Trivia / Nightfall (1941)

• Breakthrough Hit: As Isaac Asimov described it; "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'."
• Creator Backlash: Isaac Asimov was troubled by the idea that "Nightfall" was widely considered his best work. This was partly because it was one of his earliest works (he wrote it when he was 21), so the notion that it was his best story suggested that he hadn't improved as an author in 50 years of writing. One of the most-remembered paragraphs from that story (it's toward the end) isn't his work, having been added by editor John W. Campbell.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: "Nightfall" was, to Isaac Asimov, just another story, though it regularly appears at the top of lists of the best SF story ever. It especially irked him because he wrote it when he was 21, and was somewhat offended by the implication that, in fifty years and hundreds and hundreds of works, he never did anything better. His own favorite was "The Last Question" (though that one is also considered one of the greatest SF stories ever).
• Science Marches On: It is unlikely for a planet near so many stars to have a stable orbit, or even be habitable. However, serious thought has been given to modeling the Lagash system, down to the 2049 year cycle, and the results shared online.

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