TODAY, after considerable delay, we're finishing our coverage of Isaac Asimov's four-story Wendell Urth series with "a true whodunit" cleverly titled . . .
"The Dying Night."
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By Isaac Asimov (1920-92; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; the IMDb HERE; complete bibliography HERE; and Asimov Online HERE).
Wendell Urth No. 3.
First appearance: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1956.
Reprints (lots of them) page (ISFDb HERE).
Reprints covers (ISFDb HERE).
Novelette (22 pages).
(Note: Both texts are very faded but readable.)
"For ten years, Villiers had haunted them like the vague shadow of a guilt that wasn’t really theirs."
AS always, it has to be one of these, doesn't it? Murder, suicide, or natural causes. It falls to our "plump and agoraphobic little extraterrologist" to discover which one while at the same time managing to surprise us with keener than usual psychological insight . . .
Principal characters (in order of appearance):
~ Edward Talliaferro ("Your paper? What paper?"), Stanley Kaunas ("was a little fellow with quick, nervous movements of his hands and habitually wore clothes that looked a shade too large for him"), Battersley Ryger ("rubbed his nose fiercely and Talliaferro thought of the day Villiers had broken it"), Romano Villiers ("could never leave Earth; the acceleration of a spaceship’s takeoff would kill him"), Hubert Mandel ("I am no detective"), and Wendell Urth ("For ten years, you have grown used to the fact that nights are immortal, that a surface in darkness remains eternally in darkness, and so you entrusted unexposed film to Earth’s night, forgetting in your excitement that nights must die—").
Here's our sleuth, who could be characterized as the ultimate (human) armchair detective:
"The man who owned the room had a large round face on a stumpy round body. He moved quickly about on his short legs, jerking his head as he spoke until his thick glasses all but bounced off the thoroughly inconspicuous nubble that served in the office of a nose. His thick-lidded, somewhat protuberant eyes gleamed in myopic good nature at them all, as he seated himself in his own chair-desk combination, lit directly by the one bright light in the room."
"He’s an extraterrologist, yes, but he’s never visited any of the planets on which he is expert and he never will. In thirty years, I doubt if he’s ever been more than a mile from this room."
References:
- "mass-transference"; "Mass-transference. The only way a decent, civilized man could travel. The only possible way. The only conceivable way":
Our author was well known for his aversion to travel. For a brief discussion of teleportation in today's story, see (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE: "References to other stories"). Also see "Teleportation in fiction" (Wikipedia HERE).
- "Mercurian gravity is 0.4 normal. On the Moon, it’s only 0.16"; "Now if Ceres showed only one face to the Sun, the way Mercury does"; "Mercury is the only sizable object in the Solar System that turns only one face to the Sun":
It would be nine more years before it was determined that Mercury doesn't keep "only one face to the Sun":
"Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun, Mercury completes three rotations about its axis, and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun." (Space Facts HERE).
"Mercury spins slowly on its axis and completes one rotation every 59 Earth days. But when Mercury is moving fastest in its elliptical orbit around the Sun (and it is closest to the Sun), each rotation is not accompanied by sunrise and sunset like it is on most other planets. The morning Sun appears to rise briefly, set, and rise again from some parts of the planet's surface. The same thing happens in reverse at sunset for other parts of the surface. One Mercury solar day (one full day-night cycle) equals 176 Earth days – just over two years on Mercury." (NASA HERE).
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- "Ceres Observatory"; "the problem there of the two-hour rotation period":
That rotational period for Ceres was the best guess in 1956; space probes have since refined it:
"The rotation period of Ceres (the Cererian day) is 9 hours and 4 minutes; the small equatorial crater of Kait is selected as its prime meridian. Ceres has an axial tilt of 4°, small enough for its polar regions to contain permanently shadowed craters . . ." (Wikipedia HERE).
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| Ceres is the smallest one, lower left. |
- "rheumatic fever":
"Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain . . . Some patients develop significant carditis, which manifests as congestive heart failure. This requires the usual treatment for heart failure: ACE inhibitors, diuretics, beta blockers, and digoxin." (Wikipedia HERE).
- "Now it was only necessary to scan anything printed or written to have a micronegative which could be developed at leisure":
Asimov has miniaturized the scanning technology that was available in the '50s, a logical development. (Wikipedia HERE).
- "the radio-plotting of the Milky Way with new radioscopes capable of the resolution of single stars":
"A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, just as optical telescopes are used to make observations in the visible portion of the spectrum in traditional optical astronomy. Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can be used in the daytime as well as at night.
"Since astronomical radio sources such as planets, stars, nebulas and galaxies are very far away, the radio waves coming from them are extremely weak, so radio telescopes require very large antennas to collect enough radio energy to study them, and extremely sensitive receiving equipment." (Wikipedia HERE).
- "the association of proton storms with the gigantic hydrogen flares on the sun’s surface":
"In solar physics, a solar particle event (SPE), also known as a solar energetic particle event or solar radiation storm, is a solar phenomenon which occurs when particles emitted by the Sun, mostly protons, become accelerated either in the Sun's atmosphere during a solar flare or in interplanetary space by a coronal mass ejection shock. Other nuclei such as helium and HZE ions may also be accelerated during the event. These particles can penetrate the Earth's magnetic field and cause partial ionization of the ionosphere. Energetic protons are a significant radiation hazard to spacecraft and astronauts." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE).
- "the trimensionals":
Asimov doesn't say much about three-dimensional television, as to whether the experience is brought to the experiencer or the experiencer is taken to the experience; the closest techies have come so far is probably immersive virtual reality (Wikipedia HERE).
- "the Psychic Probe":
Good or bad? It depends on HOW and WHO is using it and WHY:
"In recent years, we’ve seen neurotechnologies move from research labs to real-world use. Schools have used some devices to monitor the brain activity of children to tell when they are paying attention. Police forces are using others to work out whether someone is guilty of a crime. And employers use them to keep workers awake and productive. These technologies hold the remarkable promise of giving us all-new insight into our own minds. But our brain data is precious, and letting it fall into the wrong hands could be dangerous . . ." (MIT Technology Review HERE).
- "a Callistan object":
"Callisto is the second-largest moon of Jupiter, after Ganymede. It is also the third-largest moon in the Solar System, following Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan, and nearly as large as the planet Mercury. With a diameter of 2996 miles [4,821 km], Callisto is roughly a third larger than Earth's Moon and orbits Jupiter on average at a distance of 1,170,042 miles [1.883 million km], which is about five times further out than the Moon orbiting Earth." (Wikipedia HERE).
- a Galactic Lens:
Meant to represent our galaxy: "The Milky Way is a barred spiral, although the bar itself is difficult to observe from Earth's current position within the galactic disc." (Wikipedia HERE.)
- Lower Falls, New Hampshire:
A real place (Wikipedia HERE).
Resources:
- Here is Asimov's Wendell Urth series in order of publication: (1) "The Singing Bell" (HERE), (2) "The Talking Stone" (HERE), (3) "The Dying Night" (above), and (4) "The Key" (HERE).
The bottom line:
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| "You really don't know what you're doing, do you?" |
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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