Lest Darkness Fall
E735888
Lest Darkness Fall is a classic alternate history science fiction novel by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern archaeologist is transported to the late Roman Empire and attempts to prevent the onset of the Dark Ages.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lest Darkness Fall canonical | 4 |
| Lest Darkness Fall series | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8491699 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lest Darkness Fall Context triple: [Gnome Press, publishedWork, Lest Darkness Fall]
-
A.
Nightfall
"Nightfall" is a classic science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov that explores the psychological and societal collapse of a civilization experiencing darkness and a view of the stars for the first time.
-
B.
A Darkness More Than Night
A Darkness More Than Night is a crime novel by Michael Connelly that intertwines his recurring characters Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb in a complex murder investigation.
-
C.
After the Dark
After the Dark is a 2013 philosophical science-fiction thriller film that explores moral dilemmas through a series of apocalyptic thought experiments conducted by a high school philosophy class.
-
D.
Footsteps in the Dark
"Footsteps in the Dark" is a smooth, soulful R&B ballad by The Isley Brothers, best known for its mellow groove and for being heavily sampled in later hip-hop music.
-
E.
Against the Fall of Night
Against the Fall of Night is a classic early science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores a far-future, dying Earth and humanity’s quest to transcend its long decline.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lest Darkness Fall Target entity description: Lest Darkness Fall is a classic alternate history science fiction novel by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern archaeologist is transported to the late Roman Empire and attempts to prevent the onset of the Dark Ages.
-
A.
Nightfall
"Nightfall" is a classic science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov that explores the psychological and societal collapse of a civilization experiencing darkness and a view of the stars for the first time.
-
B.
A Darkness More Than Night
A Darkness More Than Night is a crime novel by Michael Connelly that intertwines his recurring characters Harry Bosch and Terry McCaleb in a complex murder investigation.
-
C.
After the Dark
After the Dark is a 2013 philosophical science-fiction thriller film that explores moral dilemmas through a series of apocalyptic thought experiments conducted by a high school philosophy class.
-
D.
Footsteps in the Dark
"Footsteps in the Dark" is a smooth, soulful R&B ballad by The Isley Brothers, best known for its mellow groove and for being heavily sampled in later hip-hop music.
-
E.
Against the Fall of Night
Against the Fall of Night is a classic early science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke that explores a far-future, dying Earth and humanity’s quest to transcend its long decline.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
alternate history novel
ⓘ
science fiction novel ⓘ time travel fiction ⓘ |
| author | L. Sprague de Camp ⓘ |
| bookPublicationYear | 1941 ⓘ |
| centralConflict | attempt to prevent the collapse of civilization in Italy ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticalReception | considered a classic of science fiction ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1939 ⓘ |
| genre |
alternate history
ⓘ
historical fiction ⓘ science fiction ⓘ |
| hasCoverArtist | various artists in different editions ⓘ |
| hasHistoricalFigures |
Belisarius
ⓘ
Theodahad ⓘ Vitiges ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced |
The Guns of the South
ⓘ
modern alternate history genre ⓘ |
| hasMotiveForce | use of modern knowledge to alter history ⓘ |
| hasRelatedWork | The Wheels of If ⓘ |
| hasSequel |
The Wheels of If and Other Science-Fiction
ⓘ
linked to:
The Wheels of If
|
| hasTechnologyIntroducedByProtagonist |
distillation techniques
ⓘ
improved finance and banking methods ⓘ printing press ⓘ |
| includedIn | various science fiction omnibus editions ⓘ |
| influencedBy | A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| libraryOfCongressClassification | PS3507.E2344 ⓘ |
| literarySeries |
Lest Darkness Fall series
ⓘ
linked to:
Lest Darkness Fall
|
| mainCharacter | Martin Padway ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativeDevice | time travel ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person limited ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed depiction of late Roman society
ⓘ
early example of alternate history in science fiction ⓘ |
| originalMagazine | Unknown ⓘ |
| originalPublicationFormat | magazine serial ⓘ |
| plotSummary | A modern archaeologist is transported to late antiquity and attempts to prevent the onset of the Dark Ages. ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | archaeologist ⓘ |
| publisher | Henry Holt and Company ⓘ |
| settingPlace |
Ostrogothic Kingdom
ⓘ
Rome ⓘ |
| settingTime | 6th century ⓘ |
| targetAudience | adult readers ⓘ |
| theme |
individual impact on history
ⓘ
preventing the Dark Ages ⓘ technological change ⓘ |
| timePeriodDepicted | late Roman Empire ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lest Darkness Fall Description of subject: Lest Darkness Fall is a classic alternate history science fiction novel by L. Sprague de Camp in which a modern archaeologist is transported to the late Roman Empire and attempts to prevent the onset of the Dark Ages.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.