It start with this guy on his porch at night, looking out at the city. He realizes that the moon’s bright tonight, real bright. He then figures that since the moon’s brightness is only a reflection of the sun’s light, if the moon’s that bright, the earth is being incinerated as it rotates, and he has a couple hours to live.
That’s generally the plot, does anyone recognize it?
Inconstant Moon by Larry Niven.
And it’s one of Niven’s best!
Fenris
And it was adapted (badly) on the new Outer Limits show.
Where can I find that story? It sounds great!
Sheri
It’s in his anthology All the Myriad Ways, which was first published in 1970. It has since been republished once that I know of, circa 1976. The story might be in one of his other, newer anthologies.
Thanks guys.
As an additional bonus, All The Myriad Ways has his classic essay on Superman.
It’s also in one of the volumes of The Hugo Winners, a good anthology to pick up. I’ve found that the Hugos seem to be more reliable than the Nebulas at identifying good SF.
It was also published in The Best of All Possible Worlds an anthology edited by Spider Robinson. Robinson’s goal was to publish a number of his favorite stories that weren’t available in other in-print anthologies and then ask each story’s author to pick another out-of-print story that they liked which was the also included in the collection. Unfortunately, in keeping with the theme of the collection, this book itself is now out-of-print.
The Hugos are voted on by fans. The Nebulas are voted on by writers. Tell you something?
It’s also in the book of Larry Niven short stories called N-Space. Yummily fantastic, aw yeah.
Fictionwise has it in several downloadable forms for $1.29
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook444.htm
(Fictionwise is way cool!)