"A Candle" by Raymond E. Feist

See Multiverse: A Candle.

This blog, although currently focused on Man-Kzin Wars stories by authors, including Poul Anderson, other than Larry Niven, has momentarily flipped to Technic History stories by authors other than Poul Anderson, starting with Raymond E. Feist.

In his Afterword to "A Candle," Feist describes a "disconnect" between the Anderson whose works he had read and the Poul whom he met to talk to. The biggest such disconnect that I have come across happened as follows:

during the London Blitz, a young admirer of the Christian broadcaster, CS Lewis, was evacuated to a household which included a man called Jack who went out wearing Wellingtons to feed the chickens;

the household, including Jack and the young evacuee, gathered to listen to a CS Lewis radio talk;

afterwards, the other members of the household congratulated Jack on his talk...

Back to "A Candle" - it is a story in which Dominic Flandry:

"...wasn't just slowing the coming darkness; he was holding it at bay until something else, something good, could happen. So, I got to write a story to show what I thought would happen next." (p. 305) (For reference, see the above link.)

So is "A Candle" set in a timeline where the Long Night is prevented? The premise that I would prefer is that everything happens as Anderson described but some good happens nevertheless. A few planets do not suffer very much for a start.