Night Piece

"Night Piece" is a science fiction short story by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in the July 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It later appeared in Anderson's 1981 collection The Dark Between the Stars.[1]

"Night Piece"
First publication, cover art by Ed Emshwiller
AuthorPoul Anderson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Published inThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Publication typePeriodical
PublisherMercury Press
Media typePrint (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback)
Publication dateJuly 1961

Plot summary

The story takes place over the span of a few hours during one night. The unnamed protagonist, a scientist working on extra-sensory perception, leaves work and walks toward home. He is haunted by perceptions of another world, and creatures in it, who appear to be malevolent. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that he has accidentally uncovered evidence of a different and superior class of beings, which he calls "Superiors", who co-exist with humans but had previously gone almost undetected. He interprets his visions as reflections of an ongoing struggle in Superior's world and finds himself both attracted, and repelled, by what he sees.

Commentary

In The Worlds of Science Fiction,[2] the author wrote

It's quite unlike anything else I've done...I have no pretensions to being a Kafka or a Capek, but it did seem to me it would be interesting to use, or attempt to use, some of their techniques.

gollark: You could always pull out of fission reactor ports, you know.
gollark: I was joking about it causing slimes to phase through walls, but it does ban them spawning in superflat, and does give its creator special stuff.
gollark: No, really.
gollark: Like giving its author free ultra-powerful weapons when they log in or respawn.
gollark: Well, it has lots of undocumented "features".

References
  1. Wagner, Thomas M. (1997). "SF Review: The Dark Between the Stars (1981)". SFReviews.net. Archived from the original on June 20, 2002.
  2. Mills, Robert P., ed. (1963). The Worlds of Science Fiction. Paperback Library.
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