a better short story collection. Both are worth reading I guess, but this is more for hardcore fans and long-time readers.
Nightfall #2 contains ten of those twenty stories, along with little introductions by Asimov that go into detail on what inspired the stories and how they came about. The ideas in the stories, along with the fascinating introductions that Asimov supplies, make for cracking reading, even when the stories themselves aren’t great.
It’s funny, really, because Asimov specifically went out of his way to try to bring his best short stories together, but I think that I, Robot is a better short story collection. Both are worth reading I guess, but this is more for hardcore fans and long-time readers.
August 14, 2017
A varied collections of stories from late 1950s, early 1960s. In one story Asimov makes a bunch of accurate predictions about autonomous car ownership and usage patterns, all now being played out by Uber etc.
April 13, 2021
Enjoyed it, but reality is that no story was as memorable as Nightfall from Nightfall One.
Nightfall was so well written with an original idea.
Most of these stories lacked originality ( maybe because they've been mimicked many times since but were once original).
Nightfall was so well written with an original idea.
Most of these stories lacked originality ( maybe because they've been mimicked many times since but were once original).
December 4, 2022
Once again, this shares stories with my favorite Asimov collection (Robot Dreams) but there was enough difference to keep me going. I especially like the twist in Segregationist.
A must for completionists and solid for anyone else.
A must for completionists and solid for anyone else.
October 13, 2017
A true masterpiece, or rather a collection of small masterpieces. This is literature, and not just the kind of boring engineer-porn that his contemporaries wrote. Highly recommended!
January 6, 2020
Classic Golden Age SF
February 3, 2021
Some very good stories, most decent and a lot of context from Asmiov himself.
December 18, 2021
Love this stuff
July 17, 2015
As one of the world’s most prolific authors, and one of the true giants of science fiction, it can be difficult to know where to start with Asimov. As a child I read a few stories and was soon hooked, but perusing his oeuvre takes some time. For anyone interested in wetting their fingers with this master of science fiction, however, the Nightfall anthology is a great place to start.
Put together by Asimov in the late sixties, it was his attempt to address what he felt was an undue amount of attention to the short story which gives the collection its name. Nightfall was published in 1941 when Asimov was just 21 years old, but was immediately recognised by the magazine editor as being worthy of a bonus rate. Unwilling to accept that his best work was written basically at the beginning of his career, this collection is an opportunity for readers to judge for themselves, whether Nightfall deserves such high praise, and whether or not Asimov’s writing style had improved in the intervening period.
This second volume contains fifteen short stories published between 1951 and 1967 (“In a Good Cause–” (1951), “What If–” (1952), “Sally” (1953), “Flies” (1953), “Nobody Here But–” (1953), “It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1954), “Strikebreaker” (1957), “Insert Knob A In Hole B” (1957), “The Up-To-Date Sorcerer” (1958), “Unto the Fourth Generation” (1959), “What is This Thing Called Love?” (1961), “The Machine that Won the War” (1961), “My Son, the Physicist” (1962), “Eyes Do More Than See” (1965), and “Segregationist” (1967)). In comparison to the first volume, this is much more of a mixed bag in terms of quality. Given that Asimov set out to prove that Nightfall wasn’t his only decent short story, a lot of the choices contained in this volume seem to have more in the way of anecdotal value. For instance, “What If-” was written as a bet between Asimov and his wife as to whether he could base a story around something as simple as their train journey; the two-page “Insert Knob A In Hole B” was written during a television panel discussion, when he was challenged to write a story on the spot (he admits in the preface that he had expected the challenge to come up and prepared accordingly). Similarly other stories were written at the behest of editors seeking to fulfil a particular niche, including one for Playboy.
As with the first volume, each story is prefaced by a small introduction, which partly makes up for the lower quality of the stories. The stories are obviously a lot shorter in this volume, and as a result have a much broader range of backgrounds, so there is certainly a chance that at least something will appeal to every reader. Nevertheless, there’s little denying that this volume can’t live up to the standards set by Nightfall One.
Put together by Asimov in the late sixties, it was his attempt to address what he felt was an undue amount of attention to the short story which gives the collection its name. Nightfall was published in 1941 when Asimov was just 21 years old, but was immediately recognised by the magazine editor as being worthy of a bonus rate. Unwilling to accept that his best work was written basically at the beginning of his career, this collection is an opportunity for readers to judge for themselves, whether Nightfall deserves such high praise, and whether or not Asimov’s writing style had improved in the intervening period.
This second volume contains fifteen short stories published between 1951 and 1967 (“In a Good Cause–” (1951), “What If–” (1952), “Sally” (1953), “Flies” (1953), “Nobody Here But–” (1953), “It’s Such a Beautiful Day” (1954), “Strikebreaker” (1957), “Insert Knob A In Hole B” (1957), “The Up-To-Date Sorcerer” (1958), “Unto the Fourth Generation” (1959), “What is This Thing Called Love?” (1961), “The Machine that Won the War” (1961), “My Son, the Physicist” (1962), “Eyes Do More Than See” (1965), and “Segregationist” (1967)). In comparison to the first volume, this is much more of a mixed bag in terms of quality. Given that Asimov set out to prove that Nightfall wasn’t his only decent short story, a lot of the choices contained in this volume seem to have more in the way of anecdotal value. For instance, “What If-” was written as a bet between Asimov and his wife as to whether he could base a story around something as simple as their train journey; the two-page “Insert Knob A In Hole B” was written during a television panel discussion, when he was challenged to write a story on the spot (he admits in the preface that he had expected the challenge to come up and prepared accordingly). Similarly other stories were written at the behest of editors seeking to fulfil a particular niche, including one for Playboy.
As with the first volume, each story is prefaced by a small introduction, which partly makes up for the lower quality of the stories. The stories are obviously a lot shorter in this volume, and as a result have a much broader range of backgrounds, so there is certainly a chance that at least something will appeal to every reader. Nevertheless, there’s little denying that this volume can’t live up to the standards set by Nightfall One.
March 7, 2010
This is a collection of Asimov's stories chosen by the good doctor himself, with a little introduction talking about the antecedence of the story. The stories themselves are all good ones and classic Asimov. This is a two-edged sword, so if you're not generally an Asimov fan, this collection probably won't convert you.
July 7, 2016
More collected Asimov short stories that began my journey into reading, so kept mainly for that reason rather than to re-read. I do like how Asimov gives a short background to each story before it is presented. Alas, none of these stories would seem to have stuck in my memory.
January 12, 2011
Not as good as Nightfall One, but how bad can Asimov get?
Want to read
January 12, 2011Not sure if I've read this before...
April 30, 2011
Good at the time
October 5, 2011
Interesting and novel ideas, but not too much substance or meatiness.
June 16, 2013
Amazing stories. An absolute must read for all asimov fans.
July 2, 2016
Very nice collection. I enjoyed it very much.
June 20, 2016
Part two of the short story collection. Not as good as the first
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews