With Morning Comes Mistfall

With Morning Comes Mistfall is a science-fiction short story by George R. R. Martin, published in May 1973 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It takes place in the "Thousand Worlds" universe, and is set on the planet of Wraithworld, during the period of the Federal Empire. It is about a journalist tasked with covering a new scientific expedition to map the planet. The scientists also seek to prove or disprove the existence of Wraiths, legendary lifeforms that purportedly haunt the planet's wilderness.

Plot Summary
— WARNING: THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS — The story takes place on Wraithworld, a barely habitable planet with unusual weather conditions, including a permanent mist covering most of the planet, which rises up the mountains during the cooler night. Each morning in a wonderful phenomenon called Mistfall, the mist sinks down the mountains, revealing the beauty of the planet.

The planet is home to only a few people, due to the fact that its mist-covered valleys are believed to be occupied by "wraiths", ghostly creatures that have allegedly killed a number of humans. The mystery of the wraiths is also the main tourist attraction on Wraithworld. The only business establishment on the planet is Castle Cloud, a hotel built near the top of one of the mountains, which is primarily visited by "wraith hunters", generally people looking for a thrill.

A journalist has come to Wraithworld to accompany a scientific expedition. Headed by Dr. Charles Dubowski, the expedition seeks concrete evidence of the wraiths, if there’s any to be found. Dubowski believes the wraiths aren’t real, and he has the resources to scan Wraithworld and find out. Cloud Castle serves as the headquarters of the expedition. The hotel owner, Paul Sanders, isn’t very happy about his new guests; he fears Dubowski’s expedition will ruin the magic that brings people to the planet, regardless of the outcome.

During the expedition, the narrator slowly falls in love with the uncanny beauty of Wraithworld, befriending Sanders in the process. They explore the planet together, until there comes an opportunity for the narrator to cover a different and potentially bigger story elsewhere. Jumping from planet to planet and story to story, the narrator only returns to Wraithworld as Dubowski calls a press conference to announce his findings.

As predicted, Dubowski found no evidence of the wraiths, concluding they don’t exist. This effectively kills the legend and the tourism that came attached to it, including Sanders’ business. Within a few years, Sanders is gone and his Castle Cloud is abandoned and crumbling. Wraithworld is now just another unremarkable human colony. — END OF SPOILERS —

Themes
According to Priscilla Zorzi from The Fandomentals, there are two main tensions in With Morning Comes Mistfall: the obvious constant clash between Sanders and Dubowski, and the more subtle battle between the mists and the sun for the lands of Wraithworld. Both conflicts complement each other and the story’s themes.

Sanders and Dubowski antagonise each other from the start, since they represent very different positions. Sanders is "passionate and romantic, defender of mystery and wonder, keeper of the unanswered questions." It’s not clear how much he actually believes the legends of the wraiths or how much he simply doesn’t care to know the truth. He’s protective of that legend all the same, because of the enchantment and awe it lends to the planet. It is telling that Sanders disappears with the wraiths, his fate unknown. There’s no place for him in a mediocre human colony, one among thousands, a world stripped of all its magic. Dubowski is the one responsible for that transformation. He’s "excessively practical, cold towards the beauty of Wraithworld." He doesn’t explore the planet unless he has to and never bother contemplating mistfall or mistrise. He doesn’t seek answers driven by curiosity, but by arrogance. He’s not evil, but he lacks humanity.

At first, it may seem that Dubowski won: his expedition is successful, and he proves the wraiths aren’t real, just as he believed. Meanwhile, Sanders loses his business and everything he loved about Wraithworld. Yet Sanders has the existential victory, since the narrative sides with him. The story doesn’t celebrate Dubowski’s discoveries, but mourns the loss of the wraiths and everything they represented. The problem with Dubowski, is never the science he represents, but his cold approach to it. He wants answers for the wrong reasons and never bothers actually knowing the planet he’s supposed to be exploring. Martin suggests that we need more than just the practical aspects of life, more than just basic needs. Answers will not suffice, because what we’re longing for is this unanswerable, intangible thing. We need meaning, and hope, and wonder, and possibility.

With Morning Comes Mistfall reads as "a meta commentary on the importance of stories and in particular fantasy" (both as a genre of fiction and as the human exercise of imagination and dreaming). Martin shows us a world involved in the mists of fantasy, where mysterious creatures and haunting sights can hide. It’s a world full of possibilities and unanswered questions. Then the light of Dubowski’s concrete answers drives the mists away, and it’s not a coincidence that the story is named after this phenomenon. When we see the Wraithworld again, everything has changed. On a surface level, only the wraiths are missing. But gone with them is everything they represent, the mood, the atmosphere, the meaning.

Author's Notes
Martin wrote seven short stories in the summer of 1971, including With Morning Comes Mistful. He claims that he was driven by a series of frustrations in his life, including being unemployed and single, as well as the likely prospect of being drafted into the Vietnam War.

At the time he wrote it, Martin believed With Morning Comes Mistfall was the finest thing he had ever written, until he wrote The Second Kind of Lonliness a few weeks later. Nevertheless, he regarded it as "the more polished of the two, a wistful mood piece with little in the way of traditional 'action,' yet evocative and, I hoped, effective."

Like the narrator of story, Martin also worked as a journalist at the time he wrote the story. He believes that if he had not sold his first short story The Hero, he would have continued journalism as a career.

Publication History
With Morning Comes Mistfall was first published in the May 1973 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

It was included in Martin's short story collections A Song for Lya and Other Stories, published in 1976, and Portraits of His Children, published in 1987.

It was later included in his 2003 anthology Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective.

Adaptations
In 2007, Martin's short story anthology Dreamsongs was released in audiobook format. It includes a recording of With Morning Comes Mistfall read by Claudia Black.

Reception
With Morning Comes Mistfall was the first story by Martin to be nominated for the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. It was also nominated for the 1974 Locus Award for Best Short Fiction.

In 2014, the Vassals of Kingsgrave podcast released a review of With Morning Comes Mistfall:

Connections to the "Thousand Worlds" Universe
With Morning Comes Mistfall contains only a tenuous link to the "Thousand Worlds" Universe, as the story does not mention any shared events, such as the Double War or Interregnum, nor any shared species, such as the Hrangan or Fyndii, nor seemingly even any shared worlds, such as Avalon. However, the narrator refers to planet called New Refuge, which they travelled to in order to cover a civil war. In The Stone City, the character Cain mentions that he has also visited New Refuge, demonstrating that the two stories share the same universe.

The lack of reference to the Double War suggests that With Morning Comes Mistfall takes place during the period of the Federal Empire of Earth. Humanity in this story is described as only just beginning the colonisation of the galaxy. This would make it one of the earliest stories in Martin's "Thousand Worlds" chronology, alongside Warship.