I am in awe of this short story by Isaac Asimov. I admit that I’ve never really been all that into his writing, but this has made me reconsider that notion.
The last two lines blew me out of the water. For the record, I consider myself an agnostic, and the story actually presents a scenario that is plausible in the deepest recesses of my imagination.
I can’t say this enough: Wow, wow, and wow. What a great story.
I wanted to share this with you all (although I’m sure many have already read it).
Ahh, an oldie but still a goodie. Definitely one of his best shorts, and one of my all-time favorites as well. Up there with All You Zombies and A Sound Of Thunder, IMHO.
I think the first time I heard this story was in a planetarium in Lafayette, Louisiana. My roommate and I had gone there to check out the planetarium and then there was this laser show after the star displays. The laser show and narration from the recording told this story. I didn’t know it was a Asimov story until much later. I thought it was cool. My roommate was not a big science fiction fan, he did not enjoy it that much.
Read Asimov’s comments on “The Last Question.” I was one of those people (well, I didn’t actually ask Asimov), and in fact, I even asked on the SDMB many years ago, but the thread has long since disappeared.
I did not recall that it was an Asimov story, so I referred to it as an “obscure story,” to which one of our grouchy curmudgeonly types upbraided me for referring to it as “obscure.”
And, yeah, I guessed what story it was, too, before I even clicked.
I love Asimov’s shorts. His novels I can mostly take or leave, but he’s a true master in the short story. This is my new favorite of his, though, even a notch above Nightfall.
Asimov really was an excellent writer. Not all of his stories pack quite this punch, but this one is pleasing and elegant (I’m just glad it’s not creepy and elegant, like Clarke’s The Nine Billion Names of God.
(Better than I can, apparently. I just reported the typo to be fixed and made a typo on the word “typo”. Duh. Of course I noticed it just as I hit “Send Report”. How embarrassing.)
The Last Question is the only audiobook I’ve ever been able to listen to. Everything else I’ve ever tried has had me zoning out within 2 or 3 minutes, but this has had me captivated from beginning to end each of the many times I’ve listened to it. Oh, and I also guessed which story before link-hovering.
Anytime my wife and I hear or see some pop-cultural reference to Asimov, we like to imitate his extremely dorky voice from the introduction: "HELLO! MY NAME IS ISAAC ASIMOV!, and I’m going to read you a story. It’s probably my favorite story . . . "
I think Asimov’s great but I’ve never particularly enjoyed that story. I knew where it was going to end up after the first scene change or two. This is probably not Asimov’s fault–it’s probably just because the idea’s been done in so many stories since then–but it does make it difficult for me to enjoy the story. It doesn’t have too much going for it other than the surprise at the end–no surprise, no enjoyment.
The Last Question is easily my favourite short story, no question about that. But I would recommend reading it in tandem with “The Last Answer”. They aren’t connected, but to me they dovetail quite nicely on the issue of mankind and eternity.
“The last answer” is also a plot that may be spoiled simply because it has been copied again and again since it was written, but that can’t be helped.
(Actually, scratch that, “The Martian Way” is my favourite Asimov story. For now.)
