This remarkably inventive novella, published originally in the February l943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, sculpts a complicated feudal society based on decadence and warfare, a tragic warrior hero and a brilliantly imagined Venus within its compass of 25,000 words. Clash by Night foreshadows the full-length novel, Fury, which appeared in Astounding three years later. The novella is centered on Brian Scott, a so-called ""Free Companion"" who is a warrior for one of the competing undersea civilizations of Venus. The novel portrays what Scott intends to be his last mercenary battle.