Poll

This is a tough one. I gave A Father's Story the star treatment* when I read it, but Nightfall sits well in the memory when I read my notes. The intrigue is still there and I can barely remember A Father's Story, so I will go with Nightfall.

*the star treatment is simply a star at the top of the page for the ones I liked.

This pairing is a skunking.

Nightfall is dreadful, as stilted, silly, and cartoonish as 1960s Batman. Line after line of cliche: cheesy dialogue that reads like bubbles in a comic book; cliched descriptions of movement, countenance, thought, interaction; cliched scorn of Christianity (I'm not a Christian). If you’re yelling that it’s only cliched because Asimov has been countlessly mimicked, then sci-fi began as superficial tripe in which language and everything else of writing is subordinated to one silly and dull premise. So-called world-inventing is less than flat earth, it’s dimensionless, compared to the infinitely arcane and rushing cosmos.

A Father’s Story, saturated with profundity on profound issues. The struggle of humanism and morality bridled with ritual, belief, and faith and the unreasonableness and inadequacy of all of it and us.

I'm a fan of each of these, and part of me wants to vote for "Nightfall." I think it's so much fun. I love many stories that explore the conception of myths and lore.

I also strongly disagree with many many things Ctb says above about the story (and, it seems, sci-fi in general). I agree that the language is not poetic but simply functional, and I'm okay with that here. I'm not particularly consistent, you see!

However, I do think Dubus's "A Father's Story" wins the day for me here.

Yea, me too. I am changing my vote.

Nightfall for me! I am a fan of generic fiction. I agree with much of Ctb said. It was assigned and written in less than a month for the pulp magazine, Astounding Science Fiction. So it suffers from most of the shortcomings such stories have. Asimov writes in the introduction to the story in my edition, "I just write any old way it comes into my mind to write and just as fast as it comes to mind."

The reason I am choosing it is because I was astonished at how well Asimov handled the theme. The story is developed out of the quote by Emerson from "Nature," 'If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God?' The topic was suggested by the magazine editor and discussed Asimov and the editor, so I am not sure how much of the story's idea is Asimov's, but what he did with this is good and the story is considered a science fiction classic. The whole story IMO is development for the revelation in the last pages of the magnitude of the universe and the comparative insignificance of man. Asimov's attempt to capture awe in those last few pages as the eclipse has revealed the stars, " The awful splendor of the indifferent stars." Despite the pulp-writing shortcomings, Asimov captures it.

Well said, Sam.

Interesting discussion of Nightfall. I was intrigued by It, did not enjoy reading it.

But a father’s moral dilemma and protective love for his daughter felt deeper and wins my vote.

Whew! Finished these two in about 3 and a half hours, right in the nick of time... (EDIT: I just noticed the poll closes at 11PM *PST*... carry on)

Nightfall was good fun but I can't shake the sense I got from it, which is that it was pulpy and written for fun. A Father's Story was less fun, but more marvelous. Especially in its treatment of love, faith, and parenthood. Here's a brief quote that stood out to me: "...as I have watched my sons at times in their young lives when I was able to judge but without anger, and so keep silent while they, in the agony of their youth, decided how they must act; or found reasons, after their actions, for what they had done. Their reasons were never as good or as bad as their actions, but they needed to find them, to believe they were living by them, instead of the awful solitude of the heart."

Nice work!! I still consider it in the nick of time :-)