Dawn (McLaughlin novel)
Dawn is a science fiction novel written in 1980 by Dean McLaughlin. A re-imagining of Isaac Asimov's classic 1941 short story, "Nightfall", it was serialized in Analog magazine (April–July 1981), with — unusually — two cover illustrations, for both its first and last segments. The story was republished in hardcover in 2006.
Background
Dawn is set on a world with six or seven "gods" — "Blazing Alpher", "Red Bethe", "Actinic Gamow", "Bright Dalton", "Gold Ephron", and "Embrous Zwicky"; and also "The Pale One", which is the largest but dimmest, and variable in color. There is always at least one of the suns in the sky, so there is no place that experiences nightfall; the only truly dark places are in enclosed spaces such as caves or windowless rooms.
The passings of Alpher from east to west across the sky are the primary units of time, but longer periods are marked by the seasonal shift of Alpher north and south, and the overtaking of one god by another, and sand glasses are used for shorter periods. With two important suns in the sky, the ability to predict their movements would be very valuable to predict conditions over future growing seasons. Alas, while the priests can make useful short-term predictions, over the long term the gods seem to go where they will. The world is a roughly medieval stage of development. The priests of the Temple hold all political power.
