Nightfall (30)

Nightfall
Isaac Asimov
Robert Silverbert
Read 7/19/07

I am not a big SciFi fan, but had this book. It is based on a 1941 short story by Asimov. The premise is a world that has 6 suns.. and their planet is never in darkness. Several things happen at once.. and you finally figure out the significance of all the events. The world is going to have an eclipse with will last about 14 hours.. problem is that the world has never been in darkness (the eclipse only happens every 2000 years). The people freak out.. lose their minds and riot. In hours civilization is lost.. The book follows several of the scientist from the beginning to see how they make out in the post-apocalyptic world.
There are some interesting premises in the book. It is a world similar to Earth.. yet they seem to have a very limited view of science.. They believe their world is only a few thousand years old.. and that they and their 6 suns are all that is in the world.. and that the universe is only a few dozen light years in size.
Their views are put to a test as the world goes dark and they see stars for the first time and not a few as they thought... but countless thousands....
The story isn't bad and some of the ideas (people could not live on a world that was in darkness 1/2 of the day) are interesting and give you something to ponder.