Inconstant Moon

By: Larry Niven

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

How would you spend your last night on Earth? When the moon suddenly starts shining brighter, Stan and Leslie realize the sun must have gone nova, and they only have a few hours until the earth rotates into the deadly sunshine.

This story won a Hugo Award and was made into an episode of The Outer Limits.

©2017 Larry Niven (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wow

Highly suspenseful short story with a changing disaster looming over two people facing death with an ever changing sense of tragedy. The best outcome was far from certain survival. Yet, hope is a faint possibility.

The best Niven Story.

The Outer Limits episode didn't capture that Los Angeles feel that this story had. I felt like I was wandering through Los Angeles, given a guided tour by a native. Seeing the sights, and window shopping in the rain at Rodeo Drive. When I saw "Into the Night" with Michelle Pfeffer and Jeff Goldbloom some years later, I thought of this story as they went to many of the same places. I wonder how much LA has changed since this story was written as many big cities change. Landmarks disappear and places change and all those memories are gone. For those of you expecting the Outer Limits episode, you will be slightly disappointed. Unfortunately, the snowy climes of British Columbia where the show is filmed cannot replace Los Angeles for the sights and sounds. LA is a special place steeped in nostalgia and the movies and television have given us that city burned in our heads. This is a story of what someone might do on that last night on Earth. Its very much the story of a couple who wander around enjoying the sights and sounds of those special places they love. Grabbing a Hot Fudge Sundae and Irish Coffee before they become distant memories. Its still a love story, but very different from the episode depicted in the Outer Limits. In all it gets you thinking about what you would do that last night on Earth. Its a fantasy we all indulge at one time or another.

interesting doomsday

well read story, end of the world, not, well maybe. good use of language and good scene setting.

Spare and beautiful, like true shorts should be

Pinchot’s narration is the perfect maudlin touch to savor the end of the world, even if I didn’t quite believe they’d face the end that way.

Read this and listened to this 5 times

I heard this read in its entirelty a long time ago. Read it 5times too. It's a good scare Sci Fi style. I've been waiting for an Audio to be made. Finally...

If the world was ending, you’d come over right?

Great short story from one of the greats of the genre. Bronson Pinchot is a stellar narrator and I always love when I see his name attached to a novel I’ve picked up.

My 1 complaint is if you’re going to have a 58 minute audiobook, what is the purpose of announcing “Bookmark Chapter 2,3,4,… how about just telling a uninterrupted story. More so because the audiobook does not have selectable chapters just one start stop. So it’s really superfluous imo.

A Remarkably Touching Tale

I didn’t think that Larry Niven could write a genuine love story, but he pulled it off here and in terribly dire circumstances. The moon is unusually beautifully bright—so much so that a man calls his girlfriend in the middle of the night to make certain she’s watching it. Then he realizes what such a bright moon must mean. Moonlight, after all, is a reflection of sunlight, and he guesses that a solar flare is responsible and hypothesizes that it is probably at this moment scorching the other side of the earth. That means, that when dawn comes, he and his girlfriend will likely die. So he answers that popular hypothetical question about what would you do if you found out you had one day (or night in this case) to live. He goes to his girlfriend and after they make love, takes her out on the town to try and create the best last few hours humanly possible. As the night goes on however, and his girlfriend also realizes what is happening, their joy becomes desperation as they try to figure out how to survive what is coming. This is a remarkably touching tale about two humans facing the end of the earth.

Great

Loved it. Very intriguing. well written. I always enjoyed Larry Niven. Read a great deal of his.

It is a "Revelation!"

I read th have read many books by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Steve Barnes. Individually and collectively. With what we now know after our interactions with Bennu and the Comet and having read far more on this subject I am convinced that the events of the Book of Revelation are from a single Sol event, a solar flare.

I briefly spoke with Larry Niven in the 90's. It did not surround anything biblical. We simply had a conversation and sent afew emails. I respect him as a scientist.

Just my two cants after having read the events of the Book in light of what we know nowabout gravity, asteroids and comets. Simply put, tje future event described in detail is to accurate to be fancy. It will happen. It is a solar flare.

Interesting premise

Well worth the hour's running time. A plot hole you could drive a 747 through, though.